“Many moms balance career and motherhood, getting up before dawn at the cry of a human alarm clock and collapsing into bed many hours later. Few do it on as public a scale as politicians.  ‘My time is in demand in all parts of my life,’ says Gillibrand, a Democrat. ‘I represent 20 million people, and I want to be in so many places at once. I’m always having to prioritize.’ She would like to be everywhere she’s invited and spend more time with husband Jonathan, a financial consultant, and their kids, Theo, 6, and Henry, 19 months. The Gillibrands run two households: a rented D.C. townhouse and a 1930s colonial in Hudson, N.Y., where they return about one weekend a month.”

• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/15/AR2009121503978.html

“It’s been a long, dry spell for many of the suit-clad Wall Streeters who were handed their pink slips before hardly anyone was talking recovery.  But sit down with a handful of ex-finance industry workers volunteering to work for free as interns in a city-sponsored retraining program, and they seem almost ... happy.  In the current economy, it’s an uncommon reaction to the loss of a job. But for some finance workers, many of whom spent years working insane hours at high-pressure jobs — often at the expense of more personal passions — the sudden stop has offered a time to reflect and reconsider.”

• http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gEpcsen1nmRWqznbf2Zy9zbHYfUwD9CKBNBG0

“Call it the law of unintended consequences: according to a study released Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), tax reforms enacted in the last 30 years have led to messier homes.  The study, conducted by two Ivy League economists, looked at single women who had been coaxed into working outside the home by the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and what activities they had cut back on when they started doing paid work. By examining time-allocation studies from 1975 to 2004, the researchers found that single mothers who joined the workforce reported spending the same amount of time with their children, and only a little less time on leisure activities or sleep. The women made up most of the time — more than two-thirds of it — by doing less work around the home: cooking, cleaning, laundry and the like.”

• http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1947912,00.html

“Yes, there was a feminist movement before Betty Friedan published ‘The Feminine Mystique’ in 1963. Back in those dark days before “women’s liberation,” our mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers had some brilliant ideas about how to improve the lives of working women as well as how to fix the economy. They were what I call New Deal feminists, who led the women’s movement during the ‘long New Deal’ from the 1930s to the 1960s.  They survived the Great Depression, kept factories humming during the war years and pioneered the now-commonplace status of working wife and mother. They knew first-hand about job loss, careers on hold and the competing demands of family and workplace, all problems we still face. Their solutions were partial, but the policies they put forward concerning fair wages and family-friendly laws and workplaces—all crucial elements in addressing our current economic insecurity and inequality—are a foundation upon which we can build.”

• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/11/AR2009121102583.html

From Description:  “Ms. Taubman argues, though, that there is one critical resource whose value we do not fully recognize, and without which our economy would founder: the unpaid work of caring for our families. Whether it is the education and care of the next generation or the comfort and care of the elderly, this work produces extensive benefits for society and we could not go on without it. Ms. Taubman, employing a variety of statistics, discusses the staggering costs imposed on unpaid caregivers, most of whom are women, and on their families, companies, and society as a whole.”

• http://www.acslaw.org/node/15013

“According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 95.9 million Americans 18 years of age and older were unmarried in 2008, up from 37.5 million in 1970.  Unmarried employees make up over 40% of the full-time workforce. [. . .] These facts do not lessen the claims of married workers with dependent children.  However, they do point to the need for work and family policies that look beyond a narrow view of family and encompass the many different types of personal needs faced by today’s workers.”

• http://wfnetwork.bc.edu/blog/new-policy-brief-marital-status-discrimination

“So I looked through the printed conference brochure.  Workplace flexibility.  Nothing.  Work-life flexibility.  Nothing.  Work flexibility, or perhaps Flexible Work Arrangements.  Nothing.  I was confused. [. . .] For work+life flexibility to become part of a business’ day-to-day operating model, Human Resources can’t be the sole owner and advocate.  A majority of the top 100 CFOs interviewed for a survey that we co-sponsored with BDO Seidman in March, 2008 concurred.  They believed that direct line involvement was necessary for flexibility to succeed.  That being said, HR is a critical partner in the development, implementation and execution of a flexibility strategy.  It is often the first place that the need hits the radar screen as a solution to address talent and employee work+life fit issues.  HR is a critical entry point for the discussion of the broader strategic applications within the business.”

• http://worklifefit.com/blog/2009/12/wheres-worklife-flex-on-shrms-national-conference-agenda-essentially-missing/

“Corporate America appears concerned that’s how things will shake out. According to MetLife’s Emerging Retirement Model Study, released Tuesday, employers today are deeply anxious and concerned about the impact of the knowledge drain on their organizations. When asked which of two retirement-related issues – delayed retirement or the knowledge drain – are of greatest concern today, 74 percent said it was the knowledge drain, as older workers retire. In fact 70 percent of employers surveyed anticipate that will be their biggest concern in the next 3-5 years. MetLife commissioned the survey of 240 employers to examine their attitudes and behaviors towards the aging workforce in the midst of a deep economic crisis.”

• http://trueslant.com/eilenezimmerman/2009/12/17/corporate-brain-drain/

“The front page of The Chicago Tribune on Monday featured three large color photos and a big headline: ‘Sick — but Still at Work.’ The article talks about the travails of four women who went to work even though they were sick. You might wonder how this became front-page news; I am reasonably certain that this is not the first time that someone has gone to work sick. The answer is simple: public safety. Two of them work in food service and might be exposing people, kids even, to the H1N1 virus. You’ll get no argument from me that sick people should stay home, especially if they are working with food. But that is not what the article is really about.”

• http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/making-sense-of-the-mandatory-sick-day-debate/?hp

“Looking back more than 70 years, we can see that the precedent for making sure that working women benefit from such federal programs as unemployment insurance came from the New Deal. In fact, the New Deal laid the groundwork for many of the later gains made by women, but as was the case in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, the task of securing those rights was not easy and did come without a struggle.  The principal advocate for women’s economic and social rights within the context of the New Deal was Eleanor Roosevelt. From the thousands of letters that poured across her desk from ordinary Americans, ER knew that women too were suffering as a consequence of Great Depression. This was especially true of working women.”

• http://www.newdeal20.org/?p=6977

“Mass unemployment, then, is the norm. And this is true for pretty much any economy. So why is unemployment ubiquitous? This is like asking why many people will be lonely this Christmas. The labour market is like the dating market. Sometimes, people are out of work because they have unrealistically high expectations. Just as a girl stays single because she’s waiting for Mr Right, so people stay unemployed as they wait for the right job. At other times, there’s a mismatch between supply and demand. If you’re looking for a partner who is educated, cultured and sensitive, you’ll stay single if you’re looking in Dagenham. Ditto, if you confine your job search to the car industry in Birmingham.”

• http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6960897.ece

“Fewer than half of Australia’s small businesses are adequately prepared to deal with a further round of family friendly workplace laws that will take effect next month.  A survey of 352 small and medium businesses found many were ill-prepared to deal with the third industrial relations regime in four years when the final stage of the Fair Work Act comes into effect on January 1.”

• http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/managing/small-business-in-for-a-shock-20091215-kujh.html