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Post Info TOPIC: Article of the Day: Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood
Irene


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Article of the Day: Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood
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I thought some of you may find this interesting.


September 20, 2005

Many Women at Elite Colleges Set Career Path to Motherhood

By LOUISE STORY

Cynthia Liu is precisely the kind of high achiever Yale wants: smart (1510 SAT), disciplined (4.0 grade point average), competitive (finalist in Texas oratory competition), musical (pianist), athletic (runner) and altruistic (hospital volunteer). And at the start of her sophomore year at Yale, Ms. Liu is full of ambition, planning to go to law school.


So will she join the long tradition of famous Ivy League graduates? Not likely. By the time she is 30, this accomplished 19-year-old expects to be a stay-at-home mom.


"My mother's always told me you can't be the best career woman and the best mother at the same time," Ms. Liu said matter-of-factly. "You always have to choose one over the other."


At Yale and other top colleges, women are being groomed to take their place in an ever more diverse professional elite. It is almost taken for granted that, just as they make up half the students at these institutions, they will move into leadership roles on an equal basis with their male classmates.


There is just one problem with this scenario: many of these women say that is not what they want.


Many women at the nation's most elite colleges say they have already decided that they will put aside their careers in favor of raising children. Though some of these students are not planning to have children and some hope to have a family and work full time, many others, like Ms. Liu, say they will happily play a traditional female role, with motherhood their main commitment.


Much attention has been focused on career women who leave the work force to rear children. What seems to be changing is that while many women in college two or three decades ago expected to have full-time careers, their daughters, while still in college, say they have already decided to suspend or end their careers when they have children.


"At the height of the women's movement and shortly thereafter, women were much more firm in their expectation that they could somehow combine full-time work with child rearing," said Cynthia E. Russett, a professor of American history who has taught at Yale since 1967. "The women today are, in effect, turning realistic."


Dr. Russett is among more than a dozen faculty members and administrators at the most exclusive institutions who have been on campus for decades and who said in interviews that they had noticed the changing attitude.


Many students say staying home is not a shocking idea among their friends. Shannon Flynn, an 18-year-old from Guilford, Conn., who is a freshman at Harvard, says many of her girlfriends do not want to work full time.


"Most probably do feel like me, maybe even tending toward wanting to not work at all," said Ms. Flynn, who plans to work part time after having children, though she is torn because she has worked so hard in school.


"Men really aren't put in that position," she said.


Uzezi Abugo, a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania who hopes to become a lawyer, says she, too, wants to be home with her children at least until they are in school.


"I've seen the difference between kids who did have their mother stay at home and kids who didn't, and it's kind of like an obvious difference when you look at it," said Ms. Abugo, whose mother, a nurse, stayed home until Ms. Abugo was in first grade.


While the changing attitudes are difficult to quantify, the shift emerges repeatedly in interviews with Ivy League students, including 138 freshman and senior females at Yale who replied to e-mail questions sent to members of two residential colleges over the last school year.


The interviews found that 85 of the students, or roughly 60 percent, said that when they had children, they planned to cut back on work or stop working entirely. About half of those women said they planned to work part time, and about half wanted to stop work for at least a few years.


Two of the women interviewed said they expected their husbands to stay home with the children while they pursued their careers. Two others said either they or their husbands would stay home, depending on whose career was furthest along.


The women said that pursuing a rigorous college education was worth the time and money because it would help position them to work in meaningful part-time jobs when their children are young or to attain good jobs when their children leave home.


In recent years, elite colleges have emphasized the important roles they expect their alumni - both men and women - to play in society.


For example, earlier this month, Shirley M. Tilghman, the president of Princeton University, welcomed new freshmen, saying: "The goal of a Princeton education is to prepare young men and women to take up positions of leadership in the 21st century. Of course, the word 'leadership' conjures up images of presidents and C.E.O.'s, but I want to stress that my idea of a leader is much broader than that."


She listed education, medicine and engineering as other areas where students could become leaders.


In an e-mail response to a question, Dr. Tilghman added: "There is nothing inconsistent with being a leader and a stay-at-home parent. Some women (and a handful of men) whom I have known who have done this have had a powerful impact on their communities."


Yet the likelihood that so many young women plan to opt out of high-powered careers presents a conundrum.


"It really does raise this question for all of us and for the country: when we work so hard to open academics and other opportunities for women, what kind of return do we expect to get for that?" said Marlyn McGrath Lewis, director of undergraduate admissions at Harvard, who served as dean for coeducation in the late 1970's and early 1980's.


It is a complicated issue and one that most schools have not addressed. The women they are counting on to lead society are likely to marry men who will make enough money to give them a real choice about whether to be full-time mothers, unlike those women who must work out of economic necessity.


