Hitting the "Mommy Wall"
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| 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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Even worse-working for *extras* rather than dire need!!!
dj
Dj
"Now when I need help, I look in the mirror" ~Kanye West~
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"How exactly do you treat them differently from the people who don't work ft?"
I posted on this previously.
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I can share.
PumpkinAngel
Supportive as in it's okay to work pt or be less ambitious for awhile. Supportive in terms of understanding that somebody like that might want more *someday* and shouldn't necessarily be pigeon-holed as "less career-oriented" because they made different choices than you did. Supportive as in weighing their experience against somebody else's rather than just looking at their pt history. I'm not saying we're all the same regardless of the choices we've made--not sure where you're getting that--but simply saying that you look at people's qualifications without judging their choices. What difference does it make if someone took some time off, if they have the best experience for the job?
Of course I would never have taken six years off if I wanted to continue practicing law. It would have been very difficult (impossible, probably) to compete against attorneys whose skills were more current. That's because they would have better experience than I do. But there were more than 100 applicants for my current job, so I was mostly competing against people who hadn't left the workforce. I still got the job over them because I had better experience for this job. My boss didn't penalize me for having sah, nor did I start out at less money than anybody else starting in this position. That's what I'm talking about.
Heaven forbid.
PumpkinAngel
Because of course those hours from 8-5 are the most important, you know?
We really really need a rolling eye icon.
PumpkinAngel
I was debating the statement that money is the only way to provide children with food and a roof. I was providing supporting information to show why in my relationship with my dh, his ability to get a job for a substantial salary does not trump my contributions, resources, and potential, and that just because he makes the money in our family, he does not get to make (big family) decisions without my input. I don't need to debate braces and vacations and education to make my point, as they don't have anything to do with it.
If you want to value people for how much money they earn or can possibly earn or how far along they are on the corporate ladder, I guess that's your business. I'm not married to you. I'm married to a guy who values what I bring to the family (who not only knows why I don't have a 200K a year position--he contributed to the decision that I not pursue the path that leads to such a position.)
And for all the fun you are making of people with "survival skills" or ways to provide food and shelter without having 200K a year salaries, there are parts of the country (and obviously the world) where resources/skills such as I mentioned before are far more valuable than a professional skillset that commands 200K in the big city. So the whole debate is skewed towards someone's idealized version of an upper middle class, somewhat urban lifestyle where people always rely on others for their nutritional and shelter needs.
I didn't realize you were the employer. I don't see any problem with treating people differently that way. But the workplace fluidity that I'd like to see offers people the option of changing gears, *if they want to.*
So you really think most women who work pt will do so for the rest of their lives, even when the kids are grown and gone?
If this woman's husband is gone a lot and without much notice, and she does most of the childcare herself, why would it be unusual that working pt gives her more balance? Sounds like she has more to do at home than you do.
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