Working Mother magazine and I share one thing in common. We're celebrating what Germans call a 'round' birthday this year. While I'm not tellin' my age, Working Mother proudly announced its thirtieth birthday this week. The May 2009 issue marks three decades of workplace transformation. It's something to yodel about!
According to a recent email I received from the folks at Working Mother magzine, the number of working moms has doubled from 16 million to 30 million in the last thirty years. In fact, two out of every three moms now work outside the home (I'm sort of one of them. Sometimes I'm 'on location' doing filmings and such - most of what I do is within the confines of my home office walls).
“When Working Mother magazine launched in 1979, women needed help finding quality child care, asking for a raise, getting dinner on the table in a flash and handling stress," says Carol Evans, president, Working Mother Media, who became the first mother to own the magazine in 2001. "We’ve come so far as working moms, but many of our basic needs remain remarkably the same. We often feel guilty about our choices, overworked and underappreciated.”
From Pin Money to Economic Lynchpin
In 1979, four years before the Equal Pay Act was amended in 1983, many working moms faced an added challenge: employers held the biased view that women wanted to work for pin money—not to build a career, but because they wanted to be able to afford small luxuries and extra treats. As a result, it was felt that they could be paid considerably less. Today, women are approaching 50 percent of the workforce (and according to recent data, they earn about 80% of a man's average salary). In many cases, mothers are becoming their families’ primary breadwinner—a trend that’s been amplified in the current recession. Still, the wage gap persists even as working mothers gain powerful positions in government, business, non profits and as entrepreneurs.
Balancing Act: A Workplace Revolution
In 1986, the Working Mother 30 Best Companies—which grew to the Working Mother 100 Best—was launched to highlight forward-thinking, family-friendly leadership among America’s top companies and to urge improvement across all industries. Introduced well before the Family and Medical Leave Act, which guaranteed working moms up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in 1993, the pioneering Working Mother 100 Best Companies initiative forever changed how companies thought about their working mother employees, leading to a culture shift that has benefited millions of working families, and the companies who employ them. By providing benchmarking on innovative programs like flextime, telecommuting, backup childcare and parental leave—the Working Mother 100 Best shows companies how best to support this critical segment of the workforce.
“Working moms have more demanding careers than ever before, face new economic pressures in today’s society and must negotiate evolving roles with their partners at home. At the same time, they continue to count their role as mom as their number one priority—a reason why Working Mother is even more of a must-read for working moms today,” says Suzanne Riss, editor in chief, Working Mother.
What’s next for working moms?
In the May issue of Working Mother, Evans names five top predictions for what’s next for working moms:
• Government will inch ahead and enact more legislative support of working moms;
• Companies will continue to support families even in times of economic stress;
• Dads will continue to evolve and pave the way for more equity of work at home;
• Moms will keep climbing the ladder of power;
• Working Mother will keep celebrating as it grows and thrives—for another 30 years and beyond!
”It’s been an impressive 30 years, but there is still so much on the horizon,” said Evans. “The evolving American mom will continue to fuel the economy, push boundaries for change in the workplace and promote a happy, healthy family lifestyle. We look forward to the next 30 years of Working Mother being a source of inspiration for these amazing women to help them be the best moms and best employees they can be.”