It is less than clear what universities should, or could, do about it. For one, a person's expectations at age 18 are less than perfect predictors of their life choices 10 years later. And in any case, admissions officers are not likely to ask applicants whether they plan to become stay-at-home moms.


University officials said that success meant different things to different people and that universities were trying to broaden students' minds, not simply prepare them for jobs.


"What does concern me," said Peter Salovey, the dean of Yale College, "is that so few students seem to be able to think outside the box; so few students seem to be able to imagine a life for themselves that isn't constructed along traditional gender roles."


There is, of course, nothing new about women being more likely than men to stay home to rear children.


According to a 2000 survey of Yale alumni from the classes of 1979, 1984, 1989 and 1994, conducted by the Yale Office of Institutional Research, more men from each of those classes than women said that work was their primary activity - a gap that was small among alumni in their 20's but widened as women moved into their prime child-rearing years. Among the alumni surveyed who had reached their 40's, only 56 percent of the women still worked, compared with 90 percent of the men.


A 2005 study of comparable Yale alumni classes found that the pattern had not changed. Among the alumni who had reached their early 40's, just over half said work was their primary activity, compared with 90 percent of the men. Among the women who had reached their late 40's, some said they had returned to work, but the percentage of women working was still far behind the percentage of men.


A 2001 survey of Harvard Business School graduates found that 31 percent of the women from the classes of 1981, 1985 and 1991 who answered the survey worked only part time or on contract, and another 31 percent did not work at all, levels strikingly similar to the percentages of the Yale students interviewed who predicted they would stay at home or work part time in their 30's and 40's.


What seems new is that while many of their mothers expected to have hard-charging careers, then scaled back their professional plans only after having children, the women of this generation expect their careers to take second place to child rearing.


"It never occurred to me," Rebecca W. Bushnell, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, said about working versus raising children. "Thirty years ago when I was heading out, I guess I was just taking it one step at a time."


Dr. Bushnell said young women today, in contrast, are thinking and talking about part-time or flexible work options for when they have children. "People have a heightened awareness of trying to get the right balance between work and family."


Sarah Currie, a senior at Harvard, said many of the men in her American Family class last fall approved of women's plans to stay home with their children.


"A lot of the guys were like, 'I think that's really great,' " Ms. Currie said. "One of the guys was like, 'I think that's sexy.' Staying at home with your children isn't as polarizing of an issue as I envision it is for women who are in their 30's now."


For most of the young women who responded to e-mail questions, a major factor shaping their attitudes seemed to be their experience with their own mothers, about three out of five of whom did not work at all, took several years off or worked only part time.


"My stepmom's very proud of my choice because it makes her feel more valuable," said Kellie Zesch, a Texan who graduated from the University of North Carolina two years ago and who said that once she had children, she intended to stay home for at least five years and then consider working part time. "It justified it to her, that I don't look down on her for not having a career."


Similarly, students who are committed to full-time careers, without breaks, also cited their mothers as influences. Laura Sullivan, a sophomore at Yale who wants to be a lawyer, called her mother's choice to work full time the "greatest gift."


"She showed me what it meant to be an amazing mother and maintain a career," Ms. Sullivan said.


Some of these women's mothers, who said they did not think about these issues so early in their lives, said they were surprised to hear that their college-age daughters had already formed their plans.


Emily Lechner, one of Ms. Liu's roommates, hopes to stay home a few years, then work part time as a lawyer once her children are in school.


Her mother, Carol, who once thought she would have a full-time career but gave it up when her children were born, was pleasantly surprised to hear that. "I do have this bias that the parents can do it best," she said. "I see a lot of women in their 30's who have full-time nannies, and I just question if their kids are getting the best."


For many feminists, it may come as a shock to hear how unbothered many young women at the nation's top schools are by the strictures of traditional roles.


"They are still thinking of this as a private issue; they're accepting it," said Laura Wexler, a professor of American studies and women's and gender studies at Yale. "Women have been given full-time working career opportunities and encouragement with no social changes to support it.


"I really believed 25 years ago," Dr. Wexler added, "that this would be solved by now."


Angie Ku, another of Ms. Liu's roommates who had a stay-at-home mom, talks nonchalantly about attending law or business school, having perhaps a 10-year career and then staying home with her children.


"Parents have such an influence on their children," Ms. Ku said. "I want to have that influence. Me!"


She said she did not mind if that limited her career potential.


"I'll have a career until I have two kids," she said. "It doesn't necessarily matter how far you get. It's kind of like the experience: I have tried what I wanted to do."


Ms. Ku added that she did not think it was a problem that women usually do most of the work raising kids.


