Sylvia Ann Hewlett, author of the new book "Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road," surveyed close to 2,500 women and 650 men to find that most women take some time off work or intentionally avoid advancing for a while so they have time to care for children and elderly relatives.
Staying on or getting back on the fast track becomes difficult. And extreme jobs, those that require a 60-plus hour workweek, take a special toll on women who are being left behind. Women find it very difficult to replicate the competitive-white-male career path....since they carry the bulk of responsibilities on the home front for children and also elderly parents. That's why just 4% of women surveyed hold extreme jobs while fully 60% of women have nonlinear careers.
After taking time off, the vast majority of women (93%) want to return to work, for financial reasons and because they like their careers. But once a woman stops working for even a year or two, opportunities to re-enter are few and far between. Just 73% land jobs, and 24% of these end up having to take part-time jobs.
However, the war for talent is heating up. Women are the best and most obvious candidates to fill the void left by retiring Baby Boomers and other demographic changes.
Source: The Wall Street Journal, April 16, 2007
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