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: 03-28-2003
Thu, 11-03-2005 - 8:03am

I came here to contribute to the debate that gaps in employment don't have to reflect negatively on a potential employee, in certain fields. You personally attacked me as to whether or not I would know enough about a career field to be able to say that. In the process of trying to discredit me, you mentioned an old debate in which I was trying to debate the sentence that "money is the only way to provide children with food and a roof," one in which I spoke of resourcefulness and resiliency and creativity. (According to PJM, people don't really believe that money is the only way to provide children with food and roof so I don't need to debate that.)

I didn't come here to debate subsistence farming versus WOH. I didn't provide a position about subsistence farming to be debated. I came here to say that gaps in employment don't have to reflect negatively on a potential employee, in certain fields. You need to go somewhere else to debate subsistence farming versus WOH. If you didn't understand why I was referring to a person's resourcefulness and resiliency and creativity in a previous thread from a long time ago, then I can't help you.

You can continue to call me a militant SAHM, you can continue to assess me as having a lack of regard for those who work, you can try to belittle me for once having mentioned that my sister is raising a steer, and so forth. I can't really do anything about that, I suppose. But I can disengage from a debate with a person who seems bent on a smear campaign, who has such little understanding of me and my philosophies, whose whole purpose of coming here is to continue is some sort of twisted grudgematch. And so I will.

Have a nice day.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-1997
Thu, 11-03-2005 - 8:05am
Very classy post, Suzy.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 11-03-2005 - 8:11am
No, of course not.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 11-03-2005 - 8:16am

"I'd still like to hear your explanation as to why your commitment to work is greater than someone who works fewer hours, but someone who spends more time with their children doesn't have a greater commitment to them."


It goes to the underlying reasons why in each scenario.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 11-03-2005 - 8:18am
But if you leave, there are 99 other people willing to hop into your role, with no expenditure of training funds on the part of the school.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 11-03-2005 - 8:19am
And I should reiterate that of course I'd hire a former SAHM to certain positions, just not necessarily the career track ones.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 11-03-2005 - 8:22am

You and Mom34 go on about how "ambition" and "commitment" are related primarily to the quality of the work product.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 11-03-2005 - 8:25am

Nobody, full or part time, would stay employed if they were clock watchers or not turning out good work product.


I do watch the clock at the end of the day, because I made a commitment to my nanny to let her leave work at a set time each day.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-27-2005
Thu, 11-03-2005 - 8:30am

I'm probably not formulating this very well, but.... If someone else were to get hired in a similar position to what you have and would be willing to average 60 hours per week of work every week, should that person have better chances than you of getting the dept. head slot? Is that person more ambitious, more committed and more capable of doing the job simply because they are prepared to put in more hours of face-time? Where is the cut-off in either direction?

Another scenario:

Person A works 40-50 hours per week but spends some work time on phoning for appointments, setting up stuff for school (volunteer stuff, coaching stuff), talking to teachers on the phone etc

Person B works 35-40 hours per week but is strictly focussed on the job and handles all private stuff on their own time.

Both probably end up spending effectively the same amount of time on the work. Who is more dedicated and ambitious?

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 11-03-2005 - 9:08am

"If someone else were to get hired in a similar position to what you have and would be willing to average 60 hours per week of work every week, should that person have better chances than you of getting the dept. head slot?"


Perhaps.

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