"I accept things how they are," she said. "I don't mind the status quo. I don't see why I have to go against it."


After all, she added, those roles got her where she is.


"It worked so well for me," she said, "and I don't see in my life why it wouldn't work."



-- Edited by Irene at 12:19, 2005-09-20

-- Edited by Irene at 08:16, 2005-09-23

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sfclinevandy


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Wow... that's really interesting. My first thought after reading that was that some of the younger girls may aspire to be stay at home moms after college, but who's to say they'll be married and that will even be an option. I don't think they should plan on always being a stay at home because life's not always certain and that's not always economincally feasible. Plus, what are they going to do if they get a divorce?


I know that in my situation, being a stay at home mom is not something I've ever aspired to. My parents and I have invested SO much in my education... I went to a top 20 college, first tier graduate school and am now in law school. If I was to get married tomorrow and declare that I would just be a stay at home, I would be disappointing A LOT of people.



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SFC
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I understand it, as a mom and as someone who thinks education is so precious for so many reasons other than work and money. 


Some people want the best education for their love of learning and for the purpose of having the knowledge and expertise in their field, but not for the purpose of acheiving career success.


Also, if for whatever reason being a stay-at-home mom doesn't work out, then they will always have that ivy-league education nobody can ever take away.  I believe that it would provide an edge over the competition if one were forced back into the rat race after being unemployed after years of raising children.


This may be off topic, but I wonder if highly educated women wouldn't even be leaving the workforce at such a rate if US companies had better maternity/paternity benefits.  Last time I checked, our average leave time was one of the shortest and in the bottom two industrialized countries, one of those was China.



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I remember being really surprised at the number of girls in my high school who expressed interest in being stay at home moms rather than career women. It was a tiny, all-girls school where there was a really strong feminist vibe, the importance of academic excellence and future career choices were always emphasized, and I think 10 out of the 40 girls in my graduating class went to Ivy League schools. Yet a lot of my friends hoped to work for a while and then quit to have children. I think there were a number of reasons, some of which were mentioned in this article. One of them was that by the time we got to senior year a lot of girls were incredibly burned out after killing themselves for 4 years in the hopes of getting into a good college. And obviously women who get into top schools usually continue to work really hard in order to maintain a good college GPA. So it could be that the women they are talking to are sort of tired of working so that right now being a non-working mother sounds much nicer than continuing to work for the forseeable furture.
Another part of it could be that the girls in my school were trying to rebel against all the feminist pressure - "You're smart and driven and you have all these opportunities available to you now so you must take them!"


I also totally agree with lorelei's post. My parents invested tons of money in my schooling and I worked like a dog for many years yet I don't really feel like I failed to achieve or wasted my education just because I chose a field in which many of my colleagues went to community college. So I definitely wouldn't feel like I was disappointing anyone if I decided to be a stay at home mom. I wanted to go to a top school because I love academics and I wanted to be surrounded by amazing professors and smart students, not because I wanted to land an a prestigious or well-paying job. I also agree that these women will always have the Ivy League diploma if the SAHM thing doesn't work out or if they decide to enter the working world after their children are grown.

The lack of good benefits for working moms is probably a problem as well, as lorelei pointed out. It's probably discouraging a lot of young women.

-- Edited by cc at 13:08, 2005-09-20

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honey


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interesting. i think there are several underlying issues that influence the decision. i think sfc made some good points in that it's really not practical to just plan on being a stay at home mom, and even if you do have the opportunity i think it's important to pursue some interests other than child rearing -- not that it's not a valuable pursuit, but you should more than one interest, especially since at some point your kids aren't going to need much supervision and then you'll have tons of free time.


i also agree with lorelei, i honestly don't think this country takes the necessary steps to make it possible for most women to balance a career and a family, which makes choosing a family seem like the better choice.


one thing i've always wondered that never really gets brought up in these discussions is what kind of career these women envision themselves having. i've always wondered if/how much having a dream career influenced the decision. i.e. if you'd always dreamed of being a doctor would your choice be different than the choice of a woman who picked her career based on what was the best fit (does that make sense?) i would love to see the results of a study that compared those two factors.



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shopgirl82


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i expect to have it all.  my mom worked 3 twelve hour shifts a week (nights) as a nurse which is full time at the hospital.  i hardly even noticed she was gone.  it was something that she did because she wanted to be a home, but also wanted a career.  i am lucky that i can do this with my career, but it is something that i greatly planned out. 


i agree with the others, after seeing the money that my parents forked out for my education, i couldn't "waste" it.  however, i know that my parents wouldn't see me being a stay at home mother as a waste, either.  i know that for me personally, i also don't want to have to ask my husband for spending money if i were to stay at home.  these are just my thoughts, and what i want in life. 


finally something to think about...(i used it in my college essay)


“A hundred years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove…But the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.”


whether you do it while maintaining a career, as a stay at home mom, as an aunt, teacher, etc...



