Welcome to Reconcile Digest #19. I’m so glad you’re here.

This week, we delve into popular culture discourse for a second. Only for a second, because the conversation currently all over social media stems from comments Emma Grede made about WFH and women. We delve in, then delve straight back out & into the research to understand what the evidence says about this contentious topic.

The controversial spoiler that I hope you were expecting to hear: the research won’t settle this debate in full.

Agree or disagree?

To understand ‘what works for women‘ is to understand what works for you; your positionality, your circumstances, the political and economic climate around you, what you are hoping to achieve etc, etc. What Emma says and what the research says might give you a place to start, but you have to finish with your own conclusions (!!).

There’s a lot going on in this digest:

Some quotes directly from Emma Grede to set the scene
A deep dive into 5 different research papers that either disagree or agree with the statement: ‘WFH culture is a career killer for women’
Some reflective prompts to help you decide what the research means for you
A list of 6 critical questions that address the nuance missed by Emma and the public chatter (if you’re short on time, skip to this bit)
Some beautiful visuals to accompany the digest, credited to Tschabalala Self, a boundary-defying artist disrupting the vision of what a ‘woman’ is. An artist after our own heart.