Women are working and earning more than ever, and men are redefining masculinity, so the stalled gender revolution can begin again, Stanford fellows held Thursday night at a lecture on gender equality. 

The lecture, “Switch Hitting: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power is Changing Men and Fatherhood,” is the second in the winter 2011 series about surpassing the stalled revolution of gender equality. Knight fellows Christine Larson and Jeremy Adam Smith compared the movement of women into the public sphere and men into the home sphere, finding a re-ignition of the gender revolution.

The switch-hitting analogy refers to baseball batters who benefit their teams by hitting right-handed or left-handed depending on who is pitching on the opposing team.

Both Larson and Smith agree that parents who can be either breadwinners or caregivers are greater assets to their families than those who play only single traditional roles.

Larson cited money as the driving force behind women’s increasing participation in the workplace. She pointed out that in 2009, women accounted for more than 50 percent of the workforce. She quoted a 2006 article in The Economist, which stated that “women have contributed more to global GDP growth than new technology or the new giants, China and India.”

In 1970, only 6 percent of family income was brought home by women; by 2008, that portion had risen to 44 percent.

The number of women earning $100,000 or more soared to 2.5 million in 2005 from only half a million in 1995. Another astonishing statistic Larson revealed is that female CEOs of major corporations averaged $14 million while their male counterparts earned $10 million. She cited a study that showed that Fortune 500 companies with more women board members had 50 percent greater return on equity.

The stalled revolution can start moving again, Larson said, because women are now better educated and capable of shifting to knowledge-based and service-based economies. Their talents are likely to be highly valued, as retiring baby boomers in management positions need to be replaced.

Larson is the co-author of Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Change Our World for the Better. 

Smith spoke from his own experience of growing up in a traditional family ,where his father and grandfather were sole breadwinners and wouldn’t ever consider being stay-at-home dads. Unlike much more mobile men today, they tended to stay in the same job for decades. Smith, on the other hand, took a year off from work to take care of his son while his wife went to work.

Smith now sees a trend of men doing more housework and child caring than ever before. The need for mothers to work outside the home is driving this trend. Specialization, he says, “has given way to new trends of redundancy and resilience.” Nevertheless, stay-at-home moms outnumber stay-at-home dads, 25 to one.

In the U.S., men have been reluctant to take advantage of the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), because it is unpaid. Smith indicated that men generally prefer to take paid sick time and vacation and have not been active in pursuing their rights under the law.

California’s Paid Family Leave (PFL) has seen steady growth since its inception in 2004. It has not impacted the business operations of most employers who were surveyed about it. Yet, 17 percent of workers surveyed said they avoided taking PFL out of fear of retaliation.

Smith finds that men are pulling other men toward the new roles and constructing a new kind of masculinity. He recommends dadlabs.com as a great resource for empowering today’s fathers.

Smith is the author of The Daddy Shift: How Stay-at-Home Dads, Breadwinning Moms, and Shared Parenting Are Transforming the American Family.

Last week's series opening lecture of the Clayman Institute’s Winter 2011 Event Series featured Paula England, who spoke about reasons the gender revolution has stalled. In the next lecture, Mariko Chang will speak on “Shortchanged: Why Women Have Less Wealth and What Can Be Done About It” on Feb. 4 at noon in Levinthal Hall at the Stanford Humanities Center, 424 Santa Teresa St.