Women, Work, and Family

ZENIT yesterday distributed an article called "Women, Work, and Family" by Father John Flynn, which began with this description of a report just issued in England:

ROME, MARCH 5, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Working mothers face significant discrimination in Britain's work force. This was one of the conclusions of a report published Feb. 28 by the Equalities Review, an independent body of the United Kingdom. The report: "Fairness and Freedom: The Final Report of the Equalities Review," found that women with young children are the most discriminated against at work.

In fact, women with young children face more discrimination in the workplace than disabled people or those from ethnic minorities, noted the BBC in an article on the report published the day of its release.

This report is apparently receiving much attention in the British press, as well as this reaction from the Government: 

A call for more attention to women's needs, whether they work at the top or not, was made by Lord Layard, a Labor Party peer appointed by the British government to investigate the state of childhood.

Well, here on this side of the Atlantic, we may lack the ability to appoint peers or Lords to investigate, but we can convene conferences.  Like the Law Journal symposium on "Restructuring the Workplace to Accommodate Family Life" to be held at UST Law in Minneapolis next Friday, March 16.  Featuring keynote talks by Sr. Prudence Allen (""Analogy, Law, and the Workplace:  Complementarity, Conscience, and the Common Good") and Professor Joan Williams ( "Opt Out or Pushed Out: The Real Story of Women and Work") and panels including MOJers Susan Stabile ("Can Secular Feminists and Catholic Feminists Work Together to Ease the Conflict Between Work and Family?") and Michael Scaperlanda ("Immigration, the Family, and the Workplace:  A Critical Exploration of Possible Reforms").