34: Balancing Family & Law Career Part I

Joan Williams is a law professor at the University of California Hastings Law School. She is the author of Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What To Do About It (Oxford University Press, 2000). Williams defines "unbending gender":

"The term "unbending gender" refers to two different trends. The first is that, to date, gender roles in this country have been unbending and unyielding; there has been a lot less change than we had hoped for 20 or 30 years ago. The second is that, to the (significant) extent that things have changed, changes have been achieved not by moving towards androgyny, but by widening out the range of socially acceptable masculinities and femininities-preserving "la difference" between men and women."

Williams, an expert in work-family balance issues, spoke on the "Working Moms" panel, and her main contention was that this work-family conflict is evident at all socioeconomic levels. Williams asserted that women in the lowest income category have the most difficult of times in balancing work and family, since their jobs are the least flexible with non-standard hours, unstable child care and often sick children. Next on the ladder is the group Williams calls the Professional Managerial class. This group has husbands working long hours, which force the mothers to bring up the children and leave their jobs. These women are likely to be working part-time jobs, and be the primary caretakers for their children, and they are generally very conflicted when it comes to their family and work. The Missing Middle are the group that have pink and blue collar jobs, with little flexibility. Generally these people use the childcare tactic of "tag-teaming," where one will work one shift while the other takes the kids, then they switch. This group has a large divorce rate largely because the couples never see each other.