By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

In 2010, I had the opportunity to visit Norway to learn how the country’s gender equality laws work – up close and in person. Norway is famous for enacting legislation in 2003 that required 40% of all board seats of publicly traded companies to be occupied by women. The law went into effect in 2004 and companies were given two years to comply – and if they didn’t, they were delisted.

But this is only one prong of the country’s efforts to encourage gender equity. Much of the root of gender inequality, legislators believed, comes from deep-rooted beliefs about women and men’s gender roles regarding caretaking and family. Therefore, Norway also enacted its second prong – laws designed to enable women to pursue more responsibility at work and encourage men to take on more responsibility at home.

Speaking at a Royal Norwegian Consulate event in New York on Monday, the architect of Norway’s gender equality laws, Arni Hole, Director General of Norway’s Ministry of Children, Equality, and Social Inclusion, said, “The key to prosperity in Norway is women. We have the freedom to choose work and family – for women and men alike.”

I spoke with Hole in 2010, and today, in 2012, she is no less insistent that Norway’s system should be widely adopted. More importantly, she points out, any efforts toward gender equity cannot simply be applied to the workplace. They must take home into account too.

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By Jacey Fortin

Here’s some good news: the history of human work patterns reveals that leisure time is on the rise, and people today work less than ever before.

In a 2010 report, the Economic History Association (EH) noted that “because of the decline in the length of the workweek and the declining portion of a lifetime that is spent in paid work… the fraction of the typical American’s lifetime devoted to work has become remarkably small.”

Sounds great. But if that’s the case, why do so many of us feel that work demands are eating into our personal time?

Technology is blurring the line between work and leisure, and this merits a closer look at the way we define our terms. According to the EH study, working hours consist of “paid work, travel to and from work, and household chores.” But what about that quick inbox check over morning coffee? How about that message you sent to your boss during lunch? And what about the research you did on your smartphone before bed?

Although our time at the office has decreased, the time we spend working has grown in ways that are difficult to measure precisely, and leads to questions about whether all this work on the fly is really good for us psychologically, emotionally, and physically.

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By Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

In the previews to the new Sarah Jessica Parker film “I Don’t Know How She Does It,” we see a frantic and tired woman constantly in motion; she’s running her children to school, dashing to the office, staying up all night creating her mental to-do list. Some contend that this is a thing of the past, that 10 years ago “having it all” became the obsession of a generation of women, but like Parker’s character, there are still many who wholeheartedly believe they can have it all. They believe it is in their power to have a dynamic career, the picture perfect family, and a healthy marriage and social life – all while maintaining their supermom persona. According to new research, however, not only can this belief fall short, but it can also lead to depression.

Katrina Leupp, a University of Washington graduate student, recently authored a new study that found that working mothers who believe that home and the office can be seamlessly juggled are at greater risk for depression than their more realistic colleagues who accept they can’t do it all.

Leupp looked at 1,600 women — a mix of working and stay-at-home mothers — who had previously participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which tracked kids in 1979 when they were between 14 and 22-years-old. As young adults, the women were asked to rate their attitudes regarding women’s employment. Leupp then analyzed those answers alongside a score of the women’s level of depression when they were 40. Her findings confirmed earlier studies that showed that women who are employed have better mental health than stay-at-home mothers. The study also revealed that women who rejected the myth of the supermom were less likely than “supermom-wannabes” to have symptoms of depression. According to Leupp, results remained similar when marital satisfaction and hours worked were considered.

Letting go of the dream of having it all can be very difficult, especially if you’ve spent every waking moment trying to maintain it. If we’re being honest (and it’s hard not to be when findings such as Leupp’s become more common), acknowledging we’re not perfect enables us to achieve so much more. By admitting that balance is impossible, you’ve already found the release valve for the working mom’s unrelenting pressure.

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By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to a recent study in the Journal of Vocational Behaviour, there is a huge disconnect in policy and practice when it comes to corporate flex programs. The study, “Influences on employee perceptions of organizational work–life support: Signals and resources,” found that even though many companies have flex policies in place, employees aren’t taking advantage of them.

Why? Workplace cultures often do not support actually using human resources policies as they are written.

As the report’s author Ariane Ollier-Malaterre told the Financial Times:

“Employees aren’t using the policies because they feel that if they did it would negatively impact their career. They feel that if they were to say, take a leave or go part-time, they would not be conforming to the ideals of a loyal committed worker, and it would [harm their opportunities for advancement.] Quite frankly, the consensus in the work/life community is that work/life doesn’t work.”

Ollier-Malaterre indicated that a workplace culture unsupportive to flex utilization may be driving women out of the workforce – that at the manager level and beyond, women tend to drop off the career ladder. The reason, she says, is that companies have a hard time acknowledging that many women have significant priorities outside the workplace.

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By Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

According to a Baylor University study published online in the Journal of Applied Psychology, women who return to work after giving birth are more likely to stay on the job if they have greater control over their work schedules. Researchers also found that job security and the ability to make use of a variety of their job skills leads to greater retention of working moms, while the impact of work-related stress on their physical and mental health causes greater turnover.

According to 2008 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 71 percent of women with children under the age of 18 were working or looking for work, and nearly 60 percent of women with young children were employed. Yet, a large number of mothers who return to work after childbirth subsequently leave the labor force.

As the saying goes, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. By revealing the needs of this group of women (all North Carolina residents with an average age of 31; 79 percent of them married), the Baylor study sheds light on what working mothers are looking for.

On the other hand, one has to wonder why studies like these are still being conducted. After all, is it an earth shattering revelation that a woman who just gave birth will now need more work flexibility? Is it shocking to learn that a woman who has job stability is more apt to stay at her place of employment and be productive because there’s no nagging fear of losing her job?

It shouldn’t be, and perhaps that’s the point.

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