Hitting the "Mommy Wall"

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-19-2003
Hitting the "Mommy Wall"
1585
Mon, 10-24-2005 - 11:19am

I am surprised that this actually comes as a surprise to women trying to re-enter the workforce after taking time off to SAH. *Anyone* taking a not-so-brief hiatus from their career should expect the same treatment IMO . . . you're not going to be able to pick up right where you left off.

BTW - "hi" everyone! I've missed it here! :)

Women raise kids, lose careers

By TENISHA MERCER
THE DETROIT NEWS

Veronica Golubovic spent more than 20 years on the runways of Paris, Italy and New York as a designer for some of the most powerful names in fashion -- Yves Saint Laurent, Donna Karan and Perry Ellis.

But it was a three-year gap on her resume -- the hiatus she took after the births of her two children -- that garnered the most attention from prospective employers four years ago when Golubovic tried to resume her career.

She hasn't forgotten one recruiter's look of discomfort when she explained she was a stay-at-home mom. Or the way a top official at a retailer dismissed her during an interview with, "Oh, so now you don't know if you want to be a stay-at-home mommy."

"I came here thinking I've done so much, but it was very difficult," said Golubovic, 45, who eventually opened a designer clothing store in Birmingham, Mich., earlier this year. "I didn't think people would be hung up on it, but it was shocking and surprising. I couldn't believe their reactions."

Thirty years after women began joining the work force in large numbers, many are hitting the "mommy wall" when they try to return to work after having children.

They find it difficult -- if not impossible -- to return to the same positions they left, according to a recent study by the Forte Foundation in New York and the Wharton Center for Leadership and Change at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Unprepared for the obstacles they face on their return, many opt out of traditional corporate jobs and move to smaller companies. Experts dub the trend the "female brain drain" and say the exodus is coming just as businesses need talented, experienced workers to fill the gap as baby boomers prepare to retire en masse, leaving the biggest labor shortage in history in their wake.

"This is a defining issue for women," said Monica McGrath, an assistant professor at Wharton, who spearheaded the study. "Women who leave as vice presidents are not coming back as vice presidents. Now is not the time for corporations to squander billions of dollars in talent and enthusiasm at their fingertips. This is a talent pool that organizations need. We have a voice at the table, and I would hate to see us lose that."

The study found that half of working mothers who returned to work felt discouraged by their employer. Eighty-three percent ended up accepting a comparable or lower-level position, while 61 percent changed industries. About 45 percent of the women surveyed started their own businesses, and 59 percent went to work at smaller companies. The study is based on interviews with 200 women, most of them with MBA degrees.

The results add more fuel to the debate about whether and how women can blend careers and family. Even as women are graduating from law, business and medical schools at almost the same rates as men, they find their careers shifting in very different directions from their male colleagues once they have children.

"They want to spend time with their children, and it can be very time-consuming," said New York-based Cindy Swensen, who coaches executive women on how to return to work after having children. "Volunteering at the bake sale is probably not going to help you re-enter the work force."

It's a strange phenomenon for a generation of women who were raised to break down barriers while "having it all" -- even if that meant delaying or postponing plans to have children to focus on their careers.

"We hear very few stories of people just stepping back in where they left off," said Joanne Brundage, executive director of Mothers & More, a Chicago-area support group for working women who postpone their careers to have children.

"Clearly, there is a price to be paid for not staying full-time, full-force in most professions," Brundage said. "I think women who are becoming mothers now have a different set of priorities than women did 15 to 20 years ago. Unfortunately, the message may change, but the environment stays the same."

It's a message Cynthia Aks wasn't prepared for. The first female surgeon to graduate from the residency program at Oakland General Hospital in Madison Heights, Mich., in 1990, Aks battled her share of discrimination from colleagues who didn't care to work with women surgeons, she said.

But after Aks, an emergency room surgeon, decided to have a family in her late 30s, she found it tough to regain the solid career footing she had before her triplets were born nearly 13 years ago. Forced to take seven months off for pregnancy complications, her contract was not renewed, she said, because the hospital didn't know how to deal with a female surgeon with children.

Aks resumed her career as a specialty surgeon, but at a huge cost: Her salary plummeted 60 percent.

"The perception is that you cannot juggle multiple hats effectively," said Aks, 49, who now owns a medical practice in Southgate, Mich. "I believe it's challenging, but you can. You can have high aspirations, be successful, have a family and still be involved. It's not equal for women, and I don't think it ever will be."

Southfield, Mich.-based accounting firm Plante & Moran offers tailored work arrangements such as seasonal work, telecommuting and contract employment to retain working mothers. The firm offers the options to management only.

