How The Conversation's False Report About Dads Hurts Moms and the Workplace

It happens constantly: news agencies and researchers publish reports using skewed data, inaccurate statements, and their own beliefs in stereotypes to come to a false conclusion: that dads don't work as hard as moms.
This is terrible for women. But before we get to that, the latest example.

A new piece in The Conversation is wrong from the get-go -- even the headline is false . No, moms don't "put in more work" than dads on average.
(Since reproduction is allowed under Creative Commons, I put red marks through sections that fail to represent moms and dads accurately at tinyurl.com/TheConversationBlowsIt .)

Often, news agencies allow me to do response pieces setting the record straight . That was the case recently with Money , for example. Unfortunately, The Conversation told me I can only respond in the comment section , since I don't work for an academic institution. Few people read all the comments, and a response piece is necessary. So I'm writing it here.

Anti-dad myths are prejudice against women
As I explain in my book All In , the false belief that dads do less than moms is prejudice against both. Executives and government leaders believe the myth. They believe that if you let a man have paternity leave or a flexible schedule to care for his children, he won't really do much. He'll kick his feet up, crack open a beer, and watch a game.
So they don't allow for equal caregiving. Less than a fifth of employers offer any paternity leave. Men who do take paternity leave, or even ask about a flexible schedule, are often demoted or fired for breaking from a traditional, "macho" norm. My book is filled with these examples. For more on this, see a series of studies from the Center for WorkLife Law.

The workplace acts as gender police, pushing men to stay at work and women to stay home. This is why we have no paid maternity leave in America, as I discussed at the U.N.:

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