Research: Millennials want gender equality, but resort to traditional roles as they have children

[davidn3600]

Millennial men — ages 18 to early 30s — have much more egalitarian attitudes about family, career and gender roles inside marriage than generations before them, according to a variety of research by social scientists. Yet they struggle to achieve their goals once they start families, researchers say. Some researchers think that’s because workplace policies have not caught up to changing expectations at home.

“The majority of young men and women say they would ideally like to equally share earning and caregiving with their spouse,” said Sarah Thébaud, a sociologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “But it’s pretty clear that we don’t have the kinds of policies and flexible work options that really facilitate egalitarian relationships.”

Work-family policies strongly affected women’s choices, but not men’s. Ms. Thébaud said that occurred because women disproportionately benefit from the policies since they are expected to be caregivers, while men are stigmatized for using them.

Ms. Thébaud was the co-author of a study, published in February in the American Sociological Review, that was the first major examination of the effect workplace policies have on the relationship preferences of young men and women. It found that men and women ages 18 to 32 have egalitarian attitudes about gender roles, across education and income levels. But when faced with a lack of family-friendly policies, most fell back on traditional roles.

Other researchers have found similar patterns. Kathleen Gerson, a sociologist at New York University, found that young men want equal relationships but find them hard to pull off in the real world. It becomes especially difficult as work has become more demanding with round-the-clock hours and unpredictable on-call availability.
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The research shows that when something has to give in the work-life juggle, men and women respond differently. Women are more likely to use benefits like paid leave or flexible schedules, and in the absence of those policies, they cut back on work. Men work more.
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In their study, Ms. Thébaud and Mr. Pedulla suggested that workplace policies might have a greater effect on men if they were specifically aimed at them, such as paternity leave policies that reward men for using them. Another approach might be to create policies that change work for both sexes, like reining in long hours.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/31/upshot/millennial-men-find-work-and-family-hard-to-balance.html?ref=us&_r=2&abt=0002&abg=0


Also something that could help the situation if you see more of it...

A handful of Silicon Valley companies provide employees with generous (at least by American standards) leave policies upon the birth or adoption of a child.

Google offers 18 weeks of paid maternity leave. Facebook gives four months. Twitter, 20 weeks.

Now Netflix has gone and outdone them all—way outdone them all. Yesterday, the company’s chief talent officer announced that it will allow new moms and dads to take as much time off as they’d like in a baby’s first year of life.

That’s a lot. By American standards, all but unheard of. Joan Williams, the director of the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, Hastings, applauded Netflix’s move, calling one year of leave “just about ideal.”

“It’s heartening to see an American company giving what is fundamentally the suitable amount of parental leave and making it available equally for men and women,” she said. “To require people as a condition of keeping their jobs to return to work when the baby’s three months old is not civilized behavior.”

Now that Netflix has outlined such a generous option, the difficulties lie in implementing it in a way that both men and women take advantage of it. This is crucial, because if only women employees take Netflix up on its offer, the generosity of the policy could backfire, pushing women onto a “mommy track,” with fewer promotions and fewer raises in the offing. The good news for Netflix, Williams argues, is that this isn’t all that hard to do.

http://news.yahoo.com/netflixs-parental-leave-policy-just-193625617.html;_ylt=AwrBT84uvsJVCLsAVW1XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyMWhuMWdrBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDQTAxMDVfMQRzZWMDc2M-