- July 22, 2008
- 1 Comment
What’s the REAL story? Are Women Leaving the Workforce?
It seems as though every day I read an article about Women in the workforce (a topic near and dear to my heart, since I am a woman and partly in the workforce) Today is no exception. An article in today’s New York Times argues that Women are leaving the workforce, but this time it is because of the economy. A recently completed study by Joint Economic Committee of Congress indicates that women are leaving the workforce, either temporarily or permanently, citing downturns, layoffs, outsourcing, stagnant wages or the discouraging prospect of an outright pay cut. And they are responding as men have, by dropping out or disappearing for a while.
Last week Workforce Management had an article disputing the idea that women are leaving the workforce. Citing a recently published in the June issue of the American Sociological Review, less than 8 percent of professional women born since 1956 have left the workforce for a year or more during their prime childbearing years.
Earlier this spring CareerBuilder and Harris Interactive collected data for the Mother’s Day Survey which indicated that 43% of women would take a pay cut to spend more time with their family.
Clearly this is a topic that is open to interpretation, one thing that seems to be consistent with all of the studies and information is that women, like men, are looking for the right match – the right job, at the right company with appealing pay and benefits.
Is your company positioned to attract the talent that will help your businesses grow, even in an uneven economy? Does this trend hold true at your company?
- Have a response? Join the discussion.
- Categories: Economy, Employee Retention, Survey Results
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Some women leave the workforce for raising their own children. My wife left “corporate America” about 10 years ago. She’s never looked back, and once we adjusted our “material lives”, we are way better off financially, relationally, etc., than ever! Hats off to the women who put their own children ahead of careers. That’s a REAL woman!