mom goes to Shanghai!


Day before a two-week trip to Shanghai for my summer residency.  I am traveling with a group of 20 students and faculty from NU to learn about the Chinese market and recieve a project briefing from Yum Brands!. 

Slight panic has set in.  I have never been away from my children this long and never so far away.  What if one of them gets sick?  What if their father has to travel while I am away?  What if I really, really miss them or they really, really miss me?  What if Skype doesn’t work?  I am counting on being able to see their faces even if it is poor quality video. What if the babysitter doesn’t show up?  What if I forgot something to tell them or add to the detailed home calendar? 

What if they need me?

I know there are many working mothers (and many more fathers) who travel for business and are away from their families for extended periods.  If you are one of them, please send me your advice. 

FYI, I have not posted since early June because I have been prepping for this trip.  I am back and hope to have some interesting posts from China. 

Oh, and despite the pre-trip panic, I can’t believe I am going to China.

women, ambition & politics


Photo Credit:  James Steidl

In her washingtonpost.com blog, On Balance, Leslie Morgan Steiner criticized the findings of a Brookings Institution study that concluded women are under-represented in politics because they are not as politically ambitious as men.  Specifically, the Brookings report states:

“Extensive research shows that when women run for office, they perform just as well as men…The fundamental reason for women’s underrepresentation is that they do not run for office. There is a substantial gender gap in political ambition; men tend to have it, and women don’t.”

The report concludes the gender ambition gap in American politics is attributable to the following:

Women are less likely than men to:

  1. be willing to endure the rigors of a political campaign
  2. be recruited to run for office
  3. have the freedom to reconcile work and family obligations with political office
  4. to think they are qualified to run
  5. to perceive the political environment as fair

According to Ms. Steiner, some of the real reasons women do not run for office are,

“A lack of role models. Low self-confidence in the political arena. Abysmal financial support. Pitiful recruitment by entrenched political organizations. Reluctance to subject our families to public scrutiny.”

“So, [she continues] I argue that women are plenty ambitious — in politics, in our professional lives and at home. The “gap” is in people’s perceptions and definitions of female ambition. Ambition in a dress looks different. Get over it. The real obstacles to success won’t get addressed if we poo-poo women as lacking ambition and stop the discussion there.”

Interesting issue, after spending two days with several very ambitious women at Harvard, I would add that political office may not be the venue of choice for ambitious women who want to change the world.  Non-for-profit management, entrepreneurship, commitment to education were many of the preferred environments for women to give back to their community and effect change.  

 

 

 

reality check from More


More magazine published a great discussion on the topic of women going back to work with Sylvia Ann Hewlett, founder of the Center for Work-Life Policy, Pamela Stone, sociologist and professor at Hunter College and Leslie Bennetts, author of The Feminine Mistake.

Hewlett discusses the demands women have balancing work not only with caring for their children but also with eldercare responsibilities which Hewlett describes as “even more sex-biased” than childcare, with women responsible for 85% of eldercare but only 73% of childcare.

Stone shares her research on the challenges of finding stimulating, well-paid, flexible work and Bennetts discusses the financial setbacks and vulnerabilities women encounter when they leave the workforce i.e., 37% loss of earning power when women are out of the workforce for more than three years.

financial advice for moms


SmartMoney.com editor Stephanie AuWerter provides some financial advice for moms returning to work in this video. 

day 2 Harvard–networks and next steps


Photo Credit:  Michael Blackburn

Day two at Harvard’s Charting Your Course program focused on building networks and formulating next steps.  Pam Lassiter,  author of The New Job Security (a Wall Street Journal award winner), and career consultant, discussed strategies to establish networks, develop your elevator story, and position yourself as product to be packaged and sold to potential employers. (That means developing your own brand positioning statement!)

Pam recommended developing a system to keep track of all your contacts and classify them according to an “ABC” system.

A - people you Already know

B - people that may offer you a Bridge to someone you should know

C - real Contacts that are decision makers regarding potential employment

She also cautioned the group to only use real contacts when you were fully ready to present yourself in your best, most professional and career-focused state of mind.  Do not utilize those contacts to help you decide what you want to do, that is what the A’s, people you already know, trust, friends and family, are for.  On the subject of networking, she emphasized that this is a barter relationship with an exchange of help or information that demands reciprocity. 

Simply stated, offer unsolicited help when needed and others will be more willing to help you.  She introduced the concept of the “strength of weak ties,” providing some evidence that most jobs or valuable contacts often surface from your weaker connections, i.e., the friend of a friend or spouse of a friend, someone you just met at a conference.

day 1–Charting your Course from Harvard


Wednesday I attended day one of a two-day career development seminar at Harvard Business School. The 48 participants were mostly female Harvard MBA’s that are in career transition.  Some had left the workforce and were in the re-entry process, others considering career changes, most were parents.  There was one transitioning entrepreneur who was a stay-at-home father. 

Day one of the conference included a case discussion by retired HBS Professor Myra Hart about the founding of Zipcar.  Mrya emphasized the challenges faced by the founders, one with three young children, one expecting her second child, and investor perceptions (given their family commitments and lack of experience directly related to their business idea) as they raised venture capital. Myra challenged the class to decide, “Would you invest your money, or your client’s money, in these two mothers and their fledgling business?”

