It is time to join the conversation about women in the workplace. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal noted that an employed female spouse’s/partner’s contribution to family earnings has hovered, on average, at 47% since 2009. But also in that year, as the article states, the contribution jumped from 45%—the biggest single year rise since 1990.
We are witnessing an extraordinary transformation of household responsibilities. Women are fast replacing men as the “hunter-gatherers.” As a result, inter-generational confusion abounds even among women in the workplace. Women in their 50’s and beyond are more than likely to judge those in their 20’s and 30’s by different standards borne of their personal experiences and thus have different expectations of women with whom they work. This affects the acceptance of working remotely, childcare responsibilities, etc. And this might make for a candid discussion in the workplace and one that is perhaps needed as more and more women are managed by other women!
The Women’s Initiative of Epstein Becker Green, of which I am a member, celebrated Women’s History month by opening our New York office on March 21, 2013, to Artists of the Americas (AOTA) and its display of the work of female artists from around the globe. The cocktail event was attended by clients and friends who form the backbone of our Women’s Initiative. It was a wonderful way to honor and appreciate the talent of international women artists and, of course, network with the terrific women who attend the various Women’s initiative events that we sponsor throughout the year. This Women’s Initiative event recalls the fact that the first Women’s Suffrage Parade in Washington, DC, took place on a cold March day a century ago, because women still had not been given the right to vote!
As Women’s History month comes to a close, our firm has joined Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In forum. We need to work together to support each other—as women—in following our dreams and ambitions.