Thought Leadership
The Boston College Center for Work & Family and our research is regularly cited in news articles in both local and national media outlets. Media inquiries should be directed to cwf@bc.edu. We also share updates on our blog and through a monthly newsletter.
Recent Media
Beyond Parental Leave: Ways to Support Moms Returning to Work
08-13-2024
Although stay-at-home motherhood is a goal for some moms, many others seek to balance their family roles and responsibilities with careers.It’s an aim that’s often easier said than done, with a portion of mothers feeling forced to choose between their professions and their kids. According to McKinsey & Co.’s ninth Women in the Workplace reportOpen in a new tab, 38% of mothers with young children said they would quit their jobs or go part-time if flexible work wasn’t an option. Read more at WorldatWork.
Why fatherhood is good for men
06-14-2024
Many arguments about why dads should do more parenting focus on why that would be good for their wives or partners and kids. How about why and how it would be good for the dads themselves?It’s also a conversation we should be having.Fatherhood can be good for men, psychologically speaking. As I discovered while doing interviews for my new book, “When You Care: The Unexpected Magic of Caring for Others,” the experience of being a dad allows men to feel feelings and behave in ways that mainstream masculinity standards often prohibit. Read more at CNNHealth.
Working fathers are the new target of microaggressions–and they are worried they could be getting ‘daddy tracked’
02-06-2024
Today, as different ways of working collide, men who want to be full parents are facing the type of discrimination at work that working moms have dealt with for decades. Some men worry these comments could be a sign they are “getting daddy tracked,” while others reject the phrases as microaggressions. Read more at Fortune.
How to Prevent Burnout for HR Leaders
09-08-2023
According to a recent surveyOpen in a new tab from Workvivo, 98% of HR professionals said they had felt burned out in the previous six months. Furthermore, 78% were open to leaving their jobs and 71% didn’t feel valued by their organizations. According to Workvivo, the pandemic and the Great Resignation have affected HR professionals in significant ways. These events led to more work, an increase in stress, a jump in employee departures and greater difficulty recruiting new workers. Read more at World at Work.
When Having a Baby and Losing Your Job Collide
02-09-2023
Workers across the tech and media industries are experiencing a period of immense whiplash. After lavishing their employees with perks, in a tight labor market and a war for talent, companies have turned to mass job cuts, including Alphabet, which laid off 6 percent of its workers last month, and Microsoft, which cut nearly 5 percent. Read more at NY Times.
#ShowUsYourLeave: Pressure grows on companies to be transparent about their paid family leave plans
03-09-2022
The US is the largest economy in the world, but it’s the only wealthy nation that doesn’t have a national policy guaranteeing paid leave. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of March 2021, only 23% of private-sector civilian workers in the US had access to paid family leave. Read more at HR Brew.
Twitter CEO paternity leave draws range of reactions
02-18-2022
Twitter’s new CEO Parag Agrawal is getting ready to take “a few weeks” of parental leave when he and his wife have a new baby. There have been mixed reactions to that announcement. Some are positive, saying his the leave will set a good example for other new fathers. Others are less positive, with people asking ‘Why only a few weeks?’ when Twitter offers 20 weeks of parental leave. And there are those asking why he’s taking parental leave at all. The responses offer insight into the ongoing shift in thinking when it comes to parental leave policies. Listen on Marketplace.
How companies are helping parents and caregivers with 'work-life integration'
12-01-2021
Pre-pandemic, Vertex Pharmaceuticals senior director of US marketing Kate Booth wrung out every drop of child care she could from the Melrose school system for her daughter, Lila. "I was that mom who dropped her at the library at 7 a.m. before school and picked her up as close to 6 p.m. as I could in the evening, making full use of the pre- and post-care that Melrose offered," says Booth, a five-year veteran at the Boston-based biotech company. With the pandemic, all of that went away. Read more in the Boston Globe.
Working fathers, economy benefit from paternity leave
11-07-2021
While more men are taking advantage of parental leave when it's available, a stigma still exists. Only 62% of men take the full amount of leave for which they are eligible, compared with 93% of women, according to a 2019 study by the Boston College Center for Work and Family. Some men take only part of the time available. Read more in the Boston Herald.
Four Weeks Of Paid Leave Is Embarrassing, But It Is Still A Start
10-26-2021
Winning the fight for paid family leave is at risk of slipping away. Congressional leaders are considering slashing it from the Build Back Better package entirely, while according to PL+US: Paid Leave for the United States, President Biden is still working to reach an agreement to include paid leave albeit reduced from 12 weeks to just four weeks. The U.S. can't wait anymore. Read more in Forbes.