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Portrait of making politics a family-friendly career choice in White House


What’s it like to live the work-life balance as a member of the White House cohort?

From the New York Times (published today)

“The first few months, we all thought, ‘This is so exciting!’ — and it is exciting,” Ms. [Claire] Shipman [wife of Jay Carney, VP Biden's communications direction]said. “But I have to say, starting about a month ago, it really kicked in that I could really use a little more help.”

Mr. Emanuel said he knew the Obama-mania was waning in his household when he told his son recently that they would again be savoring father-son bonding time at the White House on a Saturday.

The 12-year-old did not jump for joy. He set conditions.

“I’ll go,” his son said, “but I don’t want to sit through another Iranian meeting.”

Oh, okay – I used this excerpt because I really liked the closing line.  But the article is replete with examples of parenting choices being made every hour by many, many folks running our country.  Does anyone recall ever reading anything like this article before, during any prior administration?

The fact that it’s being covered and reported in a major daily paper, less than 24 hours after Governor and mother of five, Sarah Palin, announced her resignation and specifically noted the impact her family and her children’s feelings had on her decision, reflects a key 21st century issue regarding what we expect of ourselves and our leaders.

My conclusion? There is no one right way or wrong way to do what they’re trying to, or what any of us with dependents are trying to do.  The best we can do is live, learn and help each other along specifically by publishing more and more of these inside looks at how it is that they do do it all, or not.

This act – call it balancing, juggling, life, whatever you want – isn’t going to go away, but the fact that this article portrays as many fathers as it does mothers, and without obvious gender slanted language or interpretation (did you see any? I will have to re-read more analytically for that) is encouraging.  The one thing that occurs to me is pay differentials and ability to find and pay for domestic or other help as needed by these work conditions.  That Obama staff salary list might come in handy if we can cross-post it with the names of those mentioned in this article.

There has got to be a way to turn this high-profile example of what parents have been experiencing for at least the last fifty years or more into action.

What policy implications, for government, public or private entities, do you identify here that make now the best time ever to be pursued?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:25 pm July 4th, 2009 in Barack Obama, Gender, Government, Jill Biden, Michelle Obama, Parenting, Politics, Sarah Palin, Sexism, Social Issues, Vice President, Whitehouse09, Women, Youth, leadership, marriage 

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2 Responses to “Portrait of making politics a family-friendly career choice in White House”

  1. 1 | Women and Work on July 4th, 2009 2:51 pm

    [...] Miller Zimon on WritesLikeSheTalks covers today’s NYT piece on White House staffers attempting work life integration. [...]

  2. 2 News on Workplace Flex for the Week of July 5, 2009 | Connecting Career and Life on July 13th, 2009 4:46 pm

    [...] Portrait of making politics a family-friendly career choice in White House (Writes Like She Talks) [...]

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