Restructured Families: Issues of Equality and Need

The families of gay employees have recently come onto the corporate radar screen. The needs they have in common with the families of straight employees can foster connection. There are also tensions between gay and straight employees about the meanings of family, deeply rooted in the culture outside the workplace and some times so provocative that they appear only in indirect allusions. The case of a corporate redesign of benefits surfaces both the language of these commonalities and tensions and the underlying principles of equality versus need. Providing equal benefits for all families has the advantage of honoring equally the many ways the employees define a family, but the disadvantage of creating inequalities across families of different sizes and types. A need-based distribution has the advantage of respecting differences, but the disadvantage of requiring a way to evaluate and rank relative needs, which heightens tensions. The authors discuss how these trade-offs are voiced and played out.