Have you seen the show Mad Men on AMC?  It’s about an ad agency in the 1960s and has just received 16 Emmy nominations.  One of my favorite story lines on Mad Men is about the junior copywriter Peggy.  (The actress that plays Peggy is shown above, along with a poster from the show.)

Peggy has me thinking a lot about working women.  The character had a child out of wedlock from a guy in the office where she works, and when she went into the hospital to have the child she didn’t even realize she was pregnant.  (A bit of denial there.)

She’s kept her baby, but it is clearly being raised by her sister.  The child might even grow up to think the sister is his actual mother.  Since I was born in the mid 60s and was given up for adoption, this storyline has really made an impact on me. 

The character of Peggy wants nothing to do with her baby and seems lacking in any motherly instincts when she is forced to hold him.  She’s all about her career as a junior copywriter.  Peggy is making huge strides in the world for working women, and perhaps because of her “career focus” she doesn’t even want to think about children.

But I’m reminded by Mad Men just how many choices women really did have once upon a time.  It isn’t just the character of Peggy that is making a choice of career versus kids, it’s every woman on the show. 

I mentioned in an earlier post that it really bugged me when people called me a “career woman” just because I hadn’t gotten married until later in life.  You’d be suprised how many people made that assumption about me.  Whenever someone found out I wasn’t married they’d say, “Ah… a career girl.”  As if I had given up the choice to have children because I had “a career.”

I can see how far we’ve come with respect to young women.  No one asks a girl leaving high school if she’s going to be a mom OR go to work.  But what about women who are older?  Is it just assumed that when a woman is older she’s made the choice NOT to have children?

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However, some kids are behind in the reading part and there’s a sharp contrast between the reading abilities of low-income and higher-income children.

Research has shown that reading aloud is one of the most important activities we can do to raise children who love to read, but not all children get that opportunity at home.

Everybody Wins! USA, is a national literacy and mentoring nonprofit that is fighting the literacy gap between lower income and higher income children by bringing volunteer mentors into schools for weekly one-on-one reading experiences with kids.

Their goal:

…bridge the literacy gap for more than 9,200 public school students across the country. Our goal is to reach 100,000.

Find out more about this worthy organization to boost the confidence and abilities of our future workforce.

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Today was one of those days.

My middle child is straddling the line between being sick and well. He’s not sick enough to be really sick, but he’s not quite “well” either.

I made the mistake of asking him if he felt like going to school this morning, I couldn’t decide how he was feeling. Unlike my oldest child who will give the question genuine thought, my middle one immediately said, “No, I need to stay home,” and so it was.

Things are a lot easier now that he’s old enough to stay by himself in certain situations. I took him back home (we’d driven to school) and let him sleep for a while. When he woke up, I went on to work for a while since I really needed to be there for several reasons.

I came back home at lunch and took him to the doctor (he’s fine) and took him back home and went back to work again since his dad was going to be home shortly after that. I even accomplished a few things while I was at work, too.

Like I said, that particular juggle is a little easier on the schedule now that they’re older, but apparently it’s harder on the car because I put over 100 miles on it today.

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It’s Labor Day here in the U.S., and I’m wondering how many of you are actually working rather than taking time off? 

While I’m (due to the magic of technology) actually writing this on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, it will post on Monday and appear as if I am working.  Still, in order to take Monday off I had to work ahead.  There are tons of industries that can’t take off, such as law enforcement and health-care.  And for those that have to work today know that you are not forgotten in our day of rest.   

When I was in the world of marketing, there were quite a few Labor Days that I actually decided to work in order to catch up on my workload.  I look back on those days and just shake my head.  Where did all that work actually get me?  More than that, it didn’t allow me the time to appreciate what Labor Day is all about.

President Bush said in his weekly radio address that Labor Day:

“…marks the traditional end of the summer season.  It is also an opportunity to reflect on the contributions of hardworking Americans all across the country - from teachers, farmers, and health professionals, to firefighters, police officers, small business owners, and workers on the assembly line.”

