"I was more professionally ambitious before I had my daughter," says Andrea, a 44-year-old operations manager of a west coast tech firm employing less than 200 people. "But I needed a much more consistent schedule to take care of a baby." It took a while, but she was ultimately able to find a job that was stable, profitable, and respectful of employees' time. "I was afraid for a while that this was a unicorn I'd never find." The downside, as Andrea tells it, "is that it's not growing rapidly like the Amazons and Googles of the world, so there's not really room to move up. That's OK with me now, but I think I would have wanted more when I was 25."
That, in a nutshell, is why the diversity reports released earlier this year by three of the biggest technology firms are so bad. For every three women employed by Apple, Google, or Facebook, there are roughly seven men. Go into the technology departments and it drops even lower — women make up just 15 percent of Facebook’s tech workers, while Google’s leadership numbers are 79 percent to 21 percent in favor of men.
None of these firms feature on Working Mother’s annual 100 Best Companies awards — now seen as a benchmark survey for firms with mother-friendly cultures. Instead, technology is represented by the dinosaurs — IBM and HP, for example, who have bigger workforces than their younger counterparts — IBM’s stood at 431,212 in 2013, while Google has 55,000. Is it because IBM and Hewlett-Packard have been around for decades? Or is it because they both have women at the helm?
Paternity leave is crucial for gender equality
It’s well-established that a longer maternity leave is good for both employer and employee — a 2009 report by the Institute of Women’s Policy Research said as much — but this thinking has now jumped the gender gap. Last month, the ILO published a report on parental right in small- and medium-sized firms. As well as maternity protection counting for a happier, more productive workforce, it said that paternity leave resulted in reduced absenteeism amongst male employees, improved their health, and was "crucial for gender equality."
Andrea, who is the only woman on a team of 18, thinks that one significant change could help level the field. "If men took leave too, I think we wouldn't have that problem [of gender imbalance] as much," she says. "When men have a chance to spend more time with their kids, everyone benefits. Plus it helps combat any perceived productivity differences between men and women in the workplace. If both are taking time off, it helps equalize them. I don't want to be thought of as a liability to my company just because I'm female."
The great 21st-century tech triumvirate — Apple, Google, and Facebook — have among the most progressive attitudes toward parental leave in the whole of the United States. Google offers new mothers 22 weeks’ paid leave, plus a smorgasbord of benefits, while Apple recently implemented changes that give new mothers up to 18 weeks off — fathers get up to six week, with both parents enjoying their full salary while away. But only Facebook sees equal parenting rights as the way forward, offering 17 weeks paid for both parents, as well as $4,000 in cash benefits and subsidized childcare.
![Paternity leave by duration]()
The US is the only developed country that doesn’t guarantee paid maternity or parental leave to workers
Under US federal law, mothers are allowed up to 12 weeks’ unpaid leave. New dads get nothing in the way of paternity leave, although they are allowed to take up to 84 days off under the terms of the Family and Medical Leave Act--provided they have worked for the same firm for at least a year, working at least 1,250 hours, and as long as that firm has more than 50 employees. This leave is, however, also unpaid and, according to a report from Boston College’s Center for Work and Family released in June of this year, men will only take time off if it is paid. If you give a man two weeks’ paid leave when his child is born, he will take two weeks off. If you offer him none, he will continue at work. Just three states — California, Rhode Island, and New Jersey — offer paid family leave, the money coming from employee-paid tax. A 2014 report by the International Labor Organization, called it the worst in the developed world. In September, US Labor Secretary Tom Perez said, "We are not serving our women well."
Livia Moore is a 29-year-old global community manager for e-commerce firm Tictail. She relocated to New York from Sweden last month and feels that rights for both men and women should be on an even footing.
"Big tech firms should set the industry standard of encouraging equal relationships, where both parents share responsibility for childcare and household work," she says. "The idea of parental leave options for men and women allows both parents time to focus on their careers and bond with their children. It also encourages a more open-minded workplace where families are not defined in the heteronormative terms of mother and father. Creating a culture that allows you to focus on both your career and having a family on your own terms is essential."
Sweden grants up to 480 days' paid parental leave per child
Sweden is, of course, seen as the most progressive nation when it comes to parental rights. Leave is not granted to the mother or father, but rather offers up to 480 days' paid parental leave per child until that child is eight. This can be shared by both parents — they can claim up to 80% of their salary, capped at a certain level — though not at the same time, and fathers have to take a minimum of 60 days. Because the policy is centered around each child rather than its mother, no discrimination can be made against women of childbearing age by their employers.
Bjorn Jeffery is CEO of Toca Boca, a digital toy studio with offices in the US and Sweden, and he allows his employees to take up to 12 months’ leave when they have a child. "I think respecting people's time and family life as a company is something that many employees appreciate and in turn respect a lot," he said. "I would argue that overall productivity can actually increase since people can focus solely on their tasks at hand without being concerned about the rest of their lives becoming impaired because of rigid work rules."
When Bjorn became a father for the first time earlier this year, many of his Swedish friends assumed he would return to the motherland for its father-friendly policies. But then, when you’re CEO of a firm, you can choose your own childcare policy. "We don't have a predetermined time that [both men and women] can be on parental leave, other than what is regulated in law," he says. "This means you can be on parental leave for say 12 months, and still get your job back when you return."
Ask the big firms about how they are trying to rectify the gender imbalance in their ranks and they are quick to point you towards letters from their CEO regarding diversity, new hires, and board members who happen to be women, and egg-freezing perks — that’s Apple. Facebook emailed a long list of woman-friendly initiatives, including a scholarship program for female students, the Girls Who Code summer internship, and a designated team to improve the firm’s diversity rates, while declining to answer any specific questions on the subject. At time of writing, Google had yet to respond.
So what career advice would Andrea give her eight-year-old daughter should she desire unfettered access to a CEO title? "Not to drop out of the workforce, ever, and especially in tech. It's so hard to get back in, and you can never make up that lost momentum."
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