WEBCAST: Study indicates sea change in work patterns

BOSTON, MASS.
January 16, 2007 11:00am

Women are not "opting out" of the work force in large numbers, but instead are leading a change in how employees view their careers and work, a study of professional women says.

The great majority of career women are negotiating flexible work arrangements as a way to remain in the workplace, while continuing to see their incomes grow, the study says.

Study authors say women are leading the way to a new career model for women and men.

(Listen to Mary Shapiro, an assistant professor at the Simmons School of Management in Boston and lead study author, as she explains what the groundbreaking study has found. It’s today’s CVBT Audio Interview. Click on the link at the end of this article to listen or download.)

The study found that more than 90 percent of the women surveyed have used some kind of flexible work arrangements during their careers; 88 percent of them used flexible work arrangements at some point in their career to remain employed full time while managing complex lives.

“Women are leading the way in how all employees in the future will take more control over managing their careers. They are shifting the career paradigm,” says Mary Shapiro of the Simmons School of Management in Boston, lead study author.

Unlike earlier reports that warned that women who ask for flexible work arrangements will experience decreased earning power, the women surveyed who used flexible work arrangements reported financial success: Their incomes were no different than those of women who did not employ flexible work arrangements. More than 85 percent of the women were responsible for at least half of their household incomes.

The findings are from an online survey of more than 400 middle- and senior-level professional women from around the nation with an average of 20 years' work experience from across the business and non-profit spectrum, who attended the 2006 Simmons School of Management Leadership Conference in Boston.