More options for moms seeking work-family balance

Avis Johnson, a neonatal respiratory therapist, says her mom stayed home until she turned 5. Johnson says organization keeps her on track with work and caring for Jordan, 4, and Justin, 15 months

By Christy Oglesby
CNN

(CNN) -- Changing laws and increasing economic demands have helped level the playing field for women who want to enter the workforce in the United States. But more and more working women -- particularly working moms -- present society with a difficult challenge: How does one balance work and family?

It's a question that's changing the way we work and live.

Women had for years worked both in and out of the home. But in the early 1980s, millions more added policing, editing, lawyering, soldiering and bus driving to the non-stop roles of laundering, cooking, nose-wiping, esteem-building and PTA-ing.

The shift turned what had been a trickle into a steady stream of women heading into the workforce.

Some families and employers transformed their operations to accommodate the trend. Even more didn't, and conflicts between home and office often created absenteeism and burnout. But, employers are finding ways to become family-friendly.

Vicky Lovell, study director for the Institute for Women's Policy Research in Washington, ascribes the shift to economic pressures facing families, the demand for service industry jobs and statutes that created economic and educational opportunities.

"The laws changed," Lovell said. "Women couldn't be excluded from medical school. Equal pay and civil rights legislation made employment and education a possibility for anyone who wanted it."

But those liberating rules offered no guidance in melding the roles of caregiver and career woman.

How do they do it?

Working mothers created their own solutions.

"I have a routine," said Avis Johnson, whose sons are 4 years old and 15 months. "I know what I will do from the time I get up until I go to bed. Organization. That is my key to getting things done." It also helps, she said, that her husband does "99.9 percent of all the cooking."

RESOURCES Job trends since 1964

Women in the workforce: How many? (in millions) 5.3  in 1900 18.4  in 1950 63  in 1997 Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census Jobs held in 1999 (in order) •  Secretary •  Manager/administrator •  Cashier •  Sales supervisor •  Registered nurse •  Sales work •  Nursing aide •  Elementary school teacher •  Bookkeeper •  Waitress •  Accountant •  Auditor Source: U.S. Department of Labor click here to access full list

Johnson, who lives in Stone Mountain, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, continued to work as a neonatal respiratory therapist after her second baby, but cut her hours to part time.

"I knew I would need to scale back because those first few years are crucial," Johnson said. Her older son's activities increased when he started preschool, and "I wanted to be an involved parent."

The cost of a second baby in full-time day care and the days she missed from work because of the colds the boys caught in that environment also influenced her decision to work less, Johnson said.

Elizabeth Kurylo, a writer with two daughters, reduced her hours and changed jobs. Kurylo traveled the world covering immigration issues for an Atlanta newspaper, juggling motherhood and journalism until the birth of her second child.

"After the second baby, it was harder to accept that my children were always the last ones to get picked up," said Kurylo, whose husband, also a journalist, shared the same hectic schedule.

Kurylo quit, and found a part-time job as a writer -- with a schedule that gives her an hour of one-on-one time with 5-year-old Katharine before they pick up 2-year-old Megan and head to the park, library or home.

'...it does take a village'

Elisabeth McNamara was three months pregnant 14 years ago when she was hired as a prosecutor.

Unlike Kurylo and Johnson, many of McNamara's family members live nearby. Her sister lives on the same street, and helps care for her sons James, 14, and Daniel, 12. McNamara father's, 82, picks up James after school and takes him to horseback riding lessons.

"The trick in my life is knowing it does take a village to raise a child," said McNamara, who continued working full time.

Her husband, John, is an oral surgeon who works for himself. He arranges his schedule to handle his share of parenting duties. But the assistant district attorney has another life-managing tool. "We have limited the boys' activities," she said. "There's only so much dropping off and picking up you can do."

Without a car or family member nearby, Jewel Weathers relies on logistical planning and after-hour day care to balance work and motherhood. Before Weathers moved from Chicago, Illinois, to Atlanta to work as a hotel reservations coordinator, she had to wake her three daughters at 5 a.m. to start their three-bus trek to the babysitter, school and work.

She selected an apartment building in Atlanta that provides on-site care after school. That decision reduced her bus trips to one and cut her daughters' days from 19 hours to 12.

"This was a good change for us," said Weathers, whose girls are 12, 8 and 6.

"You learn to fit it all in on a schedule," she said. "And you learn what your limits are, how far you can push it without just giving out. I'm always running around, but the girls are older now and can do more for themselves. They know when Mommy's tired and how to entertain themselves."

Corporate help

As women seek solutions to strike a balance between mothering and working, employers are changing policies to make family life easier.

Among the current employer offerings -- paid-leave banks; back-up child-care centers for sick children; compressed workweeks; job-sharing and flexible scheduling.

First Tennessee Corporation has many of those benefits and snagged a hard-to-come-by spot on Working Woman's "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" list. The bank also has a classroom visitor program that allows each employee to use three hours each year, per child, to participate in a child's school activity. The benefit, like all others at the company, is available whether an employee has children or not.

Equitable treatment prevents childless employees from developing resentment or feeling as if parents have special privileges, said human resource experts.

While such programs might have a feel-good quality, they are really "bottom line issues," said Nancy Kaylor, a workplace analyst at CCH, Inc., a leading provider of tax, business law and human resources information. CCH's Unscheduled Absence Survey of 2000 found that employee absences cost businesses $602 per employee that year and $610 in 1999.

"Employers are asking themselves, 'What can we do to get the employee to come to work?' Sixty percent of worker absences are due to personal needs," Kaylor said.

Benefits like allocated hours for personal use help prevent the sneak factor of employees, whether male or female, parent or childless, Kaylor said.

"You don't have someone setting the alarm clock to call in and sneeze and say they are sick," she said. "Sick days or vacation days force someone to miss eight hours when maybe all they need is to go home to let the refrigerator repairmen in."

Before such work-life benefits became fashionable, James Kenny, president and CEO of San Jose National Bank, created a plan to help new mothers return to work sooner. New mothers are allowed to bring their infants into work until the babies begin to crawl or reach 6-months-old.

"I started it when the company was smaller and I had four women who were pregnant. Two of them were department heads," Kenny said.

"They were good employees, and I needed them back in the office," Kenny said. "Work didn't get their full attention, but it was better than not having them here at all.... It's not whether mothers are worth the effort, it's that good employees are worth the effort."

Back to top

Re-entering the workforce
May 11, 2001
From TIME.com: Lance Morrow on "How Mothers (and Fathers) Make Presidents"
Motherhood plays political role in Massachusetts
May 10, 2001
Day-care dilemma: What's best for kids, families?
May 1, 2001
Work and life: The search for balance
January 29, 2001
Working on the pay gap
January 17, 2001
Women and men: Payday
December 12, 2000
Career Studies -- Dual earners: Double trouble
November 13, 2000
The origins of Mother's Day

Women in the corner office
May 3, 2001
Welcome to the girls' club
May 3, 2001