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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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

This cnbc video shares three strongly voiced opinions on the gender wage gap, its possible causes and its existance.
Is it because of women’s lifestyle choices? Are women less ambitious and poor salary negotiators? Is it really gender discrimination? Take a look and decide.

According to a 2007 study published in the American Sociological Review, titled“Working for the Woman? Female Managers and the Gender Wage Gap”, by Philip N. Cohen and Matt L. Huffman, women who work in companies where there are women in senior management earn more than women who work in firms with only men in senior management. 
This study [...]

Photo Credit:Jaroslaw Wojcik
According to a 2007 study done in the UK, moms are “significantly happier” if they work.  The study surveyed 3856 couples from the British Household Survey Panel and asked both women and men to judge their life satisfaction as it related to work.
Interestingly, both working parents (father and mother) reported greater life satisfaction when they worked. Men’s [...]

 Photo credit:  Wendell Franks
Returning to work requires you to set goals.  But the goal, get a job, is daunting.  Breaking this goal into smaller, managable steps makes progress easier and more measurable.  For example, for me, the first step toward returning to work was to go back to school.
Here are some simple methods to help [...]