SWE - Winter 2008 - (Page 38)

Flexible work options keep talented women from exiting corporate America BY CHARLOTTE THOMAS, SWE CONTRIBUTOR “Work-life is not just a women’s issue. There are times when flexibility spikes are important for men and women. Younger men are outspoken about work-life issues. They want to spend time with their kids or coach teams. Men are not likely to drop out but think about the speed of the fast track.” Betty Purkey, Manager, Work/Life Strategies, Texas Instruments “They called it career suicide,” recalled Jean Panos. Concerned about her future in the early ‘90s, coworkers tried to talk her out of part-time hours. Their advice didn’t stop Panos from cutting back to a 32-hour work week to care for her young children — and it didn’t end her engineering career. She is now a systems engineer with GE Aviation. Panos’ experience was the norm at that time, as was Karen Morgan’s, also an engineer with GE Aviation. Pregnant with her third child, Morgan assumed her career was on the backburner when she took a voluntary job elimination to be a full-time mom. Eight years later she returned to the workplace as a contract engineer. She spent two years in that role before accepting a full-time position in 2004, again with GE Aviation, in engineering project management. Later, she moved into an engineering black-belt position. Morgan recently leveraged her strengths in a human resources role as manager of the company’s Edison Engineering Development Program. Both engineers were at the onset of an upheaval churning beneath the workplace. Today that revolution is transforming how, when, and where work is done. In the past, professional women on track to the top faced a difficult choice: children or career. Some were able to do both, but many others took the off-ramp only to find the on-ramp filled with barriers. Corporations have, however, noted the numbers of highly qualified women voluntarily leaving the workplace for a period of time. Many didn’t return to their previous employers. Their numbers reach 37 percent of the work force, according to “Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success,” a survey of more than 2,000 women published in 2005. Conducting the survey, Sylvia Ann Hewlett, president of the Center for Work-Life Policy, and Carolyn Buck Luce, Global Pharmaceutical Sector Leader at Ernst & Young LLP, found that the majority (44 percent) of women leave the work force for family reasons, while 23 percent leave for educational purposes. Whatever their reasons for leaving, they don’t stay away for long. The average time women spend away from the work force is 2.2 years. Then they hit the barriers on the return ramp. Though women choose to leave, reentry can be intimidating Seventy-four percent of women return to the workplace, but only 40 percent resume their careers full time. The numbers from the abovementioned survey confirm discouraging circumstances. Women lose 18 percent of their earning power. If they leave the workplace for more than three years, the figure jumps to 37 percent. Peggy Shiller, executive vice president of the Center for Work-Life Policy, cites lower confidence, reduced ambition, and jobs with less responsibility as consequences. Returning women are perceived as less committed and thus are not promoted or challenged as they would be had they stayed in their jobs. “It is a vicious cycle,” said Shiller. I n her newest book, Mothers on the Fast Track: How a New Generation Can Balance Family and Careers, Mary Ann Mason, Ph.D., calls the time frame between the ages of 30 and 40 the “makeor-break years.” Dr. Mason, who is currently on sabbatical from her position as dean of the graduate division at the University of California, Berkeley, co-authored the book with her journalist daughter, Eve Mason Ekman. The book is a sequel to a 2002 research project, “Do Babies Matter,” that surveyed the careers of women in academia. In Mothers on the Fast Track, Dr. Mason examines the careers of women doctoral students and those in law, medicine, business, and journalism. In these male-dominated professions, women who leave to raise children jeopardize their careers, even though they began on the same level with men. “Their bio- The Off-On Ramp Revolution 38 SWE WINTER 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of SWE - Winter 2008

SWE - Winter 2008 Heritage Club President’s Note View from the Executive Suite Editor’s Page Readers’ Forum EWeek 2008 New Faces of Engineering The Leaky Science and Engineering Pipeline Why Do Women Leave the Engineering Work Force? A Greener America = New Growth Fields for Engineers The Off-On Ramp Revolution Recognizing the Historic Contributions of African-Americans Membership Information & Calendar A&B Women in Tune with Technology: SWE 2007 Conference Overview Keynote Address Achievement Award Region, Section, and Collegiate Awards SME Bowl and SWE Anniversaries Engineering World: Point of View: Why I Blog Career Toolbox Book Review SWE Smiles Opportunity Index SWE Scrapbook

SWE - Winter 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.