Term Paper on "Why Are Companies Losing Working Moms and What Can They Do to Retain Them?"

Term Paper 25 pages (6926 words) Sources: 15 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Working Mothers and Their Needs

An in-depth examination of why working mothers are leaving their fields and what can be done about it

Flow of Information

Future Considerations

The 1960's saw an explosion with regard to the women's movement in America. Historically in the United States, women had stayed home to raise the children while men went out and climbed the career ladder. Only during times of war did women feel the need to go into the workforce and then it was only long enough to hold the job open until their men could come home from overseas and start working again.

It was during the 1960's that the women's movement took off and by the 1970's women were entering the workforce and colleges in record numbers throughout the nation.

For several decades, women declared they wanted it all. They spent time on education, entering the workforce and climbing the career ladders next to their male counterparts. The phenomena saw an increase in need for day care centers, and schools began after class programs designed to help children with their homework, then supervise them until mom got off of work and picked them up. For several decades, women have struggled with working and maintaining the lion's share of responsibilities for housework and child rearing (Witters, 2003).

For the past few years the nation has seen a shift in this trend and recently women have begun leaving the workforce to go home and care for children full time (Witters, 2003). The reasons for this occurrence are varied but often times have to do with the inflexible attitudes they encounter with regard to their need to balance work and life. Because women are still largely responsible for the child raising in the family it falls to the mothers to try and juggle a career, with daycare, child activities, school issues and getting children to and from doctor, dentist and other appointments.

Employers have historically taken issue with employees needing time off to handle these tasks and the consequence for the clash is mothers leaving jobs to go home full time.

This creates problems for the labor force as well as the female gender as the mother that goes home loses her place on the career ladder and by the time she is ready to return to work her skills are often outdated and she is considered outdated as well.

One of the largest problems with the trend for mothers to leave the job and go home is the fact that when women entered the workforce throughout the 60's and 70's they drove up the spend-able income of the average family which in turn drove up the prices of most things in life. Now that several decades have passed with two income families being the norm, prices are set and not easily attained on one income anymore. In addition, the women in the workforce report feeling a sense of accomplishment because they are contributing to the household income and society by their working. They report they feel they are valued in the world by those accomplishments however; problems that cause them to leave their jobs and take care of children full time are often tied to the very jobs that they loved so much.

Work schedules, not feeling supported as parents at the company, breastfeeding concerns and other issues all contribute to the exodus of mothers from the workforce, taking with them valuable training, experience and education.

If society is going to continue to provide equality between females and males in the workforce and enjoy the contribution women make to the labor force it is important to design solutions that will encourage mothers to remain on the job.

One recent study examined 423 prenatal clients to determine their attitudes about breastfeeding and their intentions (Witters, 2003). The study found that women planning to return to work didn't often entertain the idea of breastfeeding because they did not feel it was something their co-workers and company would support them in pursuing.

The average age of the women surveyed was twenty-five, with an age range of fourteen to forty-five years of age. More than half of the respondents were expecting their first child (Witters, 2003). Thirty-one percent of the multiparious women had breastfed previously for a mean of 4.29 months (amount of supplementation is not known (Witters, 2003).) "In addition to providing demographic information, respondents answered questions about their interest in breastfeeding, their intentions about returning to work, and the hospital at which they planned to deliver (Witters, 2003). Respondents were able to request a personal contact from the WIC breastfeeding support staff and were able to write in specific questions about breastfeeding on the survey form (Witters, 2003). Forms were coded so that they could be matched with the mother's breastfeeding status, once the baby was born (Witters, 2003)."

The study located and interviewed 14 local employers and ascertained their policies, attitudes and their beliefs when it came to the subject of employees breastfeeding after returning to their jobs (Witters, 2003). The employers were located through the local yellow pages and they were from different types of businesses including insurance offices, retail, grocery and restaurant establishments.

The study found that employers are not supportive of the idea of an employee returning to work and taking time to breast feed or pump milk for the purpose of breastfeeding (Witters, 2003).

This is not the only area that research has found to be contributory with regard to why working mothers leave their jobs to stay home full time with their families.

Another study examined the schedules of working mothers at a hospital employer and tried to determine the relationship they had between their employment and their home life (Morehead, 2003).

The participants of this study reported they often work part time so that they have time to be home and take care of the household responsibilities.

At a national level, most public hospitals are faced with the challenge of managing change in an era of budget constraint, cost cutting and a shift from a focus on inputs to outputs, and of coping with a national shortage of nurses (National Review of Nursing Education 2002). Managers have the task of achieving numerical flexibility at the same time as they must attract and retain occupational groups such as nurses that are in short supply. Flexible working time arrangements can be used as a strategy to meet both these objectives (Morehead, 2003)."

Women want and deserve to have fulfilling careers. They contribute many positive elements to the workforce and they also produce expendable income for the families as well as contribute valuable income tax revenue for the government to use in providing public services. Rather than take a passive approach to mothers leaving the work arena to stay home full time, it is important to develop programs of flexibility, support and encouragement for women with children to remain at their jobs (Bartlett, 2006).

Chapter Two

Literature Review

There have been many studies done with regard to women in the workforce including those who have children and how it impacts their positions and families. The studies have examined many aspects of the working mother including problems, solutions and satisfaction by mothers who work with the current status of things.

One of the most pressing issues for mothers who work is the time they have to take off to have the child and care for the child before returning to work. While their male counterparts at work may take a week off when their son or daughter is born, a mother is often out of work for several weeks to several months. The federally mandated Family Leave Act provides them the legal right to take the time off however, the reality remains that they often lose their place on the fast track at their company while they are gone (Bowers, et al., 2005).

Work-family dilemmas played out in academic discussions about how to construct more equitable organizations and families, as well as in everyday decisions and practices as women considered how, when, and if they wanted to bring issues about mothering into the workplace (e.g., Jorgenson, 2000; Kirby, Golden, Medved, Jorgenson, & Buzzanell, 2003; Rapoport & Bailyn, 1996) (Bowers, et al., 2005). Research on the ways in which middle-class women made sense of their choices tried to encourage movement from either/or positioning to more fluid work and family and identity(ies) constructions (Kirby et al., 2003; Orenstein, 2000; Williams, 2000) (Bowers, et al., 2005). But questions remain about how women express and construct meanings of their choices, particularly during those times when they are faced with work-family dilemmas, such as when they arrange child care after adoption or birth. It is during times when everyday routines, relationships, organizing processes, and identities are called into question that sensemaking is most apparent (Murphy, 2001; Weick, 1979, 1995) (Bowers, et al., 2005). "

One study examined the discourses and practices among female managers who were also mothers with regard to how they handled the complexities… READ MORE

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