betsyb's blog

The Texas Conference for Women is an opportunity you won't want to miss! Join us in Houston on October 16 for thought-provoking sessions and workshops on hot topics such as starting a business, living green, rejoining the workforce, and recession-proofing your finances.

The Texas Conference for Women  is an opportunity you won't want to miss! Join us in Houston on October 16 for thought-provoking sessions and workshops on hot topics such as starting a business, living green, rejoining the workforce, and recession-proofing your finances.

Business Week recently published a story titled, MBA Moms Most Likely to Opt Out: Check it out here

The findings of this study show that MBA moms are more likely to take career breaks than doctor or lawyer moms. A variety of reasons for this difference are hypothesized, including financial investment in the degree, family-friendliness of the work environment, and harder to define career trajectories.

In disucssions with business leaders, there is always a lot of intrigue about how to bring OffRampers back into the workforce when they are ready. The topic of hiring risk always comes up - how can an OnRamper compete with a candidate with current experience? The real hurdle comes when that OnRamper wants to change her industry or area of focus from her past experience. 

Cross-Posted from Mothers & More Loop Discussion:
Thanks to the Mothers & More members who shared their personal stories about work and family. Your situations and experiences may be different from each other, but many of us see ourselves in one or another of you. I fully recognize that significant hurdles still exist and pay inequities are very real. Some of you are frustrated with the lack of OnRamps you are finding, and others with the fact that it essentially costs you money to go to work, but we have to believe that a shift is on the horizon.

Mother’s Day Campaign 2008
Connecting Mothers’ Voices

Mothers and More (www.mothersandmore.org) invited YourOnRamp's Betsy Bagley to participate in its POWER Loop guest discussion which focused on what it would mean if our society truly supported mothers, what we can do to work toward changes that will benefit us, and how mothers can be counted.

HR executives are taking notice of the contributions of part-time professionals. (See article and research below). The next horizon is helping line managers get comfortable with different management styles and measures of productivity. The acceptance of OnRampers and part-time professional work has to begin top-down, but it is still risky for mangers to hire them. While managers have to be willing to allocate work in a different way, individual candidates need to address the risks when they present themselves.

"Worldwide, more than 60 percent of executives said that their companies

"There are too many women doctors who want to work part-time, which is contributing to a lack of capacity in the medical system. Therefore, we should reconsider the amount of resources devoted to the education of women doctors and focus more of them on men."

In her blog (http://worklifefit.com/blog/), Cali Williams elevates the discussion around the above premise put forth in Canadian and British publications. (Recognize that in these countries the training of doctors is most often paid for by the government.)

Last week, YourOnRamp was at the 43rd Annual Women’s Symposium at SMU in Dallas which was focused on Educating Women for Social and Political Leadership. One apparent theme was that leadership is a process and each step needs to be respected. Don’t we all aspire to lead? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could skip up the steps to a leadership position? The symposium was comprised of multigenerational participants and the older women were advising the younger generation that a leadership role is often earned.

What a great show to highlight the professional value a woman can retain after a career break!