海角大神

Is the right way to build a female-friendly workplace really from the top down?

Headlines and corporate discussions about working women typically focus at the top: statistics about female CEOs, the number of women on Forbes鈥� billionaires list, profiles of individual icons like Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg of 鈥淟ean In鈥� fame and Ivanka Trump, whose 鈥淲omen who Work鈥� brand includes self-help books and a fashion line.

Individuals like Ms. Sandberg and Ms. Trump do bring greater visibility to the obstacles working women of all stripes face, says Julia Beck, a marketing strategist and founder of the It's Working Project. 鈥淭his issue remaining in the headlines does move the dialogue forward, and both are presenting a level of optimism鈥� that they can be solved, she says.

鈥淏ut are either of them creating something realistic for a large swath of the population?" she asks. "We don鈥檛 want a place where most women don鈥檛 feel included in that conversation.鈥�

On Tuesday, Trump joined German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the W20 Summit in Berlin, as part of a panel conversation on Women鈥檚 Empowerment and Leadership.聽She was booed for defending her father鈥檚 treatment of women. But aside from President Trump's past indecorous remarks, the event is in keeping with the theme of Ivanka Trump鈥檚 work within her father鈥檚 White House so far, and her personal brand before that: a conversation on women鈥檚 empowerment, held by and largely concerning women with a lot of power. The panel鈥檚 other participants included Queen Maxima of the Netherlands, Christine LaGarde of the International Monetary Fund, and Bank of America vice chairman Anne Finucane, among others.

Critics say the attention on the needs of women, and particularly mothers, who are already in the upper echelons of power ignores more serious problems faced by the vast majority of low- and middle-income working women. Announcements of increasingly generous parental leave policies for high-skilled employees at companies like Google and Etsy don鈥檛 trickle down to, say, the people working in warehouses for Amazon or on the floor at Wal-Mart. But a growing number of companies 鈥� from stalwarts such as Campbell Soup to start-ups like Birchbox 鈥� are taking a more comprehensive look at their policies.

鈥淚t鈥檚 important that good policies and practices aren鈥檛 reserved for professional staff,鈥� says Dina Bakst, a women鈥檚 rights attorney and founder of A Better Balance, a legal advocacy organization based in New York.

There are women 鈥渨ho are one sick child away from losing their job, or one complicated pregnancy away from homelessness,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e want to improve corporate policies, yes, but we also need to address the barriers that hold all women back.鈥�

That can鈥檛 be done by relying on a few high-profile CEOS to change conditions for all women. For one, a female CEO 聽and generous benefits do not automatically equal a family-friendly work culture, as employees at Yahoo can attest. Sandberg, who changed bereavement policies at Facebook after losing her spouse, has acknowledged that it took personal experience for her to more fully understand the challenges some of her employees were going through.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a famous story where Sheryl Sandberg went into her manager鈥檚 office at Facebook and demanded pregnancy parking,鈥� Ms. Bakst says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 great, but the reality is, we have pregnant clients who can鈥檛 carry a water bottle on the job and are hospitalized for dehydration, or are not allowed to take bathroom breaks.鈥�

But the focus on elite professional women is not without its benefits, experts say. 鈥淭he thinking is that getting women into top positions can鈥檛 be separated from making the workplace more welcoming to parents at all levels,鈥� says Krista Carothers, the executive research director of Working Mother magazine, in an email. The publication curates an annual list of major companies with family-friendly policies. 鈥淭hey can't develop a pipeline of female talent to move into executive roles if their women employees drop out at mid-level or have to turn down challenging projects.鈥�

Hollow values?

In addition to being limited, that kind of top-down corporate feminism can ring hollow when the image doesn鈥檛 match up with a company鈥檚 practices. In March, Mira Agrawal,聽the founder and CEO of underwear company Thinx, faced allegations of sexually harassing, underpaying, and offering scant benefits packages to female staffers, despite the company鈥檚 message of female empowerment and Ms. Agrawal鈥檚 fraught emergence as a feminist role model.

Trump鈥檚 company (from which she has given up a more active role and taken up an unpaid post in her father鈥檚 administration) does offer its corporate employees paid parental leave, but G-III, the company that licenses her fashion line, does not. Additionally, the maternity leave plan Ivanka Trump championed during the presidential election was roundly criticized: first, for being designed as an income tax credit for new mothers, meaning the burden of child care was placed squarely on women; and secondly, because there was no benefit for lower-income families who paid no income tax and were most likely to need financial help with child care.

鈥淚vanka Trump talks about 鈥榤aternity leave,鈥� and that would be terrible,鈥� Bakst says. 鈥淢ommy policies risk encouraging discrimination.鈥� What鈥檚 better, she says, are policies are that apply neutrally to all parents, regardless of gender.

What鈥檚 being done

Some companies have tackled the challenge of keeping women of all economic levels attached to the workforce 鈥� making it easier for women with changes big and small like affordable childcare, flexible hours, and paid leave policies accessible to rank and file employees 鈥� not just those in the C-suite.

For example, some firms, including makeup subscription company Birchbox and eyeglasses startup Warby Parker, don鈥檛 allow meetings to start before 9:30 a.m. or after 4:30 p.m., so childcare pickup and drop-off schedules aren鈥檛 affected. More predictable scheduling practices for hourly workers, including the phasing out of so-called 鈥渙n-call scheduling,鈥� have been instituted at many retail and restaurant chains, prompted by legislative pressure from state and local governments.

Extending parental leave benefits to hourly employees is still rare (only 12 percent of private sector workers in the United States have access, according to the Department of Labor), but it鈥檚 gaining traction. Companies including IKEA, Netflix, and Danny Meyer鈥檚 Union Square Hospitality Group now do so. Some companies go even further, financially: Campbell Soup Company offers onsite, subsidized day care to employees at its headquarters in Camden, N.J., as well as emergency babysitting services. 聽

Even Trump鈥檚 approach has evolved in recent months. According to The New York Times, Trump administration officials are at least weighing a parental leave plan that could include all birth and adoptive parents, and a childcare tax credit that would be refundable for low-income workers 鈥� addressing two major criticisms of the Trump campaign鈥檚 initial plan.

The legislative piece of it is crucial, Bakst says, whether or not it comes from the White House. 鈥淲orkers shouldn鈥檛 have to depend on hitting the [employer] jackpot,鈥� she says. She applauds the expansion of paid sick-time laws in several states in recent years, as well as a New York state policy, taking effect in 2018, that extends 12 weeks of paid family leave to all workers.

鈥淥ur policies are stuck in a very different world,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hen you allow the policies to catch up, then we can get to the conversation around quality of life鈥� that is the focus of the Trumps and Sandbergs of the world. 鈥淭oo many workers aren鈥檛 able even to get to that question.鈥