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Maddie


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I've totally noticed this attitude at my school and I think it's shocking. My high school friends and I talk about marriage as if it's something adults do and may or may not ever happen to us. I know a lot of people at my college who expect to graduate with an engagement ring. And I go to a top 20 liberal arts school! I think the women's rights movement is about giving women choices so that they can stay at home if they want or work, but it's just not something I can relate to at all. I'm the complete opposite, staying at home with kids sounds like my worst nightmare. It's not that I have a problem with people being stay at home moms, but I think this quote expresses my concerns...
"What does concern me," said Peter Salovey, the dean of Yale College, "is that so few students seem to be able to think outside the box; so few students seem to be able to imagine a life for themselves that isn't constructed along traditional gender roles."
Also, this reminded me of this post card from Post Secret...


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Elle


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There are some underlying, unsaid things in that article that bother me - I'm having some trouble verbalizing them, though.


I absolutely agree with Lorelei regarding the still-present obstacles of maternity leave for women in the workplace.


The tone of the article seems a little hypocritical to me.  I got from it that highly educated women leaving the workforce to raise their children is tragic.  If the equally highly educated father left the workforce to raise his children, would that be equally tragic or would that be heroic?  Selfless?


Don't we want highly educated women raising children?  And why is it that taking on raising your own children as a job/career is looked at as a failure?  As settling?  As not doing valuable work?  What if we all became nannies, and took care of other people's children, while our children were being taken care of by nannies of their own?  Would that be better since we'd all have real 'jobs'?


Wasn't the point of the feminist movement to get us to the point where women would have equal rights as men, and therefore be able to choose whatever path they wanted for their lives?  Is being a mother no longer a suitable goal?


I'm just shooting questions out into the void now, so I'll stop .



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The first school I went to was a small liberal arts college and the big joke was that all the girls went there to get their MRS degree.  It was funny b/c it was a true. 


That is an interesting article and I'm not too surprised. I've read other articles to that effect. I think it stems from a backlash against the 'I can have it all' attitude. Because, in truth, it's very hard to have it all and while some women do (and do it well), that's not the majority.  Burn out is almost inevitable b/c you can't constantly be burning the candle at both ends and expect to continue at that pace. 


I always planned on having a career and not being a mother at all.  I used to joke that I was born without a biological clock.  I've seen a bit of a shift in my feelings in the past few years. I'm no where near ready for kids, but I can see myself having them.  And the idea of being a stay-at-home mom/wife is starting have lots of appeal to me.  If I stayed at home and didn't have to worry about working for economic need, I would be able to pursue my creative and artistic endeavors without worrying about income.  And lately, when I think about that, I've been picturing myself with a little girl (if I don't have one naturally, I'll adopt one!) and doing all kinds of artistic/crafty things with her.  I think that would be great. I would have laughed if you had told me 6 years ago that those thoughts would ever cross my mind.  Maybe this has all stemmed from my job frustrations, but honestly, I think I would be so much happier doing that than struggling in a crappy job. 



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oh i just wanted to add that that's MY definition of having it all.  hopefully it works out. 



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the thing that stuck out the most to me is that only 2 students surveyed said they expected their husband to stay home with the kids and 2 more said that whoever's career was furthest along would determine who stayed home.  out of how many?  i think it was 138 surveyed?  anyways, i'm totally of the opinion that staying home with the kids is extremely important and has a major impact on who they become.  however, my plan is to marry a guy who is open to staying home with the kids should my career have the higher income.  in fact, i would prefer the guy stay home.  i'm not a "homemaker" type... i hate to cook, clean, etc. and would much prefer to go to work and come home to home cooked meals, clean house, and well taken care of children.  of course, i should mention that my dad stayed home with us and i loved it!

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I have to agree with LMonet that it seems that they are concerned with the trend. I deal with this issue on a nearly daily basis, not the mother part, but the choice part. I got a degree & worked up the corporate ladder very quickly. When I got laid off over a year ago, my husband & I made the decision for me to stay home & decide what I wanted to do. I still don't know & we are both ok with that - he makes enough money that we can make that decision. But I feel the pressure from most people around me that I should be working - I am writing, learning to paint, knitting, working on my house, cooking,generally enjoying life & I think that is my right as an educated woman! I also hear comments on a constant basis like from my mother that I should go back to work because I am "wasting my brain" - so insulting! I encounter lots of non-working educated women who are lucky enough (or like in my case make certain sacrifices - or both) to stay home & be domestic who all say the same thing. I have a big issue with identity or value being tied to a title, as I found out when I no longer had the title & have become much more true to myself as a result. (off topic, but still in the same realm)

I was raised to get an education & be able to provide for myself. I am & I did, but I don't have to & shouldn't be looked down upon because others feel that it's a waste. And I surely feel that if women would rather be a stay at home mom then that should be applauded. It's one of the hardest jobs in the world - what do the studies say? That stay at home moms work the equivalent of 2 - 40 hour a week jobs. I believe it!!!!!



