May 2023 Issue
A monthly forum to share diversity, equity, and inclusion resources.
Welcome to the next installment of Read.Watch.Listen. This month, we bring our attention to working parents and caregivers. Employees with dependents must constantly balance work life and personal life. In the 2020 SE3 Survey Children and Dependent Care brief, the SE3 Committee reports that only 4% of survey respondents felt that their employers are supportive of employees with dependents. The resources below discuss these struggles in further detail, and provide both employees and employers with suggestions for improving work-life balance for workers with children and other dependents.
We’re also celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month. Check out our previous post here to find ways to support our AAPI colleagues.
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Read.Watch.Listen is a monthly forum hosted by the NCSEA SE3 Committee to share and promote conversations on diversity, equity and inclusion within the structural engineering profession. Each month, we will curate a series of articles, audio-visual and digital media to facilitate self-education in matters that affect our professional practice as structural engineers. Whether you choose to read, watch, or listen (or all three!), we hope you will join us in this important conversation. Missed the previous issue? Check out the NCSEA SE3 Committee News and Publication page.
Share your thoughts and/or recommended resources for the next issue at ncsea@ncsea.com.
Trying to Diversify Your Engineering Team? Start by Supporting Moms - built in
Bhavani is a software engineer and a mother of two. In this piece she shares her struggles with balancing work, parenthood, and the guilt that came with feeling like she wasn’t excelling at either. She offers suggestions for employers on how to best support working mothers.
Childcare Solutions for Working Parents: Flexibility is at the Top of the List - U.S. Chamber of Commerce
The Chamber of Commerce Foundation details what they refer to as the “Childcare Equation”, describing what factors parents and caregivers must consider when navigating work-life balance. Read through the preface to the video for some background on the Chamber Foundation’s efforts to support working parents, or scroll to the bottom to watch how one company in the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction Industry is finding ways to prioritize flexibility in the workplace.
What Working Parents Really Need From Workplaces - TED Talks Daily
Angela Garbes, host of The Double Shift podcast, discusses how policy in the U.S. lags behind the reality of modern parenting. She suggests several strategies (some big, some small) that employers can use to better support working parents.
This article was originally published in the May 2023 issue of NCSEA's Structural Connection newsletter. For more information, check out NCSEA's DEI Resources.