Male and female managers' awareness of gender and desire for family-friendly practices in their own lives and in the workplace: a preliminary consideration of self-examined lives

The introduction of family-friendly policies and practices facilitates women's ability to maintain a workplace presence while meeting daily responsibilities for child care and domestic tasks. Organisational accommodation of employees' family responsibilities may, however, result in the institutionalising women's disadvantage - the 'mommy track' - rather than producing the equitable employment opportunities envisioned by the managing diversity approach to human resource management (HRM). This article presents a preliminary consideration of assignments submitted by 93 managers enrolled in an introductory graduate level HRM subject. The assignment asked the male and female managers to reflect on the impact of gender on their work lives and the implications of gender for organisational policies and practices. The observations of these managers suggest factors that will need to be considered if diversity management policies and practices, particularly those addressing work-family or work-life balance, is to facilitate women's access to equitable employment and career advancement, rather than deflecting women's careers to a 'mommy track' of limited opportunities.