多読教材

多読教材#8 Work-life balance 'increasingly stressful for fathers'

2020-05-02

多読向け教材シリーズ。

ニュースサイトから英語学習にうってつけの記事を厳選していきます。
今回はBBC newsより。630 wordsというかなり比較的短めの素材です。高校レベル(英検2級)です。

 

BBC Newsとは

イギリス公共放送局がオンライン上で配信するニュースサイトです。イギリスで最も有名な放送局だからこそコンテンツが豊富です。イギリス英語も随所に見られるため, なじみのない表現を習得するのにも役立ちます。

 

要約をページ下部に記載しています。読んだ内容と一致しているか確認をしてみましょう。

 

Article(記事)

●Work-life balance 'increasingly stressful for fathers'

● word数:約630 words

●黙読の目標時間:3m09s(WPM200で算出)

 

*本文は以下URL or  以下の"引用部分"

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-38607682?ocid=socialflow_facebook&ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_source=facebook

 

Work-life balance 'increasingly stressful for fathers'

 

Nearly half of working fathers would like a less stressful job so they can spend more time caring for their children, a study has found.

About a third would take a pay cut to achieve a better work-life balance, the charity Working Families said.

Employers are not doing enough to help dads take a more active role in childcare, it added.

MPs are due to open an inquiry into whether fathers are losing out in the workplace.

Of the 2,750 parents surveyed, a third of fathers said they regularly felt burnt out, and one in five were working extra hours, according to the Modern Families Index report.

Working fathers get 'wage bonus'

Work-life balance: What does it mean for men?

Do men get paid more than women?

Six ways to tackle the gender pay gap

"For many fathers the workplace is unsupportive of their aspirations for a better work-life fit," said the charity.

It runs the risk of creating a "fatherhood penalty", where fathers are willing to follow a career that is below their skill set and reduce their earnings, it added.

It would be similar to the "motherhood penalty", which gender equality charity, the Fawcett Society, identified as being one of the core causes of the disparity in pay between men and women.

"To prevent a 'fatherhood penalty' emerging in the UK - and to help tackle the motherhood penalty - employers need to ensure that work is designed in a way that helps women and men find a good work-life fit," said Sarah Jackson, chief executive of Working Families.

'Evolving trends'

Employers' organisation, the Institute of Directors (IoD), agreed with the charity, saying bosses should design jobs that let both men and women work flexibly.

Seamus Nevin, head of employment and skills policy at the IoD, said government should also reform shared parental leave, which is "far from perfect and offers fathers no individual personal entitlement to time off with their baby".

"The benefits, to individual families as well as companies and the overall economy, of sharing parental responsibilities equally between mothers and fathers are clear," Mr Nevin said.

"The number of stay-at-home fathers has almost doubled since the mid-1990s. However, it's still the case that women are far more likely to take the lion's share of parental responsibilities.

"The willingness of more men to take an active role in parenting is very positive, but unfortunately government legislation and employment practices have not always kept up with evolving trends and needs," Mr Nevin added.

Adrienne Burgess, chief executive of the Fatherhood Institute, told the BBC there were a lot of problems with the current parental leave system.

"The new system was bigged up as a shared parental leave and it's nothing of the sort."

She explained that, in reality, it is transferable maternal leave, which fathers have no automatic right to, and few met the conditions.

"Only a minority of couples have this available - well under 50% qualify. The mothers often have their pay topped up by their employer but if this is transferred to the father their employer is much less likely to top it up. Everything works against it."

'Active'

On Monday, MPs on the Women and Equalities Committee are launching a new inquiry into fathers in the workplace.

Committee chair Maria Miller said that investing in policies to let men and women share childcare "will reap financial benefits as well as reducing the gender pay gap".

"Many fathers want to take a more active role in caring for their children," she added.

"Clearly more needs to be done. We are keen to hear views from individuals as well as organisations about the changes which they would like to see."

 

Summary(要約)

ワークライフバランスはイクメンにとってはますますストレスを感じるものになっている

イギリスでは働く父親のほぼ50%が子育てに時間がとれるようにストレスのない仕事を選ぶようになっている。慈善団体のWorking Familiesによれば, 3人に1人がもっとよいワークライフバランスを実現するために給与カットを受け入れているが, 多くの雇用主たちは父親が子育てでさらに大きな役割を果たせるような援助は行っていない。むしろ, 父親が自分の知識技能を下回るキャリアを進んで選択し給与が少なくなるという「父親であることの罰」というものを作り出す危険を犯している。これは「母親であることの罰」というものに類似している。それは男女の賃金格差の主要な原因の1つである。したがって, 雇用主たちは男女のワークライフバランスの実現を援助するように, 男女がフレキシブルな時間でできる仕事を割り振らなければならない。また, 90年代中旬からイクメン数が2倍になっているが, 子育てにおける男性の役割が小さいので, 政府による男女両方がとれる育休制度の改革, 雇用慣習の変革も必要だ。

Summary:Neyo O

Opinion(意見)

stay-at-home fathers という言葉が2000年代になってから流行するようになりました。直訳すると「専業主夫」といったところでしょうか。イクメンという軽い言葉で捉えるとイメージしやすいでしょう。アメリカでも子育てのためのイクメン化は1996年の4%から2016年には24%へと激増しました(逆に女性は同じ時期に86%→76%)。
参考記事:Stay-at-home moms and dads account for about one-in-five U.S. parents
もちろん日本でもワークライフバランスの重要性が社会で唱えられ年々増加しています。女性の社会進出のさらなる促進, 国・企業における女性管理職の人数の目標数設定など女性に対しての施策が(全然足りていないと思いますが)なされています。ワークライフバランスを考える時に私は, 女性の負担をいかに減らすか, 女性の地位をいかにあげるかという女性視点しか持っていませんでした。しかし, 男性のイクメン化(育休促進)によって男性もキャリアを諦めざるを得ないという視点もあることを再認識しました。私は経営者(超小規模会社ですが..)ですので自分自身のワークライフバランスは自分自身でコントロールできますが, 子どもが家にいる時の在宅ワークは時間があるのに全く仕事になりません。特に現在は小学校も幼稚園も空いておらず, 子どもたちを脇目にデスクワークをしたり, お昼寝の間を狙ってオンラインレッスンをしてます。こういった在宅ワークに関わる問題点の改善策も考えていく必要があります。

Neyo O

-多読教材