Innholdsfortegnelse for October/November 2020 i Working Mother

As companies scrambled to convert their workforces to successfully telecommute this past spring, issues quickly arose over technology, scheduling, manager oversight and, most important, staffers’ ability to integrate childcare, homeschooling and other family needs with work demands. Employees at the Working Mother 100 Best Companies are the real winners here. Because these organizations already were highly attuned to the concerns of working families, including parents, their young children and even their college-age kids, they moved quickly to help. “The global pandemic has hit our reset button. Being agile and adaptive in innovative and inclusive ways made a difference. Organizations with strong, established benefits and flex programs were able to swiftly reorganize and catapult ahead to support employees from disproportionate setbacks,” says Deborah Munster, vice president of Working Mother’s Diversity Best…

“I am heartbroken by the deep pain our communities are feeling,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in an email to his employees in June, when protestors took to streets across the country after the death of George Floyd—yet another Black man insensibly killed by police. Caught on camera, the tragedy followed months of a pandemic that laid bare deep inequities between Black and white Americans in every facet of life, from healthcare to employment. Nadella’s email wasn’t enough for 250 employees, who signed a letter addressed to Microsoft’s executives, asking the company to formally support the Black Lives Matter movement. A few weeks later, Nadella followed up with another blog post, listing additional substantive steps the company planned to take, including investing $150 million more in diversity and inclusion efforts,…

It’s not easy being a working mom, but one thing makes it easier: a supportive spouse. The good news is dads are seriously stepping up their game at home. “Compared with dads in two-job families with preschool kids three decades back, dads today are doing twice as much of the second shift—only five hours a week less than moms,” says Arlie Hochschild, author of The Second Shift and The Time Bind. Research published by the Council on Contemporary Families found that dads are doing more housework and childcare during the pandemic, and sociologists are hopeful some of those habits might stick. That’s huge because domestic burdens are a big reason why women quit working or scale back their ambitions. In short, moms can’t be their best at work unless dads…

ABBOTT Kat Pigman Quality Assurance Complaint Supervisor, Abbott Nutrition Supply Chain Blacklick, OH John, 2 ABBVIE Brenda Gerald Immunology Specialty Sales Representative—Dermatology Lumberton, NC Cassidy, 24, Collin, 22, Bella, 17, and Jakob, 16 ACCENTURE Jessica Clemons Senior Manager, Accenture Strategy Los Angeles, CA David, 15, Michael, 13, Chuck, 9, Hayden, 8, and Morgan, 6 ADOBE INC. Kimberly Le Deaux Senior Product Marketing Manager San Jose, CA Sophia, 11, and Rebekah, 8 ADP Kenyanna Scott Bell VP, Assistant General Counsel Montclair, NJ Alyssa, 11, Nia, 8, and Maya, 7 AMERICAN EXPRESS Cindy A. Johnson Business Systems Analyst—Global Servicing Group Salt Lake City, UT Justin‚ 36, Joshua‚ 31, and Travis‚ 22 ASTELLAS PHARMA US Dominique Talbert Director Scientific Publications Chicago, IL Destin, 20 AXA XL Natasha Vorspel-Rueter Head of Business Analysis Decatur,…

THROUGH THE YEARS 2005 The Working Mother 100 Best Companies celebrates its 20th list, with quotes from proud supporters Barbara Walters, Hillary Clinton, Donna Hanover, then-Virginia governor Mark Warner and members of Congress galore. 2006 Then-Working Mother CEO and President Carol Evans publishes This Is How We Do It: The Working Mothers’ Manifesto. 2007 Working Mother unveils the Best Law Firms for Women list. Dorsey & Whitney, Katten, and WilmerHale have made the list every year. 2008 Barack Obama is elected, making Michelle the first working mom of color First Lady. 2009 Congress passes the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, allowing women to file an equal-pay lawsuit up to 180 days after their last paycheck.…

THROUGH THE YEARS 1981 Working mother Sandra Day O’Connor is the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court. 1982 SAS Institute Inc., now a software company in Cary, North Carolina, opens the first free on-site childcare center. 1983 Work/Family Directions creates the first childcare resource and referral service, with 100 Best Company IBM as its first client. 1984 Working mom Geraldine Ferraro becomes the first woman to run on a major party national ticket, as a Democratic vice presidential candidate. 1985 For the first time in in TV history, the two toprated shows, Family Ties and The Cosby Show, feature successful moms with jobs as main characters. Susan, a main character on Sesame Street, becomes a working mom when she and husband Gordon adopt a child, Miles, on the show.…

Time is our most valuable asset. When I first started at BDO, I began racking up significant hours each week, but it wasn’t sustainable. So I took a step back. I’ve been working fully from home due to COVID-19. Because Taniya knows I have meetings throughout the day, we schedule our own ‘meetings’ for playtime and eat meals together so she understands she’s the most important part of my day. During a virtual meeting with an executive leader, my 10-year-old interrupted for this emergency: ‘Is my makeup OK?’ We laughed. The feeling of knowing that it’s OK to be genuine lifts a weight from our shoulders. This creates community, empowerment and strength. When I was pregnant with my first child, my job required travel, so I asked HR if the…

President, Working Mother Media Six months into COVID-19, people are still talking about the disparate burden on parents working from home with kids around, especially on moms. Homeschooling or managing distance learning while Zooming for their jobs, taking the 20 steps from the work area to the kitchen to make snacks for the family umpteen times a day, getting no downtime between work and home, and more. This is, rightly, getting broad coverage, and social media abounds with stories of how a working mom’s load has only increased since the pandemic, even when her male partner is also working from home. What’s not talked about as much: How do kids feel? What has it been like to not have play dates and other activities that used to crowd schedules? How…