The end of summer and start of a new school year feels like a fresh start for everyone. The kids are older now – maybe your youngest is beginning full-day kindergarten. Or the oldest is off to college. Or your teen or preteen is super busy with activities. What about you? The back-to-school season is when many stay-at-home moms and dads begin to think about their own next steps. Maybe…
You’d think that back to school would mean a big sigh of relief. As we’ve written before, a summer strategy is needed for those yawning weeks when the usual childcare arrangements (generally known as school) suddenly disappear and parents across the land scramble to keep the kids safe and occupied. While it certainly solves a lot of problems to have the kids back in school, those first weeks can present…
Hello, summer! Sunshine, iced tea, and sleeveless tees. Is it really time to start thinking about fall? Why yes it is! For many caregivers, the end of the school year and beginning of summer is a time to re-charge and re-set. And, as the rhythms of your week changes, this may also be the perfect time to look ahead and get prepared to return to work in the fall. “Many…
This Mother’s Day, Path Forward is sending a special shout out to moms – those who are balancing motherhood and career, those who left the paid workforce to care for their families, and those who are now striving to restart their careers. You inspire us every day with your determination and resolve to balance career ambition and motherhood, and to battle the stigma against career breaks. For you, on Mother’s…
Our mission at Path Forward is to empower caregivers to restart their careers after a break focused on caregiving. Our work centers on shifting bias and stigma while uplifting and celebrating these women and men throughout their return-to-work journeys. The idea started because many of us had the personal experience of either being or knowing a mother who’d left the workforce to care for her young children and was struggling…
Path Forward supports caregivers of all genders in returning to the workforce. But we recognize that women often carry an extra burden. That’s why for International Women’s Day on March 8, we’re calling out that many obstacles women face are due to gendered stereotypes about careers and caregiving. In the home, these may include ingrained ideas about who is most responsible for providing childcare or whose career is most important.…
Two years ago my friend and a member of Path Forward’s Board of Directors, Gayatri Agnew, started a new holiday called Mother’s Monday. The idea was simple: While we “honor” mothers on Mother’s Day we don’t support mothers, and especially mothers with careers. The expectation is that Mom celebrates with her children on a Sunday but then pretends she has no caregiving responsibilities when she gets to the office on…
When we began Path Forward more than 5 years ago, it was because we recognized that decades after women had entered the workforce in large numbers, many still faced work/life conflicts after they became mothers. For some this led to leaving the workforce, often in a way that felt more like pushed out. And then, when these smart, educated, experienced women were ready to return to the paid workforce —…
Summer can be a burden for working parents, especially mothers. That’s because the American school calendar is predicated on a family structure that hasn’t existed for decades. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022, 73% of mothers and 93% of fathers with children younger than 18 were employed. That’s a lot of families that are scrambling to figure out how to cover care for up to 12 weeks.…
I’ve got mixed feelings about New Year’s resolutions. I like the “fresh start” feeling that January represents and the chance to renew commitments to our goals or make big changes to our lives. But the research on resolutions isn’t so great – in fact, only 8 percent of people who make a resolution manage to stick to it. One way to take some of the pressure off is to start…
