The Top 100 Companies for Working Mothers

What do Abbott Laboratories, American Express, and Bank of America all have in common? According to Working Mother magazine they occupy the top three slots for the best companies for working mothers. The full list appears in this month's issue of Working Mother magazine.

What makes a company a good place for working mothers today according to the magazine's survey? The Top 100 displayed trends representing companies that didn't have any rollback of work/life benefits during the recent recession, had a post-9/11 increased emphasis on flexible scheduling, and augmented use of family leave by employees. Some of the tangible programs that winning companies adopted include 16 months of maternity leave, free back-up care, and $10,000 in adoption reimbursement.

In an ABC interview, Working Mother's CEO, Carol Evans, was quoted, saying, "Our country needs women to have babies, our companies need women's brainpower and time. Those two things going together really demand that companies wake up to this new culture."

My two cents as a working mother who's come out the other side of raising her children? Working Mother can whitewash corporate America all it wants, but if you're hearing what I'm hearing, it's that a new generation of mothers aren't necessarily going to make the sacrifice in order to be a part of the corporate scene.

There's a sea change in women's attitudes about balancing home and career, and the catalyst is technology. With PCs, cell phones, and inexpensive access to the Internet, smart women everywhere are at the helm of their own businesses that give them more control of their destiny.

The numbers support my hypothesis: 48 percent—nearly half—of all privately-held firms are at least 50 percent owned by a woman or women. Between 1997 and 2004, the estimated growth rate in the number of women-owned firms was nearly twice that of all firms (17 percent vs. 9 percent), according to The Center for Women's Business Research.

Working Mother has done a great job of listing the Top Companies for Women for 17 years. But, the reality is that the benefits for women haven't changed much, nor have the retention rates for good women in the workplace. Companies are beginning to realize that women who are tech savvy and want to raise a family are going to head to the greener pastures of self-employment and small business unless the corporate climate changes. That is the challenge corporate America hasn't faced yet.