Turning Stay-at-Home Skills into Career-Track Assets
March 8, 2007; Page D1
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by Sue Shellenberger
When Elizabeth Montanez decided to return to work after 12 years at home with her four children, she faced a problem: Her resume ended at 1994.
Although the Fairfield, Conn., mother had been busy chairing committees and fund-raisers, she left those years blank, fearing hiring managers would laugh or dismiss it as "fluff," she says. To her surprise, a staffing firm advised her to fill the gap with those activities, and she soon got a job. At-home skills, she says, are "crossing the line from the private to the public world."
For decades, gap moms -- women returning to work after a break for child-rearing -- have tried to hide the holes on their resumes or worse, apologized for them. Now, the tide is turning. Led by such women as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who have openly advocated the career strengths of gap moms, mothers now are speaking up about their work in the home and community.
