Voices
A
LISA
BELKIN
HUFFINGTON
06.17.12
The
Daddy
Track
T A CONFERENCE in Austin, Texas, last month the discussions sounded more than a little familiar.
The 200 parenting bloggers shared their fears: that
ratcheting down their work aspirations while their
children were young would hurt their careers in the
long run; that employers preached balance but did not
really allow for it; that they were looked down upon by
those who had chosen more ambitious paths.
It was a time-worn, and predictable, conversation
about work and parenting. Except for the fact that all
200 of these bloggers were fathers, and they were attending a conference called “Dad 2.0.”
“Fathers today are where mothers were 20 years
ago,” says Brad Harrington, the executive director of
the Center for Work & Family at the Carroll School of
Management at Boston College. Women, he says, “have
always had legitimacy in the home, and in the 80s they
ILLUSTRATION BY MAREK HAIDUK
Lisa Belkin
is a senior
columnist
at The
Huffington
Post