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Juggling between meetings, shopping and the nursery, thinking about meals and going to the pediatrician, while remaining high-performance at work… These are no longer just female concerns. The conciliation is prepared for two, from the pregnancy.
Male reconciliation, a trendy subject
Today, it is no longer really possible to write an article on the reconciliation between private and professional life that would only be aimed at young mothers. Because for several years now, it has been considered essential to place the weight of conciliation on the shoulders of fathers as much as on those of mothers. With the objective of achieving real professional equality between men and women. It is because men will invest more in the personal sphere that women will progress on the professional front.. The Observatory of parenting in companies, an association founded by Jérôme Ballarin, actively campaigns for companies to take more account of the personal constraints of employees, men or women. And it was on his initiative, in partnership with the Ministry of Labor, that the Corporate Parenthood Charter was formalized, which has 70 signatories. Since then, several large groups have put in place procedures intended to facilitate this reconciliation, specifically targeting fathers. Other initiatives have emerged. The “Mercredi-c-papa” association launched the “Happy Men” project, which invites employees to make commitments within their company in favor of professional equality. (for example “I will not organize a meeting in my department after 17 pm” or “I will note sexist remarks in conversations between colleagues”). And then, last June, the Minister of Women’s Rights announced a reform of parental leave (still under discussion in parliament) aimed at further involving fathers by encouraging them to take at least six months of this leave.
Fathers want to invest in their children
Obviously, this is not a massive movement that takes everything in its path, but it seems that more and more, behaviors are changing, in depth. “The issue of parenthood has really become a mixed subject,” assures Anne-Catherine Baseilhac, founder of Parenting Conseil (www.parentingconseil.com) which supports employee-parents as well as employers. The younger generations are refocusing on values outside of work, on the family. We feel in fathers a desire to learn, to invest more in their partner. And within companies, a father who leaves on Fridays at 16 p.m. is no longer so badly perceived. “
“Beyond the statistics which always show an inequality in the distribution of domestic tasks, the lines are moving, assures the sociologist Christine Castelain Meunier, author * of a recent book on domestic parity. Living conditions are changing considerably. It is more and more common for the man to work one day a week at home and for his partner to be absent for several days for professional reasons.. And she does it by being relatively quiet, because she knows he’s going to do his best and things won’t necessarily be messy when he returns. I am very impressed by all these young men who say: “My father was doing nothing, I saw my mother unhappy, I will not do the same. “
Anticipate the distribution of tasks before birth
There is no inevitability in finding yourself confined to domestic stewardship when you are a woman.. On the strength of these emerging developments, the activism of certain men, the commitments made by a few large groups, mothers themselves must now understand that to make life at the office easier, they have every interest in delegating a little more to the home office. House. And that, it is prepared from the pregnancy. The organization of daily life, once the child is there, is discussed as a couple, as is the choice of childcare. Who will provide the morning trip to the nursery or the home of the childminder? Who will agree not to work on Wednesdays? Who will take care of the 18-20pm slot? This time slot is that of all dangers. It requires urgently finishing the work undertaken during the day, running to be on time and then juggling between bathing, eating, and going to bed. It is therefore not enough to agree on the distribution of tasks between shopping, meals, laundry and cleaning, but also on time constraints. It is these strain, grueling in the long term, that have a huge impact on professional life. Do not wait to have your nose in the handlebars, or rather in the bassinet, to ask yourself these questions and try to rectify the situation. Talk about it calmly, as well as the choice of the first name or the color of the room.
*”Household chores. The fairy, the witch and the new man ”, Stock.