17/05/2026
Margaret E Ward: What do glass slippers, leather shoes and the world of work have in common? Too many people pretend they’re the right size.
Cinderella’s ugly stepsisters and US president Donald Trump’s officials all attempted to wear shoes that didn’t fit. Likewise, too many employees with caring responsibilities outside the workplace are painfully shoehorning their lives into work structures built for a bygone era when men worked and women kept the home fires burning.
The office, the factory floor, the Civil Service all assumed the existence of someone at home managing meals, the laundry, school runs, sick children, ageing parents and the thousand other unpaid tasks that keep a family functioning. That person was usually a woman and the economy was built on her invisible labour.
This arrangement collapsed well over a decade ago. Two incomes are not a lifestyle choice, they’re a survival strategy to pay the household bills. So why do workplace systems, structures and policies still behave as if nothing has changed?
Rigid workplace structures and increased focus on return to office mandates ignores modern reality that both parents need to work
