Double Standards For Men And Women
March 27th, 2006
Please see: Is She Too Strong? Too Pushy?
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Sequencing Moms
March 25th, 2006
The Case For Hiring Mommies
Sequencing moms—women who are returning to the workforce after having children—have career experience and proven skills that makes them attractive to employers. Money comes into the equation as well: It costs a bundle to lose an employee, recruit a new one, and train that new one.
Major employers are creating new programs to entice their pre-mommies to decide against a permanent exit. Deloitte & Touche is one of the front-runners with their new program that allows qualified employees to take up to 5 years off to tend to personal goals. This is not just for women—men can opt for it as well. The employee uses company resources and a mentor to stay skilled and informed. She can also ask for temporary paid assignments with the company. Having a program like this is a great recruitment tool for those pre-mommies.
The case for hiring mommies gets even better. According to Scientific American, once a woman has a child she becomes smarter—and this new smartness lasts into old age! Research by Craig Howard Kinsley and Kelly G. Lambert indicates that the dramatic hormonal fluctuations that occur during pregnancy, birth and lactation may remodel the female brain, increasing the size of neurons in some regions and producing structural changes in others. And if multitasking is necessary in your business, remember this: “Mother rats nearly always beat virgins in competitions that involve multitasking.” That’d be good on a bumper sticker.
An increasing number of today’s young mothers say they expect to return to work. About 84% of Generation X stay-at-home moms are considering returning to work, according to Boston-based marketing strategy and research firm Reach Advisors. That compares with 57% of baby boomers who have the same intentions.
Companies are also allowing more flex-time and part-time arrangements to retain valuable employees. USA Today reports that IBM offers a program that allows employees to take up to three years off. Typically, working mothers who use the program take a year or more off, and then they use the remainder of their leave to re-enter work on a part-time basis. After the three years are up, they have the option of returning either full or part time. IBM surveyed employees who had taken the leave and found 59% would have left the company if the program hadn’t been available.
Tip: My tip for this week is to take a look at Working Mother’s 100 Best Companies for 2005. If you’re not satisfied with your current company, consider one of these. And even if you’re happy with your company, spread the word about the great new programs these winners have for working mothers. It’s this type of buzz that will get the ball rolling in the right direction—for families.
Further Reading:
L A Times, by Molly Selvin, This Mommy Track May Go Somewhere - Some companies offer a chance to advance on a schedule that allows more time at home.
WomensMedia.com Site: Negotiating Work/Family Issues, by Deborah M. Kolb, Judith Williams, and Carol Frohlinger
Scientific American, January 2006, “The Maternal Brain” by Craig Howard Kinsley and Kelly G. Lambert
Working Mother 100 Best Companies for 2005
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Negotiation for Women 1-A
March 22nd, 2006
We Women Are Smart—We Can Learn To Ask
Do you know how far behind men we are when it comes to negotiating? A big part of the problem is that men ask for things eight times more often than women. I know, I know, you’re thinking, “It’s not nice to negotiate.” Somehow we women have been brought up to believe that we shouldn’t ask for things for ourselves. We should look out for others. And because we’ve bought into this idea, we feel GUILT when we do ask. You know the saying: Show me a woman who doesn’t feel guilt, and I’ll show you a man.
This problem is all wrapped up in gender. How does it play out in the workplace? A woman starts out making less than a man on her first job—as I discussed in my Feb. 22, 2006 blog posting. A man asks for more than was initially offered and treats this activity like a game. When he’s shot down in the last round, he doesn’t take it personally as a blow to his ego. Because we women are avoiding this game, we start out 15 percent lower!
Tip: Take a step in the right direction: Ask for something you want. It doesn’t have to be money. It can be paid attendance at a conference, a change in your office environment, a change in your job description, or something else that will make a difference to you. Phrase it in a way that points to the benefit your company will receive from your new knowledge, contacts, ability to work more efficiently, etc. And don’t balk at this one—because you’re a woman you may have to ask three times before you get what you want. Don’t back down or minimize your request at the first or second strike.
Further Reading:
WomensMedia: Learning to Ask
Institute for Women’s Policy Research
Interesting Stats http://www.womendontask.com/stats.html
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Men and Women: Can We Talk About Differences?
March 9th, 2006
What Happens To Women When Companies Use The Male Business Model?
My mission is to do whatever I can to help close the gap between men and women in the workplace. I look forward to the day when we can look at occupations, salaries, and rates of promotion and see the same numbers for women as we see for men. In future postings, I’ll cover each of these topics and give you the latest numbers. Today, these numbers are nowhere near equal.
When I graduated from Berkeley, I adamantly declared that there were no differences between men and women. Different meant to me that women were less capable than men. Different meant women would not be welcomed in the scientific world that I was aiming for. But that was ages ago and I’ve seen the folly of maintaining this stance.
No one gender has a monopoly on traits. That said, let’s talk about general differences between men and women that we see in the workplace. Women—most women—are comfortable with certain behaviors. I like to think these are good traits—and those attributed to men are also good traits.
The traits or talents most often attributed to women are: relationship building, collaboration, win/win negotiation, holistic thinking, use of intuition, adaptation to change, empathy, information sharing, ease in working outside a hierarchy, emotional sensitivity, use of power as influence rather than rank, ability to read subliminal clues, concern with process, multi-thinking and multitasking, ability to improvise, comfort with ambiguity, long-term planning, and linking rather than ranking workers.
Unfortunately, most companies are set up along the male business model. Women are trying so hard to act according to that model. This limits how effective they can be. Can you imagine asking men to act more like women? That’d go over real well!
Tip: Let’s do something to help women. When others are trying to make everyone conform to a command-and-control style of leadership, talk about the advantages of allowing work outside of a hierarchy. When turf wars erupt, discuss the benefits of information-sharing. When it’s mentioned that emotions don’t belong in business, speak up that sales and employee loyalty are secured through emotions.
Further Reading:
The Differences Between Men and Women
Nancy Clark interviews Martha Barletta
America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers
by Judy B. Rosener
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