Blog Post #35

The EEOC is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Their main job is to make sure that all of the anti-discrimination laws of the workforce are understood and properly enforced. Recently, they have been trying to promote corporations going above and beyond the bare minimum legal requirements expected of them. Unfortunately, these basic minimum requirements do not create a family friendly workplace. The current laws for family caregiver’s do protect their rights, but they do not help the caregiver out. The employer of a caregiver needs to be sympathetic to the fact that these people come to work and work, and then they go home and work. The most common caregiver is a woman, mostly women of color. As Holly English discuss in her book Gender on Trial, these are the exact people who are already disproportionately affected in the workplace. The have a tough time asserting their competence, they are constantly having to prove themselves, and then if they decide to have a family, none of the previous work they did matter. They are then, automatically put on the “mommy track” and given less pay, less benefits, and less work. Essentially this will run them out of the job. Caregiver is synonymous with “mommy track.” Women’s right and Caregiver rights clearly overlap significantly. In order to go above and beyond, these corporations need to become more family oriented. They need to welcome women having children, and not scrutinize them so much for needing time off. They also need to make it okay for fathers to take time off as well so that the woman isn’t always the one that has to leave work. Doing this will retain valuable employees and make them more loyal to the corporation. A good example of this is my personal life is when my mom had to take time of for me to have a spinal fusion. She was worried they would not understand why she needs to take care of her adult child, but they did not even ask her questions. They worked with her, and allowed her whatever time she needed. They have been sympathetic to our situation for awhile now as I am coming up on a third surgery in one year. However, my mother plans on staying with the company a long time because she feels her loyalty lies with them because of their level of compassion.