While I might think that I’m overworked now, I know there was a time when it was much worse for workers in the world.  Their contributions are what made it possible for me to have a reasonable work day, and for that I have to take a minute and say thank you. 

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If you’re in the United States, you would have to have been under a rock not to know that Republican John McCain selected Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, as his running mate on Friday.

Palin is also the mother of 5 children ranging in age from 19 years to 5 months and one of the issues debated around the water cooler in offices (both physical and virtual) across America is, “Should she be spending this much time away from her kids to run for Vice President? Can she really do both?”

In the debate over working mothers, people (usually in order to appear open minded, tolerant or whatever) are fond of saying, “A woman should do whatever’s best for her family”, yet from what I’ve read, Sarah Palin doesn’t seem to be afforded that permission.

Those people with an opinion have been shrill in their cries of, “How can she do this to her children? She should be home!”

While it does seem like she’s going to be awfully busy the next few months, I have no idea what running for vice-president entails, I’ve never done it, I have no idea what she’s facing or what her family arrangements are. However, I think it’s a safe bet that she and her husband discussed the matter before she accepted the offer.

I’m neither a fan nor a detractor of hers, it’s simply not my business what she does or how she does it. It’s curious though, that this topic really hasn’t come up about Barack Obama, father of two young girls.

What say you?

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Debbie and Christy, I’ve already sent a message to each of you so be sure to watch for it in your inbox. 

For the rest of you, I’m sure we’ll have another giveaway very soon so do check back.

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Here’s something I never thought I’d see.   Some new legislation in Australia is being geared towards the balance of career and kids.  According to The Age online:

“Employers will have to ensure that they do not “unreasonably refuse” to adjust their working arrangements to accommodate the family or carer’s responsibilities of staff, whether this occurs by allowing them to work from home or job-share or work irregular or part-time hours.”

If employers don’t do this they can be brought up on charges of discrimination.   

I’m not sure how I feel about this, actually.  While I highly support employers offering their workers ways to deal with family and career, I don’t exactly think legislation is the way to go about it. 

My viewpoint, of course, comes from someone that was single for a very long time.  While I didn’t have kids to pick up at day care I did have family I took care of.  None of my employers let me leave right at five because of that.  None of them cared because in their eyes I wasn’t really dealing with family issues just because I had to go home and make dinner from my grandparents or mothers.  I was single, and that’s how they viewed me.

I didn’t try and compare myself to the folks with kids, because I know how hard it is.  But in looking at my previous work experience, I can’t help thinking that my situation would have been even worse under this legislation.  I worked long hours in the past in part because I was single.  There’s no doubt in my mind about it.  And while I don’t argue that folks with families have a devil of a time juggling, I can’t help wondering how employers will begin to look at singles in the workplace with this kind of legislation.  What exactly constitutes “family responsibilities that need assistance” in the form of working from home or advanced equipment? 

In an ideal world, I suppose an employer uses common sense to help workers deal with family and career.  But, as my husband loves to say, common sense isn’t all that common.  In the absence of common sense, do we then need to put forth legislation?  What’s the best way to get companies to be more realistic about the demands of their worker’s personal lives?

I’d love to hear your opinions on this one. 

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Packing 40 hours into four days isn’t necessarily an efficient way to work. Many people find that eight hours are tough enough; requiring them to stay for an extra two could cause morale and productivity to decrease. As for saving on the cost of commuting, it likely isn’t true.

As tempting as it sounds, I know for me a four day work week would be more difficult than working a standard 40 hour week.

I can’t really get to work any earlier than I do now since the kids can’t go to school at that hour, there’s not before school care until around 7am. It would really be hard for me at this point in my life to get home any later than I do what with sports schedules, dinner, homework and bed time preparation.

But, I never thought about it in terms of productivity. Do people get the same amount of work done in the compressed work week, or is it just an exercise in “face time”?

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