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I find that article very interesting and I can see what these women are talking about.  My mom didn't work until I was in Junior high which was when my youngest brother started school full time.  I loved that my mom could chaperone field trips and that she volunteered on the playground at lunch time.  I also see how far behind my mom is in her career though and it really upsets me because I wonder how far she could be if she would have been working all of that time.  She doesn't regret a bit of it though.  She said she wouldn't have changed a thing.


That being said, I know that if G and I ever have a child that I will still work even if it is part time.  We are both used to a specific lifestyle and we know that we wouldn't be able to continue it and care for a child if I didn't contribute at all.  Good example: my boss makes about $94K and his wife doesn't work, she stays at home w/ their adorable 2 year old.  I was telling G that they were going to start to try to have another baby and I couldn't believe that they thought that $94K was enough to support 2 adults and 2 kids.  G put it in perspective: It is enough if you don't wear designer jeans (which we are both guilty of) and drive a sports car (he is guilty of that one).   That made sense to me.  He makes REALLY good money, but I don't know if it would be enough for us because of our lifestyle, which we will not compromise to have a child.  You know my child would have to be sporting Juicy sweatsuits and what not. 



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I'm torn on this issue. And please take anything I say as me trying to work out my thoughts on this subject.


I'm disturbed by the comment in the article where the girl says, "I don't mind the status quo." A guy in my office had a baby in December. We sat around at our Thanksgiving "luncheon" while everyone asked him if his wife was going to stay home with the baby. I merely mentioned how it was odd no one was asking the guy if he planned on doing the same.


And statistics show that women still do most of the kid-related stuff.


So what does this mean? Does it mean this is the natural way it's supposed to be? Does it mean women are fine with the "status quo"? Does it mean men don't view parenting as an equal responsibility job? What's the deal? I don't know the answer but it bothers me.


I don't know if I'll ever have kids but I'll tell you one thing. After 9 months of having swollen ankles, an ever-increasing waistline, and something growing inside of me, the baby's father is going to have a hell of a lot to make up for in the next 9 months. I'll be the one sleeping through the night because, damnit, he owes me! Fair's fair.


I'll also say this: My SIL stays home with the kids. I don't respect her for it. It's not that I don't respect stay-at-home moms because I do. I think it's a valid and praiseworthy choice, but I don't respect her decision. She never finished college and shows no desire to receive any kind of education. She doesn't read books or watch the news (and she actually told me she couldn't force my nephews to read a book because she never does). My youngest nephew is so badly socialized that he can't be away from her for 5 seconds even though he's 5 years old. My niece (she's 1) is beginning to be the same way. Basically I'm convinced my nephews and nieces are growing up to be maladjusted idiots and it irritates the f**k out of me. And I know it's wrong to pass judgment on her (and trust me, I feel the same way about my brother too), especially as a fellow woman but I can't help it.


So when I hear women say they want to have kids and a family and stay home with them, in the back of my mind, is my SIL and brother and I know what damage they're doing. Anyway, I don't know what point I'm trying to make here, but I'm really honestly confused by this issue. I don't have any clear grasp of what it means to be a woman and have to choose between a family and a career. It's hard, isn't it?



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"They are still thinking of this as a private issue; they're accepting it," said Laura Wexler, a professor of American studies and women's and gender studies at Yale. "Women have been given full-time working career opportunities and encouragement with no social changes to support it. "I really believed 25 years ago," Dr. Wexler added, "that this would be solved by now."

This is the point that is most telling, for me.  Women have been given "permission" and opprtunities to choose interesting and varied careers, even in fields that were traditionally dominated by men.  But their freedom to choose these careers is hampered by the fact that they get absolutely no support in terms of societal attitudes, which really haven't changed that much since the 1950s.  The piece that is missing is the social change that seems like it should have happened by now--that women and men could all freely choose whether to have high-flying careers or to stay at home with their families without stigma.  The fact that women feel the need to choose between having a career and being a stay-at-home-mom and men do not clearly points to the fact that we are still not "equal."  I think we've come a long way, but it's just a fact of our American way of life that women have to make choices that men don't, no matter how you feel about that. 



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Irene


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Working mother has their 2005 list of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers. the company I work for, Citigroup, is listed.


