Louisa's Blog: Pushing for Cultural Change

Yesterday I received an approach from a features journalist at the Financial Times asking me if I knew any City women with partners who are either stay-at-home fathers, or who do most of the childcare. I duly emailed you all to ask, and confess that I was pessimistic about the likely level of response. I had no reason to be; said journalist is now inundated with possible case studies (and even offered to buy me coffee as a thank you) so many thanks to all who replied. 

As someone married to man with a very full-time job which includes lots of travel, it has been incredibly refreshing for me to hear how many of you are supported at home in this way. At our Speaker Series event last Wednesday, Miriam Gonzalez Durantez said to a packed audience of 200 Citymothers that ‘most working mothers do half a day’s work before leaving the house for the office’, referencing the reality that working mothers tend to absorb the lion’s share of the housework. At least I feel more confident now that although ‘most’ may mean ‘many’, it doesn’t mean ‘all’. 

There is increasing chatter about the role of fathers in home and family life, and with new coalition government initiatives such as shared parental leave and extended flexible working rights coming into force through the Children & Families Act 2014, which gained royal assent last week, I am much more confident that fathers who wish to will be able to have a greater role in their children’s lives going forwards. Certainly, the work and family balancing act should no longer be an exclusively female subject. At Citymothers HQ we are actively looking at ways in which we can address this topic and participate in the push for cultural change, and I hope you will be hearing more on this topic in the next few weeks. 

Louisa works full time as Chief Operating Officer of a private equity trade association and runs Citymothers, a network of over 2,500 working mothers, in her spare time. She has two young children aged 7 months and 2.