Mothers working in many different
    fields are juggling their careers and
    motherhood.  Hoda Kotb of the
   Today Show sat down with
   basketball start Lisa Leslie and
   other Olympic athletes who are
   juggling career and motherhood.

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&search=moms

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Don’t Marry Career Women

That was the title of a Forbes.com article that advised men to marry pretty or ugly ones.  Short or tall ones.   Just don’t marry a career woman.  forbes.com/home/2006/08/23/Marriage-Careers.   According to the author’s research, career women are more likely to get divorced and most likely to be unhappy about having children.   Checkout what Leslie Steiner of the Washingtonpost.com had to say in response to the Forbes.com article. blog.washingtonpost.com/onbalance/2006/08/career. 

Let’s hear what you have to say by posting your response to these articles on our blog.

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Three Key Characteristics of Entrepreneurial Women

Risk Takers

In my experience working with dozens of entrepreneurial women, the characteristics that set them apart are a willingness to take risks, a high value on flexibility and resolute tenacity. Risk- taking is an element of any working woman's life, the degree of those risks is what sets entrepreneurial women apart. Deciding to leave paid employment is the first of many risks, and one too great for many women.

Statistically, women's businesses grow at a slower pace and start with smaller amounts of capital than businesses started by men. Women tend to be more risk-averse and will often use savings or loans secured against their homes to finance a business rather than go to bank or venture capital investors. Starting small is not as problematic for many women who start in consultancy or the service sector, which accounts for nearly half of all businesses in the UK started by women. However, is can be problematic for those in manufacturing or other industries that are capital- intensive. Entrepreneurial women research their options, but still take calculated risks.

Independence  

Interestingly, the main factor that motivates women business owners is not financial gain, as many would assume, but independence. In my experience this often translates into not just doing things your own way, but also on your own time scale. Most women who start their own businesses know they will work longer hours, but it will be on their schedule. This is vital for working mothers in particular, and is borne out by the evidence that the key years for women to create businesses are in their late 30's - often childbearing years. Women I work with often cite being able to pick up sick children from school, attend sports days as well as take time off during school holidays. One business woman I know with a 7-figure turnover works relentlessly for her clients throughout the year but takes each and every term break off as well as the entire month of August to be with her children.

Tenacious

Lastly, entrepreneurial women are tenacious. Ignoring naysayers is an early challenge as not everyone will be encouraging. Pessimism, often in the guise of well-meaning advice, can kill a business in its early stages and ignoring this when things are rough is one of the first lessons any successful entrepreneur learns. They show a willingness to keep trying, tweaking products or services until they fit the market perfectly. Tenacity does not mean blind optimism; it means a willingness to change a product or presentations until it is right using both guidance as well as intuition.

Thinking about Entrepreneurship?

1. What do you think are the key characteristics of women who set up their own businesses?

2. Which characteristics do you have?

3. What would you love to do with your life if you could not fail?

Copyright (c) 2008 Suzanne Doyle Morris

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OPTING OUT:  Corporate Executives face the Challenges of Balancing Personal and Professional Goals

All companies compete to find the best people in the workplace to fill their key leadership positions. But once they hire them, are they able to keep them happy and productive?

Some of the most promising and highest potential leaders we have worked with have attained great success in their jobs and worked hard to earn that success, only to ultimately decide that the price to remain is too high. The problem isn’t that they aren’t suited for the work, but rather that the size of their workload is too much to handle in a normal work week.

As the new generation of workers becomes qualified for higher positions on the corporate ladder, they have a different set of expectations than their predecessors. By and large, these are people who work to live, and not the other way around. Ironically, those who are the most talented, ambitious, and have promising futures are the ones searching hardest for balance in their lives. They choose in greater numbers to avoid the jobs that require 60+ hours in a typical week.

This choice has been called “opting out,” and it has been described in numerous places, most recently in The Opt Out Revolt: Why People are Leaving Companies to Create Kaleidoscope Careers by Lisa Mainiero and Sherry Sullivan.

Burning Out the Brightest

To me, the tragedy isn’t that people are losing jobs, because as the book title suggests, those who opt out are doing just fine, thank you. Rather, it’s that the most promising and productive people are the ones leaving, meaning the companies involved are losing some of their best and brightest emerging leaders. I hear these individuals say things like: “I value myself too much to pay such a high price for success at work.”

To be fair, we shouldn’t label companies in question as taskmasters. Surely, some organizations are better than others at demonstrating that they value a work/life balance for their employees. But in many cases, the nature of management jobs – the ones higher up on the corporate ladder -- require a larger time commitment. People who stick to a 40-hour week don’t get let go, but they do get put into a new box that limits their potential ascent within the organization.

Gender plays one role in this phenomenon, but not the only role. Women seem to opt out in greater numbers, often because of choices to focus on raising children. Their employers seem to show a willingness to reduce the workload for new mothers or parents, but these employees also lose their status as high potential leaders in the organization. (To be fair, men are opting out, too.)

Organizations are rapidly realizing that their pipeline for emerging leaders is becoming sparse, and many senior leaders have publicly discussed the lack of qualified people in the workforce. That’s why opting out poses a greater problem for them than for individuals. There will always be bodies that are willing to fill leadership roles. But from our perspective, the ones leaving are the ones that demonstrate the highest levels of emotional intelligence, relational capacity, and maturity.


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Women's Empowerment Tools
by: Susan West