"You could say that 2004 was the year of the woman at Citigroup. Almost a third of senior managers hired by the firm were female, Sallie Krawcheck took the CFO reins, and a second woman was added to the company’s board of directors. In addition, more than 2,600 women received management and leadership training. Citigroup’s sixth Women’s Council was launched to find ways to retain and increase the number of mid- to senior-level females. Three new women’s networking groups were added in 2004, giving more women opportunities for professional development.

Citigroup moms and dads can make use of seven on-site full-time and three backup-care facilities, most of which offer sliding-scale fees and free overtime. And 10% discounts at national day-care chains are available to all U.S. employees. As for maternity leave, Citigroup gives a generous 13 paid weeks off, a benefit that was standardized for all business units in 2004. When moms return, if management approves, they can phase back into their jobs and flex their hours or work from home.

WHAT’S COOL: The perks. There’s tuition reimbursement, college scholarships for employee kids (typical value: $7,485) and six free hours of elder-care consultations. "




Here are the Top Ten:






BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB COMPANY

Edda Guerrero, president and general manager of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean

Bristol-Myers Squibb, the pharmaceuticals giant, works with employees to find solutions for their special situations, according to Edda. An employee for nine years, she appreciates the company’s emphasis on developing people with diverse backgrounds like herself. A formal mentoring program, for instance, allowed her to be mentored by one of the company’s most senior executives. Such efforts prove, says Edda, that “diversity is truly a business issue here.”



ELI LILLY AND COMPANY

Cathy Kennedy, executive director of human resources

When Cathy had to dash out of the office one day to take her daughter to the doctor, her staff at this major pharmaceuticals company took note—and realized it was okay for them to put family first as well. “It was leading by example,” she observes. “After that, they knew they could do it, too.” Formal programs like flextime are critical to employee morale, and Eli Lilly has them to offer. Its culture gives people the freedom to figure out how to achieve their own version of work/family balance. “It’s all about personal accountability,” Cathy concludes.


GENERAL MILLS

Chris Shea, senior VP of external relations and president of the General Mills Foundation

What’s kept Chris at General Mills, the global manufacturer of packaged foods, for 28 years? The company cares about its employees. “It understands that it’s not just your work half that shows up at the office,” says Chris. She learned this personally when, for four years, she took a combination of full- and part-time off to care for her children.
When Chris was ready to come back, the company was waiting. As an executive, she now reports directly to CEO Steve Sanger.



HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY

Emily Duncan, VP of culture and diversity

Emily has seen the future and sums it up in a word: flexibility. As aging baby boomers demand alternative ways to work, companies will have to think more broadly about what flex means. HP, a global IT firm, is perfectly positioned for this, she says, because it strongly supports flexibility. Many HP emplyees are already on flexible work schedules, and the company is always searching for new options that meet theirs needs "That's part of our culture," says Emily. "It's all about creating a workplace that gives employees the tools and resources to work to their best potential."


IBM

Mark Loughridge, senior VP and chief financial officer

IBM, the global developer and manufacturer of industrial and consumer technology, has been on our 100 Best for 20 years straight. And it continues to look for ways to give employees more control of how, when and where their work gets done. “We view work/life programs as tools to achieve business results, not as barriers or obligations we must provide,” Mark says. IBM programs assist employees at every stage of life, as he himself knows well. A father of six, Mark tapped IBM’s college-planning materials for his teenagers.




JFK MEDICAL CENTER

Gina Melby, CEO

When Gina became CEO of JFK Medical Center last year, she told her staff that they could send her emails with suggestions about work/life benefits anytime they wanted. An employee advisory group and regular town-hall meetings also help drive the hospital’s work/life strategy. “There’s definitely a grassroots effort to figure out what we can do better,” says Gina, a mother of three. Developing homegrown talent is another item on her agenda, and so far, so good: Last year, 72 percent of approximately 200 promotions at JFK went to women.



PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP

Chris Simmons, chief diversity officer

Chris has changed course several times since joining PricewaterhouseCoopers, the global accounting firm, more than a decade ago. “We don’t pigeonhole people,” he says. “We talk about roles, not jobs or positions, and encourage them to think about other roles they might try.” PwC is also serious about the importance of vacations, and this year it implemented a strategy to ensure that employees get time off. Chris helps to set the standard: When he took some R&R last summer, he left his BlackBerry behind.



PRUDENTIAL FINANCIAL

Sharon Taylor, senior VP of corporate human resources and community resources

Prudential Financial, the insurance and financial services provider, surveys its employees regularly about work/life issues. As a result of a survey last year, the company learned that many workers had elder-care needs that weren’t being fully met. In response, Prudential broadened its backup-care program to include both children and aging relatives. “Our associates appreciate choice, flexibility and good value,” says Sharon. “We listen to them to get a sense of what they prize most.”




