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Listen Up, Career Women
By Stephen J. Butler |
 Archives |
Our new Miss
Universe, Oxana Fedorova from Russia, proclaims that she expects
to become a lawyer and a mother. Meanwhile, an article in the
April Harvard Business Review cited statistics pointing to a level
of disappointment for the 42% of high-achieving professional women
who are childless between the ages of 41 and 55. Of these, presumably
80% would like to have had children and probably will not. Further
studies reach the not-surprising conclusion that women are the
happiest when they have it all...career AND a family.
The article is based upon the research and new book by Sylvia
Ann Hewlett (no relation to Walter) entitled Creating
a Life: Professional Women and their Quest for Children. I
see a need to weigh in on the subject, because I often feel that
academics ignore the obvious. I also have some constructive ideas
regarding the role one spouse or the other can play during the
asset-accumulation phase that ultimately leads to retirement.
The fact is, corporate life is less forgiving than other professional
venues for men or women. The corporate high-achiever is expected
to consume 65 hours per week when factoring in the national average
roundtrip commute of 45 minutes. This doesn't include business
travel or evening dinner meetings. As companies get larger, the
appearance of a contribution can become as important as the substance.
Senior executives often maintain grueling schedules to send a
message to others that, " this job is too demanding for anyone
else to ever want." Above the glass ceiling, life can be
strained and unpleasant. It takes a lot of seratonin in the bloodstream
to endure the difficult conversations that come with the territory
in a highly-political, large organization.
John Kenneth Galbraith, in his book, The New
Industrial State, postulated that most commerce will one day
be conducted by professionally-managed large companies. Economies
of scale will drive smaller firms out of business. With a few
exceptions like the fast food industry, I don't see that happening.
Different industries seem to have size "sweet spots"
at which they operate most profitably. The banking industry offers
a perfect example as the results of giant mergers watch profits
wither while newer regional banks gorge themselves on profitable
low-hanging fruit.
Women maintain that the corporate world offers lots of off-ramps
and then very few on-ramps. But who needs those large corporations?
Fully 70% of all American workers are employed at companies with
less than 100 employees. Women in this subset of our economy can
find much more fulfilling opportunities with often more flexibility,
more "on-ramps" and even more after-tax money.
Speaking of the latter, the marginal increase in spend-able income
when a second spouse works is painful to calculate. After federal,
state, social security, and medicare taxes, the additional or
marginal income to the family is commonly taxed at OVER 50%...and
that's before factoring in the costs of commuting and day care.
With so little of the second income available to spend, a careful
assessment of values and lifestyle is imperative.
We should start by ending the pretense that men and women are
the same. It's the woman who will have to take the off-ramp to
have children. Then, it's a question of how many on-ramps they
want to create. Working part time, working close to home, studying
for an advanced degree, and playing a key role in a small company
are all efforts to keep options open. My life is full of anecdotal
evidence of women who have had it all. My sister-in-law, with
three teenagers at the time, went back to school to get a doctorate
in psychology and now has a thriving private practice. An associate
at my company raised seven children and managed to get a degree
in industrial psychology. Women working part time have made extremely
valuable contributions to our company over the years.
New tax laws can dramatically increase the after-tax value of
part time work. The first $11,000 of income can be contributed
to a retirement plan and in a few more years that will rise to
$15,000. Woman who work as independent contractors or who are
otherwise self-employed can contribute up to $40,000 into retirement
plans. For many, this is equivalent to almost $80,000 of taxable
income. New laws effective in 2002 offer opportunities way beyond
what have been possible in the past for small companies flexible
enough to design compensation packages around these tax incentives.
The bottom line is that it can further pay for two spouses to
work if one or both can bury their earnings in generous retirement
plans.
Finally, the time to reflect on these choices is earlier in life.
Time goes by quickly. Younger people can find themselves to be
middle-aged before they know it. The Grant study funded by W.T.
Grant has tracked the lives of a group of about 400 college students
since their graduation over 60 years ago. The group actually included
President John F. Kennedy. What the study shows is that people
tend to do best in life if they develop relationship skills first
and focus on professional skills later in their thirties. Those
who got it in reverse tended to have more problems in life. Struggling
with relationships is what "Friends" is really all about.
In the end, it helps to remember that the only real basis for
security in life comes from our ability to do something and to
do it well. To worry about WHERE you will exercise your energy
and brainpower is not as limited as the world of large corporations
would make it seem.
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