The pandemic didn't destroy the workplace advancements moms had achieved. However, not all of the positive changes forced by the crisis and remote work have stuck, says research by Kathleen McGinn and Alexandra Feldberg
So much has changed since a groundbreaking study found that daughters of working moms often perform better in their own careers than daughters of stay-at-home moms—and are just as happy, to boot.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts across higher education and corporate America have continued to broaden opportunities for women in the workplace over the intervening five years, but the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench into many a working mom’s fragile work-life balance. Kathleen McGinn, the Harvard Business School scholar behind the original research, continues to study gender and employment, and points to some surprising new developments for working moms. Despite all the upheaval, the changes aren’t all bad.
In April 2020, McGinn and HBS assistant professor Alexandra C. Feldberg embarked upon a new survey of parents in two-earner households with kids under 18 at home. Across several papers recently presented at the Academy of Management meetings in Boston, they sought to understand how parents allocated their time and how it affected their families.
“There’s good news and mixed news,” says McGinn, the Cahners-Rabb Professor of Business Administration at HBS. Women have seen employment gains, while some gender roles have remained firmly entrenched thanks to outdated household norms and workplace demands, she observes.
One silver lining of the pandemic for family dynamics, tying back to McGinn’s prior research: Homebound parents modeled less gendered approaches to multitasking for their kids during lockdown, which their kids will hopefully retain in their own working lives. “Children got to see how their moms and dads managed to be good parents and good employees at the same time,” McGinn says.
This article was provided with permission from Harvard Business School Working Knowledge.