Single Working Womens Week – SWWAN

The U.S. has zero government assistance for child care for the average working woman, whether married or single. This detailed accounting of the child-care situation in Germany–and the concommitant situation of working women there–gives an interesting contrast, including the fact that Germans have come to believe that all children should be eligible for state-supported child care at age 3. Sadly, facilities are so limited that only 7% of women can find such a place for their child. And now they’re looking into whether they ought to consider providing state care for kids under 3.

And listen to this–women can take THREE YEARS off for child rearing and still be able to return to the same company. That certainly has pluses for the woman and child, but it looks like mostly minuses for the company.

Interesting statistics on German working women: 28% of German entrepreneurs are female; 40% of German college-educated women are childless (they don’t say, but it could be many of these are young women not yet married and/or choosing to have children). Not surprisingly, Germany has the same conspicuous absence of women in boardrooms despite a strong presence (47% in private industry) among middle managers and 24% in “senior” (undefined) management.

Sleeplessness is now strongly implicated in any person’s ongoing mental state. In the case of single working women–and adding college or new motherhood into the mix greatly magnifies the problem–it’s not news to them how profoundly their not-enough-time and lack-of-sleep challenges affect them.

Now Wharton School reports that a bunch of researchers conducted tests that led them to conclude that both positive and negative moods affect employee productivity, but that positive moods are more potent. And then, dig this: “the mood you bring with you to work has a stronger effect on the day’s mood–and on work performance–than mood changes caused by events in the workplace.”

As science grows more sophisticated, fewer areas of life are immune from the understanding that our lives are a holistic continuum. As a business owner or teacher or manager you can choose to ignore what’s going on in the rest of a person’s life, but you risk regularly receiving less than that person’s best performance.

They say that acknowledging a problem is the first step to solving it. Recognizing the damage that chronic sleep deprivation and stress can do–and how the results can affect a person’s ability to do her very best in her work–could be the beginning of a trend towards imagining some better ways.

The chain of vendors offering discounts that SWWAN is building is one tiny step towards helping the financial challenges. Anything, for instance, that enlightened employers can do about allowing people to take real breaks when they need them–to lie down or even just to sit with their eyes closed in a quiet place for 10 or 15 minutes–would benefit exhausted working women as well as everyone else in the workplace. Need a guide? Study the most successful technology companies: foosball tables, darkened rooms with couches, employees freely exchanging ideas, vendors occasionally coming to give chair massages. Consider providing things that show respect for the employee as a whole person.

Talk about belaboring the obvious… The National Sleep Foundation reports 72% of working mothers and 68% of single working women (the highest groups among women) feel sleepy during the day and have sleeping problems at night. Perhaps they didn’t want to belabor it any further by studying single working mothers as a separate group?…

Conducting a study to find out that single working women and working mothers are sleepy feels like spending money to research whether dogs have tails. Wouldn’t it be nice if we found something more useful to study, like here are some ways we can make women’s lives a little easier. Here are some ways we can recognize women for all that they do. Here are some ways we can help ease the financial and time burdens on those who are the sole support of their households.

Well, one day we will. But for now, ladies, we applaud you for your courage, your commitment, and your creativity in making your lives–and the lives of your families–work.

Oh, yes, this is a great way to get teenage boys to buy your gamiing magazine (and undoubtedly the grown men who spend time at this pursuit). And where do you think I saw this? On the shelves of the local smut peddler’s store? No, no. This is on child’s-eye-level on the teens’ shelf in the Logan Square branch of the Chicago Public Library. Oh, yeah, we’ve still got a long way to go.

I have a Google news alert set for “single working mother,” and I’ve noticed there seem to be a higher number of stories/article from the UK than from the U.S. This one, about the cost of living vis-a-vis women/mothers working, is interesting–but the comments from the many readers are fascinating. They represent a comprehensive overview of all the possible opinions (and justifications for them) that anyone could have.

Housing costs–outrageous in the U.K. Wages. Taxes. Legal issues. State-provided benefits. If you’re curious about how things are different for working women/mothers in the UK than they are in the U.S. and you’ve got half an hour, sit down and read.

Wise words from an English mum whose teenager can’t stand her dancing and singing. What teenager isn’t embarrassed by signs of young-spiritedness in a parent? It just doesn’t fit with the internalized image they’re trying to build of you as “foreign” to everything they want to be. If you break out in song while driving the car, then they’re worried that they can’t do that because then they might be like you. This is one of those things that’s part of the nature of human development.

Can single moms get too close with their daughters? Sure. So can married moms. It’s a disease that many mothers can succumb to. When a woman’s life is unfulfilled for any reason–absence of a love interest, poor marital relationships, lack of interesting work, not enough to do, etc.–it can contribute to a tendency to reach out to the closest female in her life.

This UK writer Rachel Johnson makes some great observations (using abundant references to British royals). She wonders why guys don’t talk about being best friends with their sons–well, I see plenty of that these days, too. I think it’s a tendency of a lot of boomers to want to befriend their kids. And it may have its roots in the fact that so many boomers were raised by Depression-era parents, many or most of whom had little or no emotional connection with their children of any kind. One of those backlash things.

Let’s face it. Humankind is never going to produce an entire generation of perfect parents. We just have to be smart enough to listen to wisdom when we hear it and apply to ourselves as best we can with our resources at the time. I think it was Andre Gide who said, “The appalling thing is, we’re all doing the best we can.”

Amen.

Even if you can’t get to the gym–and lots of single women/single moms literally don’t have a spare hour–cheer up. All that work you’re doing to keep your life organized is probably enough to improve your health and longevity as much as a gym workout.

According to an article in the Mayo Clinic Women’s HealthSource, research on an older population indicates that any activity where you spend energy may help prolong life. That means when you’re vacuuming, mopping the floor (they mention washing windows, but hey, if a single woman doesn’t have time for the gym, I’m gonna guess she wouldn’t dream of investing time in washing windows!), doing lawn work, or caring for other people will do the trick. That also includes walking and volunteering.

The study showed there was a direct and major correlation of lower risk of death among those with the highest energy expenditures. High expenders reported climbing stairs or working for pay as a daily part of their lives.

Don’t you love to hear good news for a change!? ” ))