The latest issue of The Atlantic magazine has a piece titled “Daddy Track: The Case for PaternityLeave.”
Big tech companies like Google and Yahoo give men about two months of paid leave after the birth of a child. For Reddit and Facebook - 17 weeks.
The gist of the piece is that this may not be some fringe benefit for a fraction of the privileged class but a profound bit of social engineering: “[Economist Ankita] Patnaik’s study suggests that paternity leave might give men a new mindset, prompting them to trade more money for more time at home, more flexibility, or both. In this way, it could make men behave more like women.”
Men, behaving like women!
I thought of this one Monday last month as I sat down with Khayyam Eddings, Jim Argue and Rich Huddleston - 2014 Soup Sunday chairman, board chairman and executive director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, respectively. Now, I’m sure in the history of big fundraisers there have been occasions where a triumvirate of men has led the organization through an event, but I’m telling you, it’s rare. And not just me telling you, but Mallory Van Dover, development director for Arkansas Advocates.
“Not around here anyway. You don’t see very many nonprofits that have men in their leadership roles.”
I’m only suggesting that the Eddings-Argue-Huddleston effort this year is a little bit novel. Not unheard of, and not even special, for to believe that impugns all the women who so often are out in front on these things.
How out in front? I looked back at all of the subjects of 2013 Volunteer stories in High Profile and found that men were the focal subject 10 times, fewer by two than the number of men who were event co-chairmen with their wives, and fewer by 37 the number of women who were the subjects of these stories.
“I guess,” Argue said, clearly not buying the novelty of Soup Sunday’s arrangement, “but the transition from working husbands and stay-at-home moms, that’s ancient history in our culture. We haven’t had that for 50 years. The norm now is for both spouses to be working.”
Eddings couldn’t think of a single couple from his friends’ circle who represent the breadwinning-dad-and stay-at-home-mom dynamic.
“But when we did,” Argue continued, “sure, community service fell on the shoulders of mothers. Today, with everyone working, men realize they have to carry the load.”
And reap the benefits, surely. For if paternity leave is crucially about integrating men into the family mechanism, stepping out front on charity and the efforts of fundraising will spread the level of compassion across demographics.
Soup Sunday takes place from 4 to 7 p.m. Feb. 16 at Embassy Suites. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. For more information, call (501) 371-9678 or go to ARAdvocates.org and look under What’s New.
FARM SYSTEM
There’s an unstated - well, sometimes stated - axiom in journalism that news reporting should never make the news. Of course, it’s a hoary shibboleth, better believed about the 20th century than the 21st, and truth be told, not then either.Recall that bit of apocrypha attributed to William Randolph Hearst, “You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war”?
Well, recently, I feel like High Profile cover stories have themselves spurred inductions into the state’s many halls of fame.
On Dec. 16, 2012, we gave our cover profile over to retired U.S. Navy engineer Raye Montague, who in October was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame. On Nov. 24, we profiled David Bazzel, impresario of football awards and the Touchdown Club luncheon speaker series. Last month, we read that Bazzel is leading a class of 11 inductees into the state’s Sports Hall of Fame.
Now, 2013 was a great promotional year for Bazzel, whose face memorably graced a Buzz radio billboard over Interstate 30 into Little Rock and who had undoubtedly the best Touchdown Club series in its 10-year run. For sheer presence, Bazzel is probably the rock star of the 2014 induction class, and very likely this was his year, cover profile or no.
(In keeping with the mission of this column, I must spotlight the club’s awards banquet featuring former Razorbacks coach Lou Holtzon Sept. 13 at the Embassy Suites. Tickets are $50 general admission, $100 reserved seating. Go to LRTouchdown.com.)
Montague, on the other hand, had long retired before her profile, and though Charles Stewart, director of the Black Hall, denies it, without the cover profile, I’m not convinced Montague would have gotten a second look.
To which I say, great!
We already know the lineup for the Business Hall of Fame on Friday at the Statehouse Convention Center - James Faulkner (Faulkner & Associates), Mark Simmons (Simmons Foods Inc.), former White House chief of staff and businessman Mack McLarty and lawyer-farmer Stanley Reed - and it doesn’t include some of the bigger businessmen we’ve profiled last year, like Home BancShares chairman Johnny Allison or E-Z Mart CEO Sonja Hubbard.
Which is an outrage!
One we’re happy to highlight here.
If you care to share your forthcoming event or point out a trend therein, write: bampezzan@arkansasonline.com
High Profile, Pages 35 on 02/02/2014