Women Want Jobs That Give Them Choices
 
I’ve been hearing a lot lately about career women dropping out when they have children. The Washington Post has told us that there are only 147,000 stay at home dads in the entire U.S. I certainly understand how women feel about the paucity of choices available to them when they have a baby. I know many women would love to find a company that would offer them the following options:
 
A sabbatical of 1 to 5 years to start a family
 
A flex-time arrangement when they return
 
A choice to work from home part of each week
 
Guess what? There’s a company that now offers all of the above! Women, run to it! It’s Deloitte & Touche. And run to IBM, Ernst & Young, and maybe General Electric (soon, but not quite yet). And if you’re not working for a forward-thinking company, show them the models they should be emulating. They won’t have to reinvent the wheel—they can follow the leaders.
 
And let’s not leave Daddies out of this—they should get the same options. Our children will be better off than previous generations if Dads could be generous with their time as well. And you know what? Surveys show young men are placing family time higher up there on the priority list than ever before!
 
I say what’s best for a woman is letting her have choices. If she wants to stay active in her career and raise a family, this should be possible. After all, a prospective mother should look at the statistics and realize she may, at some time, be in the 50% of women who are divorced and are looking for ways to support themselves as well as their children.
 
 
Tip:  Collect information on forward-thinking companies and make a practice of letting others know. Here’s a start, the top 10 companies for working mothers determined by Working Mother magazine:
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Discovery Communications
Eli Lily
IBM
Johnson & Johnson
J.P. Morgan Chase
PricewaterhouseCoopers
S.C. Johnson & Son
AFLAC
Wachovia
 
Look below to see the top 100 companies and send in your resume, pronto!
 
 
Further Reading:
 
 
Website, WomensMedia, by Catalyst, Building a Flexible Workplace
 
Website, Working Mother magazine’s Top 100 Companies for Working Mothers
 
 
Website, WashingtonPost.com, Amy Joyce, More Fathers Figure on Family Time
 
Website, USA Today, Stephanie Armour, Moms Find it Easier to Pop Back into the Workforce
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Tags: business, women, mothers