Newsflash: Mothering and the workplace are at odds.

A new study has found that childless women succeed more in the workplace than women with children. This confirms the reality that there is an undo burden put on women in child-rearing, a burden that translates to the workplace as an obstacle. Where is the study that compares the work place success rate of men with children? It doesn’t exist because it is assumed that women do all the child-rearing, so even if a man has a child, he can comfortably advance in his career.

This attitude is changing slowly as everyone has to work more in general now, regardless of gender, and as some jobs give men leaves of absence and as households (slowly) become more equitable. I know lots of couples that (at least try) and share responsibilities. But the women that are used as examples in this article are definitely of the generation where the assumption that all child-rearing was done by the woman held true and certainly impacted how much you could succeed in your career. In most corporate work places if you look at who is in charge, men that are in charge often have families at home, whereas women have had to sacrifice having a family for their career. It is a double standard that is embedded in the core of how the workplace is structured.

The video is a good watch. Kristin Rowe-Finkbeine from MomsRising.org gives some tips on how to stay in touch with the professional world during maternal leave, along with calling our work place policies on maternal leave antiquated.