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| Contending with “outdated and toxic attitudes around motherhood” |
But each society has to act as whole to ensure that the time and money necessary for parents to raise a child are available. Unfortunately, in industrialised socieites there is a lot of mis-directed energy where the political and corporate axis has been captured by a fashionable academic theory. As a consequence, the needs of families, and working people as a whole, are ignored. The fashionable activism so evident in service of cultish ideologies demands far less courage than does the raw fight for solidarity and the sharing of resources, for the tethering of the economic inequality that is running wild.
The Guardian website gives yet further evidence of the neglect of families in rich societies, this time referring to the United Kingdom:
About a quarter of a million mothers with young children have left their jobs because of difficulties with balancing work and childcare, according to a report by an equal rights charity that calls for the end of the “motherhood penalty”.
This juggling act, as well as the punitive cost, has led more than 249,124 working mothers of children aged four or under to leave their employer, according to the Fawcett Society.
A lack of flexible working arrangements and affordable childcare combined with “outdated and toxic attitudes around motherhood” were holding women back, said its chief executive, Jemima Olchawski.
Its survey of 3,000 working parents of preschoolers, conducted jointly with the recruitment firm Totaljobs, revealed that one in five working mothers had considered leaving their job because of the difficulties of balancing work and childcare. One in 10 had handed in their notice because of this, rising to 13% of single mothers.
It's not just mothers who are in this bind:
Alongside the mothers exiting the workforce, the poll also revealed that three out of four working parents have had to take unpaid leave becuase of childcare responsibilities, with higher rates for women from non-white backgrounds and single mothers.
Jane Lorigan, the chief executive of Totaljobs, pointed to critical labour shortages in the economy and warned that the pressures of childcare could ultimately have a longer-term impact on an ever-shrinking workforce.
“There are more mothers in the workplace than ever before, and businesses need to create an environment where they can flourish,” said Lorigan. “Not only do working parents need more support, but we need to ensure this support extends to the people who need it the most.”
The business sector, the government, but also a receptive attitude for change within the overall society must come together to enable a will for support for families to be enacted in reality. Otherwise, the populations of industrialised countries will collapse, as in most parts of Europe, including Russia, as well as South Korea, Japan, and most recently China.
To a large extent, couples want children but the social and economic support is lacking as individualism and a general nihilistic mindframe take a greater hold.
However, some optimism arises by way of, first, the work-at-home routine necessitated by the Covid pandemic. The pressure from management for all employees to return to the office needs to tbe tempered by consideration for the needs of parents. The other spark of hope for a more human working arrangement, on a par with the 8-hour work day push in its day, is the pressure that is building, because of the mounting evidence of fruitful results, for a four-day working week, at the same level of pay. These are areas where activism would have truly beneficial outcomes rather than in pursuing the trendy issues of the day.
Ω See also: Marriage disappearing in Britain
Ω See also: Four-day work week on a roll
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