The 'fatherhood penalty'

Following straight after the news about men working part time comes a report showing fathers are seeking more flexible employment.

The "Modern Families Index 2017" report has just been published by Working Families. In this they point to a 'flexibility gap'. Almost half of parents are not comfortable raising the issue of workload and hours with their employer. They identified  flexible working as a key way of getting a better balance, but many felt that they could not make use of it because of the nature of their job, manager’s attitude or workplace culture.

Twice the number of fathers compared to mothers believe  flexible workers are viewed as less committed and over double the number of fathers believe working flexibly will have a negative impact on their career. The report points out a 'fatherhood penalty' whereby men move into lower paid and lower quality work because they have become fathers.

47% of fathers agree they would like to downshift  into a less stressful job, reflecting the diffculty they face in reconciling work and home. Just under half of millennial fathers (46%) said they would be willing to take a pay cut to achieve a better work-life balance, vs. just over a third of fathers overall (38%).

So, maybe this survey helps to explain why more men are working part time. As the report concludes "Fathers want to be more involved with their children’s lives. Seven out of ten fathers would consider childcare before taking a new job or promotion. To tackle the motherhood penalty and prevent a
fatherhood penalty taking root, we need to end the zero sum game between career progression and family life."

Part Time Men - Good News?

Today we have had the news that the number of men working part time has grown rapidly. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has published a report saying that 20 years ago 1 in 20 men aged 20-55 worked part-time with low wages. Now it's 1 in 5.

So the Guardian puts this under the headline "Bleak trend ....is revealed". It seems that the growth of anything other than conventional full-time jobs is a bad thing. But, wait a minute. I thought we were moving into an era of equal opportunities where men were taking their fair share of child care responsibilities. Maybe this is a sign that dads are going part-time whilst mums are keeping up their full-time careers. That sounds like a good thing to me.