S. C. JOHNSON & SON

Kelly Semrau, VP of global public affairs and communication

Name a work/life benefit at SC Johnson, the manufacturer of household products, and Kelly probably uses it. She consults the company’s in-house doctor about treatments her mom is facing for lung cancer. Her kids, ages 5 and 2, attend the on-site child-care center. And if she’s out of milk at home, a dash to the company store saves the day. “The company has families like mine all figured out,” she says. ”It helps parents like me to thrive.” Moms aren’t the only ones benefiting, either. In recent months, two new dads on Kelly’s staff have taken paid paternity leave.



SCHERING-PLOUGH CORPORATION

Catherine Strader, executive VP of discovery research at its Research Institute

Catherine says new moms at Schering-Plough, the pharmaceuticals developer and manufacturer, take advantage of all the maternity leave they’re entitled to, without being nudged to do so. She joined Schering-Plough ten years ago, when her youngest child was 3, and she quickly recognized the company’s vast work/life benefits and commitment to helping employees balance work and family. “People tend to stay here for their entire careers,” she says.





Here is the full list:


ABBOTT, Abbott Park, IL
ACCENTURE, New York, NY
ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY, Northbrook, IL
AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY, New York, NY
AMERITAS ACACIA COMPANIES, Lincoln, NE
ARNOLD & PORTER LLP, Washington, DC
ASTRAZENECA, Wilmington, DE
AVON PRODUCTS, INC., New York, NY
BANK OF AMERICA, Charlotte, NC
BAPTIST HEALTH SOUTH FLORIDA, Coral Gables, FL
BAYER CORPORATION, Pittsburgh, PA
BAYFRONT HEALTH SYSTEM, St. Petersburg, FL
BON SECOURS RICHMOND HEALTH SYSTEM, Richmond, VA
BOOZ ALLEN HAMILTON, McLean, VA
BP AMERICA INC., Warrenville, IL
BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB COMPANY, New York, NY
BRONSON HEALTHCARE GROUP, Kalamazoo, MI
CHILDREN’S HEALTHCARE OF ATLANTA, Atlanta, GA
CHILDREN’S MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, Chicago, IL
CINERGY CORP., Cincinnati, OH
CISCO SYSTEMS, INC., San Jose, CA
CITIGROUP, New York, NY
THE CLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATION, Cleveland, OH
COLGATE-PALMOLIVE COMPANY, New York, NY
CREDIT SUISSE FIRST BOSTON LLC, New York, NY
DELOITTE & TOUCHE USA LLP, New York, NY
DEUTSCHE BANK, New York, NY
DISCOVERY COMMUNICATIONS, INC., Silver Spring, MD
DOW CORNING CORPORATION, Midland, MI
DUPONT, Wilmington, DE
ELI LILLY AND COMPANY, Indianapolis, IN
ERNST & YOUNG, LLP, New York, NY
FANNIE MAE, Washington, DC
FIRST HORIZON NATIONAL CORPORATION, Memphis, TN
FIRST NATIONAL BANK, Omaha, NE
FORD MOTOR COMPANY, Dearborn, MI
FREDDIE MAC, McLean, VA
GENENTECH, South San Francisco, CA
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, Fairfield, CT
GENERAL MILLS, Minneapolis, MN
GENERAL MOTORS, Detroit, MI
GLAXOSMITHKLINE, Philadelphia, PA
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Cambridge, MA
HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY, Palo Alto, CA
HSBC-NORTH AMERICA, Prospect Heights, IL
IBM CORPORATION, Armonk, NY
IKEA, Plymouth Meeting, PA
INOVA HEALTH SYSTEM, Falls Church, VA
INTEL CORPORATION, Santa Clara, CA
JFK MEDICAL CENTER, Atlantis, FL
JOHNSON & JOHNSON, New Brunswick, NJ
JPMORGAN CHASE, New York, NY
KING’S DAUGHTERS MEDICAL CENTER, Ashland, KY
KPMG LLP, New York, NY
LEGO SYSTEMS, INC., Enfield, CT
LEHMAN BROTHERS, New York, NY
LINCOLN FINANCIAL GROUP, Philadelphia, PA
MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, INC., Washington, DC
MASSACHUSETTS MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Springfield, MA
MBNA AMERICA BANK, N.A., Wilmington, DE
THE McGRAW-HILL COMPANIES, New York, NY
MERCK & CO., INC., Whitehouse Station, NJ
METLIFE, INC., Long Island City, NY
MICROSOFT CORPORATION, Redmond, WA
MORGAN STANLEY, New York, NY
MOTOROLA INC, Schaumburg, IL
NORTHERN TRUST CORPORATION, Chicago, IL
NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL HEALTHCARE, Chicago, IL
NOVARTIS PHARMACEUTICALS CORP., East Hanover, NJ
PATAGONIA, INC., Ventura, CA
PEARSON EDUCATION, Upper Saddle River, NJ
PFIZER INC., New York, NY
THE PHOENIX COMPANIES, INC., Hartford, CT
PITT COUNTY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, Greenville, NC
PNC FINANCIAL SERVICES GROUP, INC., Pittsburgh, PA
PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP, New York, NY
PRINCIPAL FINANCIAL GROUP, Des Moines, IA
THE PROCTER & GAMBLE COMPANY, Cincinnati, OH
PROVIDENCE ALASKA MEDICAL CENTER, Anchorage, AK
PRUDENTIAL FINANCIAL, Newark, NJ
REPUBLIC BANCORP, INC., Owosso, MI
S.C. JOHNSON & SON, INC., Racine, WI
ST. MARY’S MEDICAL CENTER, Huntington, WV
SCHERING-PLOUGH, Kenilworth, NJ
SCRIPPS HEALTH, San Diego, CA
SHAWNEE MISSION MEDICAL CENTER, Shawnee Mission, KS
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED, Dallas, TX
THE TIMBERLAND COMPANY, Stratham, NH
TRIHEALTH, Cincinnati, OH
TURNER BROADCASTING SYSTEM, INC., Atlanta, GA
UBS, New York, NY
UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD, Omaha, NE
USAA, San Antonio, TX
VERIZON WIRELESS, Bedminster, NJ
VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY HEALTH SYSTEM, Richmond, VA
WACHOVIA CORPORATION, Charlotte, NC
WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS, Morgantown, WV
WYETH, Madison, NJ
YALE-NEW HAVEN HOSPITAL, New Haven, CT
ZURICH IN NORTH AMERICA, Schaumberg, IL



