HBR Guide to Managing Flexible Work (HBR Guide Series)

CHAPTER 19

Setting Flexible Schedules with Your Team—Fairly

by Joan C. Williams and Marina Multhaup

Bias against parents—and especially mothers—has been well documented. We call it the “maternal wall,” and we’ve been studying it for years, researching how women who have always been successful at work sometimes find their competence questioned when they take maternity leave or ask for a flexible work schedule. We know now that this bias can affect fathers, too, when they seek even modest accommodations for caregiving. For example, a consultant in one study reported that he was harassed for taking two weeks of paternity leave—but applauded for taking a three-week vacation to an exotic locale. Parents, studies consistently show, face extra scrutiny. ...