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As a recent article on MSNBC’s Career website shares, the picture of professional success is no longer what we imagined it to be a generation or two ago. It is rare to have a man stay at the same company for thirty years, working eight hours a day and rising through the ranks of leadership and influence in order to earn the gold watch at age sixty, while his wife stays at home and watches the children. The man usually is not working from 9:00am to 5:00pm, but he may checking emails on his phone during dinner or participating in a teleconference from a home office at 10:30am. He probably changes jobs several times in his career, if not more. And, in 2010, the person who is the primary breadwinner for a family may not be a man at all.
Research indicates that women now constitute 51% of the workforce and they are changing the way that we define success and what a “typical” career looks like. Flexible hours to accommodate kids’ school schedules and the option to work from home are becoming more commonplace in companies across our country. Technology and changing societal expectations have come together to change the face of our working environment.
As William Doherty, professor and director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at the University of Minnesota shares in the article, “Women are reshaping the workforce, and I think a cultural change is underway.”
The article also poses a controversial question to its readers. Are women redefining what it means to be successful in their careers because they realize the success of which they once dreamed is not possible? Are women really just compromising but choosing to call it success?
This topic is at the top of my mind as my wife has just left her CFO position of a well-known company so that she can spend more time with our 3.5 year old son before he starts school. I am very supportive of her decision and after only 30 days, everything is working out much better than we expected!
As this is such hot topic and I would love to get some responses from you. If you are a woman, do you feel that you have been able to achieve the professional success you desire? Why or why not? If you are an employer, what accommodations has your company made to the needs of parents?
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Comments
09.01.10
I feel that I have absolutely been able to reach the success I've sought, but I can't say that it has been easy. It really depends on who you work for, and when I'm interviewing for a job I always consider it the opposite, that I am interviewing them to see if they will provide for me what I need. As women, we have to make tough choices though. My children are now 5 and 10, and I felt the tug to stay at home with them but that just wasn't the route for me. What I have felt sometimes though, is the strain of working in a male dominated environment, with men who have stay-at-home wives and trying to compete with the level of free time that afforded them to do after-work events that oftentimes mean a lot in certain companies.
It's wonderful that you are supporting her wife. Please be sensitive to her needs and listen when she needs to be heard. I can talk about this all day and have varying perspectives. It's an interesting topic.
09.01.10
As a woman, I do think that success is possible. My view of success has changed over the years and I'm still in my mid-twenties and I'm sure it will change even more. Everyone, and every woman, views success differently. I love that success is redefined, it proves how valuable we are in the workplace that we would have the flexability to be as successful as we want to be. Many women do make compromises, some want families and some want careers-if they want both, more power to them! It IS possible to do both these days and I look forward to having that luxury in a few years. So far, I do consider myself successful for what I have accomplished at such a young age, but I haven't found that niche that will take me to the next level.
This is a great topic and I can't wait to see the rest of the answers!
09.01.10
I think it's interesting that the article (and therefore your blog post) are only discussing this as an issue of children. The idea that as women become the wage-earners men should cut back to part-time or quit their jobs entirely and become the full-time parent doesn't arise. So this idea of woman-as-worker has to be addressed under the idea of woman-as-mother.
I think the real sea change is that fact that women are becoming the majority of the workforce (51% isn't much of a majority right now, but this depression will keep raising that number) and we still make 70 cents per hour to a man's dollar. If a woman has to work longer hours just to stay solvent AND take care of the kids, something's going to have to change. To be honest, I don't forsee 51% of American men becoming stay-at-home dads. That's really what's going to cause a change in how we value success.
09.02.10
One more thing. I highly recommend the book, Womenomics by Claire Shipman and Katty Kay. It addresses a lot of this and is quite intriguing.
09.02.10
Alison, Julian, and Angela - thanks so much for your insightful comments. I am sure that you all saw the following story yesterday confirming that progress is being made: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2015274,00.html
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