-- Edited by Irene at 15:30, 2005-09-21

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Andrea Julia


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My company is on that list, too.  They do have some great perks for families, but I still think it would be difficult to work here and have a child.

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halleybird


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Here's an interesting commentary on that article, and about "how many" women we're talking about. http://www.slate.com/id/2126636/?nav=fo


On a related note, our school's broadcast news program did a profile on one of our "top juniors." When they asked her career aspirations, she said "Housewife." Interesting...I wondered if shows like Desperate Housewives are changing the way young women look at their futures.



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honey


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halleybird wrote:

Here's an interesting commentary on that article, and about "how many" women we're talking about. http://www.slate.com/id/2126636/?nav=fo On a related note, our school's broadcast news program did a profile on one of our "top juniors." When they asked her career aspirations, she said "Housewife." Interesting...I wondered if shows like Desperate Housewives are changing the way young women look at their futures.
interesting article, thanks for posting. imo i think the change (if any) can be attributed to the fact that most people find their jobs less than fulfilling. so if presented with the option of staying home with the kids, or continuing to work, a lot of women would pick the former b/c it at seems to offer more personal fulfillment. as i said in my earlier response i would love to see a survey of stahm and working mothers that included information on their overall happiness with their career choices, particularly comparing the # of women who had specific career goals like wanting to be a pediatrician or a flight attendant with women who had more general career goals. not that stahms don't have career goals, but my gut feeling is that women who are passionate about what they want to do/currently do would be less likely to be stahms. but i could be wrong.

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sephorablue


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lorelei wrote:


This may be off topic, but I wonder if highly educated women wouldn't even be leaving the workforce at such a rate if US companies had better maternity/paternity benefits.  Last time I checked, our average leave time was one of the shortest and in the bottom two industrialized countries, one of those was China.


SO TRUE!!! I'm not even a parent and I get pissed off about this. My friend actually emailed me this article today, and we were agreeing that we would both like to work part time and/or from home, but that it really depended on where we were working at the time. Some companies, and some industries, are more flexible than others.


I also suspect it has a fair amount to do with the kind of work schedule that is the norm in many professions. Maybe it wasn't so hard if you were strictly 9-5, but if you're a lawyer or a doctor or any number of other fields with demanding hours, FORGET it. You NEVER see those children.


I actually wrote a paper that partially addressed this issue in college, and one of the sources I used in my research was a study of a selective group of mothers in NYC who worked full-time. Essentially what the author found was that these women were only able to work full-time and still spend time with their children because they had a great deal of money to pay for an extensive support network--not just nannies, but housekeepers, delivery food so they didn't spend time cooking, laundry/dry cleaning services, etc.



-- Edited by sephorablue at 21:16, 2005-09-21

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