Do career paths leave room for children?
By Margaret Steen
oes working in a technical field make it difficult to raise a family? Our survey raises this question but doesn't have a definite answer. Only 28 percent of respondents said they have children under 18 living in their household: Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reports that 40 percent of women in the workforce are mothers of children under the age of 18.
There are many possible explanations for this disparity. It could be that women working in technology jobs who have children don't have time to join professional organizations (the basis of our survey) or to fill out questionnaires. Perhaps the women who answered the survey are postponing having children rather than choosing not to have them at all.
"There are plenty of women over 35 who have not yet had kids and will still say they're thinking about it," says Elizabeth Falk, a career coach and principal of Odyssey Consulting, in Arlington, Mass.
The links between marriage and children are complex, but marital status doesn't explain the results: The percentage of respondents who said they are married -- 57 percent -- closely matches the 56 percent of married people in the U.S. adult population reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The results raise the possibility that at least some women may have to choose between having children and having a successful career in technology.
"You need to be sure there's a place in your schedule for time with your family, and there are lots of software companies where you're working long hours, seven days a week, and may be traveling," says Joanne Ward, a senior systems analyst in the office of information technology for the city of Oakland, Calif.
Jan Jackman, vice president of strategy for IBM's ISP global industry unit, in White Plains, N.Y., has children and says that most of the woman executives she knows also have children. However, she wonders whether women who rose through the ranks before her might have had more difficulty balancing a family and a career.
"They didn't have all the flexible options we have today," Jackman says.
Even though women are finding a way to have a family and a career, it doesn't always seem to be the norm. Liz Spada, director of compensation and recruiting at Lotus Development, in Cambridge, Mass., says that Lotus has quite a few women with children in the executive ranks. Still, after having a child recently, she sometimes felt isolated.
"I sometimes am surprised at how few women in some positions have young children," Spada says.
Copyright
© 1999 InfoWorld Media Group Inc.