Interestingly, Myra’s own career path resonated well beyond the lessons from Zipcar.  Read Myra’s bio for the details but know she returned to school after having her children at age 37 to obtain her MBA at Harvard.  As she spoke, I couldn’t stop thinking to myself, how do I get there?  

Timothy Butler, Senior Fellow; HBS Director of Career Development Programs; and author of Getting Unstuck:  How Dead Ends Become New Paths, lead some career development visioning exercises. The participants split into small groups to discuss their career visions and receive feedback.

The conference also included an alumni panel discussion with, Carol Fishman Cohen, author of Back on The Career Track, Allison O’Kelly, founder of Mom Corps,  Natalie Barth, Director of Operations/Business Management at Perella Weinberg Partners and Jules Pieri, former President and COO of Ziggs.com, a social networking site for professionals.  Each discussed their career paths as mothers; the issues of re-entry; flexible work situations; and provided advice to the group.

 

 

mixed emotions from Boston


Photo credit: Hans F. Meier

I am in Boston tonight preparing for a two-day conference at Harvard Business School called “Charting Your Course:  Discovering Working Options,” a conference devoted to the issue of career development for women (and men) re-entering or leaving the work force. 

While excited about the conference, I have mixed emotions about being here.  Traveling alone, (not in a family of five) and staying in a nice hotel, (The Charles Hotel in Cambridge–I feel very academic and New-Englandish) is great.  I met with an old friend for dinner and spent the evening talking about his life and career and my life and burgeoning career.

In the midst of this very grown up dinner in a wonderful restaurant, (The Rialto–great food, friendly chef and warm ambiance), I recieved a phone call from my nine-year-old son.  That is when the mixed emotions began.

He was upset.  He could not find the study sheet for the vocabulary words he is being tested on tomorrow.  His father was not home and he was home with my 15-year old who wanted to talk to me about a Linkin Park concert he wants to attend. Needless to say, my nine-year-old needed attention and I felt a pang of guilt for not being home with him to help.

Yes, I know this is not a great tragedy, but it is the small challenges women (and men) face when they work and travel for business. For me, it is a new challenge. A part of me feels like I am not fulfilling my responsiblities as a parent and is torn because I am excited to be here, but want to be home to help my son find and study his vocab words.

After my dinner, back in my room, I called him. He had solved his problem and was studying his words.  He was happy and proud that the situation was under his control and he asked me, “How are things going in Boston, Mom?” 

This is a good thing, a very good thing for him and for me.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett’s research


Here is an interesting abc interview with Sylvia Ann Hewlett, author of Off-Ramps and On-Ramps and founder and president of the Center for Work-Life Policy. 

Take a look at some interesting statistics from  Sylvia’s research:

  • 75% of working women will take a career break
  • 90% of those women want to return to work
  • 60% of returning workers want to work full-time, 40% want part-time or flex-time work

Sylvia notes that given a predicted shortage of experienced, highly-skilled workers, many companies are trying to reverse the “brain drain, ” a term she coined in an earlier study.  Sylvia’s book discusses the initiatives many companies are implementing to help women successfully “on-ramp.”  Sylvia’s findings are also detailed in this Harvard Business Review article.

Sylvia is also the author of  Winning the Talent War,  a regular feature for Harvard Business School’s online publication.

the athena factor in science


Photo credit:  Rich Legg

A new study called The Athena Factor:  Reversing the Brain Drain in Science, Engineering and Technology, was recently published in the Harvard Business Review. 

Conducted by the Center for Work-LIfe Policy, the study found women represent 41% of scientists, engineers and technology specialists in entry to mid-level positions.  After an average of 10 years, however, 52% of women leave their field in the sciences. 

The reasons given by the study’s participants is often the lack of other women in the field and a macho culture of hostility that excludes women.  There are also few women in upper management in the scientific fields and therefore, no mentors or role models for younger women to follow.  Other reasons cited  in the study include:

  1. hostile male cultures
  2. severe isolation
  3. unknown career paths
  4. extreme work pressures
  5. reward systems that emphasize risk-taking

In an effort to attract and retain female scientists, Pfizer has created a mentoring program between their female scientist and graduate students at Yale.  Alcoa, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Cisco and General Electric all have new initiatives with the objective to attract and retain women in the sciences. 

According to the Mother of All Scientists, scientist, PhD, mother and blog writer who left her career in the academic sciences to be home with her family, “one of the major barriers to making true progress in retaining women in science is that the (largely male) powers that be have yet to truly accept that there is a problem…When well-trained, talented women fall of the path to become leaders in science, it’s not just their loss. It’s a loss to science.” Well said, Mother of All Scientists.

 

 

Off-ramps & on-ramps


I recently joined the online community off-ramps and on-ramps.  It is a social network started by the Center for Work-Life Policy. The site is for people who are either returning from a career break or taking a career break.  Members are encouraged to share their experiences, network with each other and give feedback on how companies can make the process easier.


Visit Off-Ramps and On-Ramps

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Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog! The site offers news, resources and advice for women returning to work. Of course, I would love to find out what you think as well, so make sure to comment.