Working Parents

"There's still pressure at work to be the 1950s working dad, and pressure at home to be the father of 2013," explains Jennifer Berdahl, associate professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. Call it the new "masculine mystique." Just in time for Father's Day, Berdahl completed a study...

There's a lot of handwringing over the plight of working mothers. But in many respects, mom's lot has improved over the past few decades: She has a better job, spends more time with her kids and isn't much more conflicted than she was 35 years ago. The person who's really stressed out? It's dad. Studies now...

In any given organization, some people are slackers. Others, perhaps, work hard, but don't care about working visibly hard. Some people are more efficient than others. Some absorb interesting ideas about work, such as that it's unprofessional to be seen walking out of the office in the middle of the day with a...

For a while now, people have been predicting the end of men's dominance in the workplace, as men started to lag behind women in earning bachelor's degrees. Consider this a new data point in the debate: A new survey from Pew Social Trends, released Wednesday, found that 40 percent of households with children...

No one is surprised when the boss helps his young son get a position at his office. But most execs wouldn't dare suggest that their 22-year old be put in the top slot at their firm, if only because of the ridicule that would surely follow. But most execs aren't Jann Wenner, the legendary founder and mercurial...

Everybody seems to have an opinion on the best ways to combine work and family without being consumed by stress and misery and doubt. But AOL Jobs contributor Laura Vanderkam has made it her business to figure out exactly how people manage their lives successfully, by the minute. She's investigated the...

Rachel Lehman spends her days at her kitchen table in Corte Madera, Calif., except for a few hours in the afternoon. That's when she runs all the life errands you can imagine as a single mother of two. Lehman earns six figures as the executive president of business affairs at a major events company, but she only...

It's an article of faith among Americans that we are overworked. We work long hours at our paid jobs, then come home and put in a long second shift. Mothers, in particular, perceive their combined work and child-care hours as extensive, leaving us starved for time -- a starvation that we sometimes assume our...

The last half century has seen many feminist icons, from the disaffected 1960s housewife (Betty Friedan) to the ferocious lawyer-warrior (Catherine MacKinnon) and the short-skirted, brilliant journalist (Gloria Steinem). But it's telling of our times that the two most high-profile and provocative megaphones for...

By Annalyn Kurtz NEW YORK -- Doctors are still mostly men, and nurses are almost all women. But pharmacists are another story. Pharmacy is a fast-growing profession offering a six-figure salary -- and the pay is nearly equal for men and women.

Donna Dannenfelser has done a lot of press lately. This Wednesday is the penultimate episode of the season for "Necessary Roughness," the USA Network show based on her time as an NFL therapist. And they've chosen a dramatic culmination for the show's second year: A gay player is going to come out. It was a...

Every night at 6 p.m., smooth as a well-oiled clockwork, Fox's Special Report goes on the air. Host Bret Baier reports the major events of the day, analyzes the latest political stories and also leads a panel of pundits and political reporters who discuss their broader significance. Like most televised news...

When Bill Clinton signed the Federal Medical Leave Act into law in 1993, it was hailed as a triumph for women and families. The FMLA permitted most workers to take three months of unpaid leave when seriously ill, or to care for a baby or sick relative. But 20 years later, optimism has been replaced with...

Gail Belsky will be blogging for AOL Jobs about her quest to find a new job -- and reinvent her career. This is the first post in her weekly series that will run Mondays. At 51, I've become both a cliche and a victim of circumstance -- neither of which makes me happy. A cliche because I'm a middle-aged woman...

Inside the Beltway, the debate continues to rage over the smartest way to spur growth. Tax cuts? Tax hikes? Investing in infrastructure? Better regulations? Print more money? But none of these are the answer, according to a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of 34...

By Annalyn Kurtz The gap between men and women workers is narrowing as hiring remains strong in the female-dominated health care industry. Forget the "mancession" or the "he-covery." Men suffered the biggest job losses in the financial crisis, and also gained the most post-recession jobs. But now, men and...

By her own account, Tara Tan was a hard worker, pulling 80 to 100 hours a week as a manager at the upscale Standard hotel in New York City's trendy Meatpacking District. But when it came time for Tan to take time off to have her second child, she was denied maternity leave and forced to give birth to her...

By Liza Porteus Viana When Cathy Berse-Hurley started making her 4-year-old twin boys' handmade backpacks for school in 1996, other kids and parents took interest. She soon also began making lunch boxes, and selling her popular animal-themed wares at street and craft fairs, as well as big events like the New...

By Tami Luhby NEW YORK -- Women are finding their way back into the workforce. The economic upswing had until recently been a "hecovery," but the revival is now becoming more balanced between the genders. The number of women employees has jumped by 300,000 in the past six months, nearly the same amount as...

Before the debate Tuesday evening, Romney had successfully obliterated Obama's lead, almost entirely thanks to women voters. According to a Pew poll, Obama was ahead a staggering 18 points among women, which was thoroughly quashed by his wearied-professor performance. Winning women is a key to a November...