Balance this

This is one of those stories that makes my eyes roll so hard they nearly pop out of my head: “A business class at George Washington University aims to teach young women how to balance their careers with their personal lives," reads the promo for an NPR program.

I hoped for a moment that this was a case of media distortion and the class was really something else entirely. Nope. Professor Kathy Korman Frey describes balancing work and family as “a real entrepreneurial experience,” and says “so much of work-life balance is really practical, so it’s really teachable.” For example, one “time-management” assignment is for students to examine their daily schedules for a 24-hour day and “find an extra hour.”

There are so many things wrong with this, I don’t know where to start. How about with the fact that NPR and a prestigious university found it plausible to discuss the topic of work-life balance as an individual dilemma without once mentioning the political context that creates the dilemma, namely the American absence of social supports for parenting? Or that it never occurred to NPR to invite a guest who might mention these political questions, such as, oh, say, a feminist?

As the NPR host actually (sort of) noted, this class is home ec for the new century. Instead of learning to make potholders or jello molds, these future Suzy Home-and-career-makers learn how to “find an extra hour” and how to “locate and hold on to good childcare.” (It’s so hard to find good help these days.)

I’ll tell you how to hold on to good childcare: Create a nationally subsidized system of childcare centers that pay workers living wages. Treat childcare as a fully tax deductible and refundable business expense. And for balancing life and work, few things work so well as paid family leave.

The NPR program was weirdly vague. Just what “work-life” balance might mean wasn’t made clear. It appeared merely to mean being really busy, especially as the professor described the issue as affecting even her busy but childless students. Nowhere was there any reference to the specific, crushing difficulties faced by parents in our society—difficulties which for most mothers are desperate economic problems—let alone the specific historical and political facts that created these difficulties.

The insidious thing about the class is that it responds to a profound social problem in such a way as to silence potentially political discontent.

Balance this, George Washington.