O: Open Flexible Work

Wake Up! This Is the Reality of Work/Life for American Families

Posted January 21st, 2010 by Gloria Pan

We work long hours. We work multiple jobs. We can barely afford healthcare, or we’re doing without. We’re stitching together childcare, or we’re sending our kids to school with H1N1.
We exert ourselves to be good spouses, sons and daughters, parents, members of our community, friends – in snatched moments from being good but insecure employees.
And [...]

Start the New Year with the Power of One

Posted January 13th, 2010 by Linda Tarr-Whelan

You can make a difference in 2010 to open up opportunities for our children – and ourselves – to move as far as our talents and passions take us. Often, unnecessary obstacles seem to stand in the way, like old-fashioned and outdated styles in the workplace, make our lives more about juggling than balancing. [...]

Shifting the Agenda: Replacing Problems with Solutions

Posted December 22nd, 2009 by Linda Tarr-Whelan

The climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark is over.  What happens, of course, will affect all of our families.  But it will have profound effects for the poorest people around the globe, two-thirds of them are women and children. There is a world of difference in how environmental damage affects these women and their families, [...]

The Promise of New Deal Feminism

Posted December 14th, 2009 by Morra Aarons-Mele

A single mom needs work; she’s literally thinking about applying for welfare. As she writes on her blog, “I had been looking for a better job, but there were none to be had in the low-income/high-unemployment area where I lived. And I couldn’t get a full-time job anyway — I was still on the waiting [...]

I’m Just Sayin’…

Posted December 3rd, 2009 by Valerie Young

From Your (Wo)manInWashington blog 
Is there a connection between the fact that women with children earn less, save less, and have less money in later life and the fact that -
Women occupy 3% of all CEO positions in Fortune 500 companies;
Female faculty at US colleges and universities make 82% of what male faculty make, and have [...]

Motherhood’s Enlightment

Posted November 10th, 2009 by Pamela Murphy

As a mother, I have felt the burden and struggle of raising a family, pursuing a career and making ends meet for a very long time. I am not alone. As a nation we must step down off our “family values” soapbox; listen to mothers; and get real about creating and enforcing sustainable and effective policies that support the importance of the family unit. Then and only then will true enlightenment be attained.

Free Yourself from 24/7 – Harvard Business Review Shows the Way

Posted November 8th, 2009 by Sharon Meers

I was amazed to learn how much research there is — at business schools — saying 24/7 work culture is counter-productive and not the necessity it is often seen to be. Even in the most demanding jobs, re-thinking time use gives us BOTH better results for clients and more dinners at home. A newly published Harvard Business Review piece (on a 4-year study at Boston Consulting Group) offers very inspiring ideas we can all apply where we work.

Paycheck Jobs, Paycheck Feminism

Posted October 30th, 2009 by Nanette Fondas

I’ve been on a one-woman campaign to resurrect the phrase, paycheck job, used by Betty Friedan in The Feminine Mystique forty years ago.
Friedan was referring, of course, to jobs outside the home for which people receive money.  She recognized that the unpaid job of caring for children and home was also “work”—as do most people [...]

Follow Valerie Jarrett’s Lead this Halloween

Posted October 30th, 2009 by Sharon Meers

Why is it so hard to tell our bosses we have to leave for family reasons? What if all the dads where we worked did it more often? Leaders like Valerie Jarrett show that being committed to your kids and your job are not mutually exclusive — and employers win when they recognize that. Maria Shriver’s report A Women’s Nation offers fresh ideas for opening up more common-sense conversation – like adopting UK “right to request” rules that allow parents to get some control over their hours and still produce great results for their employers.

What Should Companies Do to Retain New Moms?

Posted October 29th, 2009 by Morra Aarons-Mele

I was at the Working Mother Work Life Congress this week, which showcases the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers and also provides workshops and discussions for people who work in the field unfortunately called “work life.” Companies were asking: What should we do to retain new moms, and to keep them engaged and energized? [...]

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