Authorizing City Council's Committee on Commerce and Economic Development and Special Committee on Gender Parity to hold joint public hearings to explore initiatives that can be developed in the workplace that foster balance in the lives of working parents and to make develop and submit recommendations to the City and other local private and public sector employers.

WHEREAS, Increasingly, both parents in a family are required to work in order to provide the basic necessities for themselves and their children; and

WHEREAS, In the Philadelphia region, in 2006, sixty-four (64) percent of women with a child under one year of age were in the workforce WOMEN’S WAY.

A Change of Pace: Accelerating Women’s Progress. 2008

http://womensway.org/media-change-of-pace.asp

.

; and

WHEREAS, Work schedules and responsibilities inevitably diminish the amount of time parents are able to spend with their children and devote to other domestic responsibilities and often force them to choose between their jobs and their family; and

WHEREAS, Many employers have developed “family-friendly” programs, such as flexible work schedules, job sharing, a compressed workweek, telecommuting, paid parental leave to care for a newborn or newly adopted child, time off for children’s illnesses, doctor’s appointments, school appointments and on-site child care; and

WHEREAS, Working Mother Magazine has highlighted the one hundred (100) best companies, many of which have local offices in Philadelphia such as: Booz Allen Hamilton, Glaxosmithkline, Johnson & Johnson, Prudential, Verizon Communications, and Wachovia are recognized for providing flexible family friendly programs to their employees;

Holt, Karen,

Good for the Gander, Working Mother (October, 2008), vol. 31, N0.7 p.90.

and

WHEREAS, Our new First Lady, Michelle Obama, as a working parent, understands the stress that is placed upon families where both parents work and has pledged to present a platform and intends to become an advocate for improving work-family balance; and

WHEREAS, Following Michelle Obama’s leadership from her speech and participation at the 2008 Women as Architects of Change National Conference, Council desires to examine and promote ways to encourage work-family balance locally; now therefore, be it

RESOLVED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That Council hereby authorizes City Council’s Committee on Commerce and Economic Development and Special Committee on Gender Parity to hold joint public hearings to explore initiatives that can be developed in the workplace that foster balance in the lives of working parents and to make develop and submit recommendations to the City and other local private and public sector employers.

End