Mrs. Mom, CEO, No Longer the Impossible Dream

Adrienne Snow

In today's edition of the Toronto Globe and Mail, columnist John Ibbitson points out that a US writer and advocate, Sylvia Ann Hewlett, has found that nearly half - 49 per cent - of women who earn more than $100,000 per year in the United States are childless and that 43 per cent are unmarried.

This, according to Mr. Ibbitson, apparently means that professionally successful women tend, in his words, "[N]ot to have kids, or even husbands."

Unfortunately, the very numbers Mr. Ibbitson cites in making the point that husbands and children "tend" to hold women back in their careers clearly show that it is the opposite that is, in fact, true.

If 43 per cent of women in Ms. Hewlett's coveted "$100K+ club" are unmarried, then logic suggests the other 57 per cent must have spouses or partners. And if 49 per cent have no children, then clearly it is women with children who - albeit by a fairly small margin - are better represented among high wage earners.

The fact is, a wealth of data from a range of sources (including several studies published over the past few years by Statistics Canada) does show that married women and/or women with children are more likely to take time off from work for health or other personal reasons than are men, and that they are equally more likely to drop out of the work force entirely or to work part-time for several years than are their male counterparts.

And this, of course, at least partly explains why women generally earn less than men over the course of their careers, experience higher rates of poverty in old age, and reach the top of the wage ladder or are tapped for directorships and other leadership roles less often.

That said, there are, based on Ms. Hewlett's research, anyway, - and contrary to Mr. Ibbitson's claim - clearly a significant number of women in the United States - and, one presumes, in Canada - who manage to make it to the top of the professional tree and to juggle the extra responsibilities that accompany making a home with their partners and raising children. That so many women have been able to do so, is, one suspects, a testament not only to their character and their determination, but also to their skills as managers, strategists, and multi-taskers, par excellence.

The very presence of a growing number of highly successful, but also family-oriented, women in the work force ought, or so it can be argued, properly to be interpreted as an encouraging sign for women and men everywhere who continue to believe in the ideal of balancing professional accomplishment with personal responsibility and commitment and service to family, friends, and the community at large.

(And saying this need in no way take anything away from those woman (and men) who prefer to strike a different balance in their lives, choosing instead to tilt the scales in favour of work. Nor, as in the case of President Bush's former adviser, Karen Hughes, who recently decided to resign her position at the White House for family reasons - thereby inspiring a spate of media commentary (including Mr. Ibbitson's column) on how impossible it continues to seem, thirty or more years after the birth of the modern feminist revolution, for women to "have it all" - from those who choose to downplay professional pursuits, in favour of home and family.)

What a more accurate, if perhaps less newsworthy, interpretation of Ms. Hewlett's findings on the impact family ties may - or, to be precise, may not - have on women's professional success does suggest, is that it may be time for Mr. Ibbitson, and others who claim to have an interest in questions pertaining to women's advancement in the workplace and elsewhere, to acknowledge that the best predictor of women's professional and economic success continues to be - as it does for men, too, for that matter - the content of their character, and not the shape (or size) of their family tree.

For those women and men who wish to balance professional accomplishment with family, community, or other forms of social or civic engagement, the way forward is - in spite of some misleading claims to the contrary - both honourable and clear.

Centre for the Study of Civic Renewal
April 29, 2002