May 2019
Brad new 2013
Reflections on Work & Life
Brad Harrington, Executive Director
Welcome to this month's Centerpiece! We hope you will find the information contained here useful and interesting. 

Last month's spring meeting of the Center's Workforce Roundtable in Chicago was a great success with participants scoring the meeting over 4.7 on 5-point scale. At the meeting we focused on corporate wellness programs, new directions in diversity and inclusion, and the latest trends in workplace flexibility. We were joined by outstanding academics from the University of Quebec, the University of Illinois, the University of Chicago, and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Corporate presenters included leaders from Abbvie, Allstate, LinkedIn, and PWC. The meeting's top-rated session was a panel facilitated by Jennifer Fraone that included Chief Diversity Officers Ken Barrett from General Motors and Dr. Rohini Anans from Sodexo. It was a great gathering. 

This month we completed data collection on our latest study on expanded paid parental leave, such an important topic. We were fortunate to have four of our outstanding corporate partner organizations who all have gender neutral, paid leave of at least 8 weeks, volunteer to participate in the study. In all, 1,350 employees and managers participated in the study with a gender representation of 57% women and 43% men. Most took the full leave they were allowed ranging from 8-16 weeks. Tina Lawler-McHugh, our Senior Research Specialist, has done a great job project managing the study and we will be releasing some early results in mid-June, in time for Father's Day. 

Have a great remainder of May and, if spring ever actually arrives in the Northeast, we hope you enjoy that as well. 
BCCWF 2019 News & Publications
BCCWF Executive Director Brad Harrington was mentioned in this New York Times article, How to Win at Taking Your Child to Work .

BCCWF research on parental leave was also cited in this Forbes article, How Paid Paternity Leave Can Help Close The Gender Pay Gap . As we approach Father's Day in the next few weeks, also be sure to check out our comprehensive library of research on The New Dad.
Spring 2019 Events

Join us next Tuesday, May 21st for our Spring 2019 BCWFA meeting at the Broad Institute in Cambridge. In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, we will be discussing the issues related to mental health in the workplace. Featuring presentations from Morra Aarons-Mele, Professor Carol Dolan of BU, and a great panel of speakers from the Broad Institute, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and Merck.  Register now!

The New Dad: Father's Day Webinar will presented by Executive Director Brad Harrington, on Monday, June 10th. Brad will provide a review of the Center's ten years of research on the changing roles of fathers at home and at work.
6 Facts About U.S. Moms Pew Research Center
American motherhood has changed in many ways since Mother’s Day was first celebrated more than 100 years ago. Today’s moms are more educated than ever before. A majority of women with a young child are in the labor force, and more mothers are serving as their family’s sole or primary “breadwinner.” At the same time, the share of mothers who are stay-at-home moms has held steady in recent decades after falling precipitously in the 1970s and 1980s.  

Mother's Day brings syrupy ads and greeting card platitudes. Maybe flowers, jewelry, breakfast made by someone other than her. But there's dissonance between the ritual and the reality. We celebrate moms who work to meet society's demands, who overextend to fill in the gaps, who never cease sacrificing for those they love. But is this the version of motherhood to revere?

While most people now recognize the need to talk about safety and health in the workplace, mental health is another story. Even as many people admit to feeling stressed at work, talking about mental health is rare. This is likely due to the fact that we’ve created a culture where even talking about mental health remains taboo.

American women of working age are the most educated ever. Yet it’s the most educated women who face the biggest gender gaps in seniority and pay: At the top of their fields, they represent just 5 percent of big company chief executives and a quarter of the top 10 percent of earners in the United States. There are many causes of the gap, like discrimination and a lack of family-friendly policies. But recently, mounting evidence has led economists and sociologists to converge on a major driver — one that ostensibly has nothing to do with gender. 

Many senior male managers are reportedly responding to the #MeToo movement by pulling back from mentoring women. This backlash has little basis in reality. False accusations of sexual harassment are about 2%, the same as any other crime. Repercussions of depriving female employees of the counseling, developmental opportunities, exposure, and visibility that come from mentoring relationships have serious consequences for the organization. See also: What the Class of 2019 Wants from Employers .

Sodexo's Global Chief Diversity Officer and recent BCCWF Roundtable meeting speaker Rohini Anand, came to GreenBiz 19 to talk about the relationship between diversity and inclusion with corporate social responsibility. CSR, especially around the environment, can be a longer-term goal, while diversity and inclusion can be a shorter-term mandate. But working together and improving both can accelerate progress in multi-faceted ways.