"We want to accommodate people and their schedules," said Bill Bufe, partner and human resources director at the accounting firm. "We've had people who wanted to leave, but we wouldn't let them. We made things much more flexible for them and allowed them to continue to keep their toe in the water here and do what they needed to do in their family."

CHANGING FOCUS WHAT WOMEN CAN DO

WHAT WOMEN CAN DO

Tips for preparing to return to work:

Create a "re-entry" plan with specific goals

Foster a network for support while away from the work force

Volunteer while away and make sure that experience can be framed in business terms when you want to go back to work

Stay connected to colleagues

Maintain professional licenses and memberships and attend continuing education courses

Take classes to refresh knowledge and skills

Stay informed about the business implications of global and economic changes in your field

Secure contract work while away

Be realistic about how long it will take to re-enter the work force

Sources: Wharton Center for Leadership and Change, the Forte Foundation

CHANGING FOCUS

A survey of women returning to work after raising families found many shifted professional roles:

Accepted comparable or lower-level job: 83 percent

Changed industries: 61 percent

Changed functional role: 54 percent

Became self-employed: 45 percent

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-1997
Sun, 10-30-2005 - 6:09pm
I dunno. But look at all the women here who are just sure they are going to be able to find one of those jobs anytime they are ready to go back to work. Some of them are likely to be quite disappointed, I think.
Avatar for mom34101
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Sun, 10-30-2005 - 6:17pm
Bingo. Some wohms are less than supportive of former sahms getting good, flexible jobs when they return to the workforce. At least you're honest.
Avatar for mom34101
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Sun, 10-30-2005 - 6:35pm
It seems to me the "reward" for continuing to woh after having kids is and should be increased salary and flexibility. Someone who stays in the workforce is going to make more money than the person who leaves and returns. In addition, someone who stays in the workforce (at least if it's the same workplace) will likely have more flexibility in a ft job. I don't understand why that isn't reward enough. If a former sahm really has better experience for a position, despite her gap in employment, I don't see why the wohm should feel she "deserves" the job over the former sahm.
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-01-2003
Sun, 10-30-2005 - 6:40pm

I completely understand the contingency role. You don't get paid until you produce. It is a commission sales job, basically. And I do know that it is fiercely competitive and the job reqs are given to x amount of companies, etc, etc. I realize all that. I also realize that there won't be 1 placement a month. There are certain times of the year that are just poor. The holidays and the summer for starters. I completely understand.

This job may not even happen; it is just in the talking stages. I am currently working selling software for a software company. I like it, but would like to make more $. However, I am in a different position than you are: I am one of those moms who is trying to get back into the work force after being out of full-time for 10 years. I have been working for the past 6-7 years, but all at unsatisfying part-time jobs. A retained search firm wouldn't hire me w/out experience, so I have to go the contingency route for experience. I'm not even sure this is the kind of work I want to do, to be honest with you. I may just decide to stay where I am.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-01-2003
Sun, 10-30-2005 - 6:45pm
Actually, I would have the option of a small salary and commission or straight commission. If I chose the salary and commission, obviously it would be a smaller commission.
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-25-2004
Sun, 10-30-2005 - 7:59pm

But what did you quit?

Nice slam of working moms there.

Sorry but working moms stick with their families too. They just don't quit their careers when they have children.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Sun, 10-30-2005 - 8:10pm
Which women? Perhaps I've missed something (I certainly have not had time to read every post on this topic), but I don't recall anyone arguing that she could easily jump back into the workforce right where she left off after having sah for a few years.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-1997
Sun, 10-30-2005 - 8:32pm
I'm thinking of YEARS of posts on this board -- quite often the argument of a MSAHM is that staying home with a preschool aged child is "only a few years" out of a career and that she plans on going right back to work during her child's school hours when her youngest is school aged. Can be done, but not as easy as some make it sound.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 10-31-2005 - 6:43am

Ok lets add in a military spouse who's dh has moved the family 6 times in under 8 years? All to different states. I know alot of women including my self who stay home until they quit moving so much because it makes finding quality daycare, a good job and all that very hard because you dont know the area. Factor in someone like myself who also had a child beaten by a daycare provider (whom I had known for over a year prior to having her watch my children) and you have a mom who hasnt worked steadly for 7 years.
(ofcorse I have also been waiting 7 years to go back to school to finish the last 2 years or so of my BS in Nursing but we have to be somewhere longer than a year for me to do that.)

Gaps can mean alot of things.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 10-31-2005 - 7:39am
It was almost an ok one, thanks for asking. I appreciate it.

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