Comment: It's only a baby, right? Prime ministers and parenthood Published on: 18 October 2018 Writing for The Conversation, Dr Tracy Scurry and colleagues discuss whether there are differences in the treatment of mothers and fathers' careers. Neve Te Aroha Ardern, just three months old, discovers UN headquarters in New York with his father and mother, who holds the highest political office in New Zealand. Shutterstock , ; , , and Tracy Scurry, Over the summer of 2018, New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Arden returned from her to take up the reins of government. The in her pregnancy and her capabilities to do her job seem at odds with the lives of millions of working mothers already doing two 鈥渏obs鈥�. Are there ongoing differences in the treatment of mothers and fathers鈥� careers or is politics just different? Careers and careers in politics All over the world working women are having children, taking leave and returning to work yet somehow it seems that being a political leader is one of the last bastions of conservatism, particularly in relation to the impact of parenting on the capability to perform at work. Indeed in resigning from her post at the US State Department Anne-Marie Slaughter famously wrote . The press interest in fathers in political office has been more limited and focused on whether they would take their right to parental leave, albeit short, rather than if they could still do the job 鈥� examples include the Finnish prime minister in 1997 and the UK鈥檚 in 1999. There is in fact just one other example of a female prime minister having a child while in office, that of the late Benazir Bhutto who gave birth to a son in 1990. At the time, opposition politicians poured scorn on her ability to be a new mother and leader. Even now we see many women political leaders rising to the top who do not have children (e.g., Teresa May, Angela Merkel, etc.) or who have followed more traditional trajectories and had children before their political career (e.g., , Hilary Clinton, etc.). Broadcase of ABC News (Australia), September 25, 2018. Everyday pressures without the publicity In other professional fields fewer questions are openly asked of top women when they have children, for example in the tech sector [ at Facebook or at Yahoo. Yet these questions are not necessarily absent, just less public. The publicity on Jacinda Arden is a lens on more subtle social processes, gendered questions and social norms that are still at work. Indeed these norms are still shaping who is, and who is not, seen as appropriate for certain careers or what women and men 鈥渟hould鈥� do as parents. The recent furore over boosting men鈥檚 grades to exclude women from highlights an extreme of these views that persist more subtly in many contexts. Research on careers and work life highlights how parenting and having a career is a challenging balancing act. We often talk here about but it is perhaps more accurate to talk of as parents manage the borders between working and family lives. The reality is that for many a harmonious 鈥渂alance鈥� is elusive and borders are permeable. But it is not necessarily a negative balancing act. In focusing on the borders, researchers have focused on the interaction between work and family domains and analysed what is known as spillover. This can be negative where work has negative consequences (conflict) on family life, for example postponing holidays due to a work emergency or, vice versa, stress of a family emergency impacting upon performance at work. There can also be positive spillovers whereby each domain, work to family or family to work, enriches the other. For example, competences in one domain may help in the other, or benefits may arise from an accumulation of roles in terms of greater wellbeing. Not the same, not equal The challenge is that these work-family domains and borders, and associated spill overs, are no necessarily viewed the same way for women and men. Research differentiates between the positive effects on men of fatherhood compared to the negative career consequences often experienced by women. The so-called and/or perception of maturity and reliability experienced by men is in contrast to the , more restricted job opportunities and the 鈥渕ommy track鈥�. Furthermore, the positive development opportunities for men in terms of fathers鈥� family-work enrichment can be perceived as . Similarly, family domains are not equal. In many countries women now account for more or less half of the working population and working mothers are increasingly the norm. Yet women with children often adjust their working patterns and this is often put down to the unchanging nature of the in the home 鈥� women do more than men in the family domain.
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