Work & Life Integration
Today’s working woman lives in a society that looks nothing like the earlier decades of the traditional nuclear family, when the working husband supported the wife and kids back home. In fact, 72 percent of mothers with children under 18 are now in the workforce. As the percentage of women in the U.S. workforce has increased, challenges exist to optimize the female working capital. Single mothers and dual-earner families alike remark about longer working hours, relentless time pressures and stress, and how support structures in the majority of workplaces provide limited services and resources to working families. There is a growing trend among professional women who end up leaving the workforce due to the fact that the traditional workplace is incompatible with family life. The corporate culture within organizations is often a barrier to the attainment of work/life balance.
These challenges for the employees are becoming major challenges for the employers. Progressive workplaces need a cultural model that considers both the economics and the employees’ life issues that encompass the relationship. Productivity is impacted by high turn-over rates, employee job stress, burnout, health issues, sick days and the overall strength of the U.S. workforce. Organizations struggle with how to attract and retain the 21st century worker, while simultaneously figure out how to keep the necessary skill sets to remain competitive and profitable. With the massive retirement of the baby boom generation, employers will lose a mature, experienced workforce and will need to devise strategies -- not only to integrate the diversified look of the replacement workers -- but to find creative methods for harnessing intellectual capital.
There are now “untapped resources” to consider as the many women who want to work and have experience to offer, have not been able find a job that fits their family needs. It is crucial to develop workplace standards that can capitalize on these skills and optimize on the American resources.
C2L is developing projects to address these issues.
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Financial Literacy
Given the rising numbers of women in the workforce, single mothers, and single or divorced women, it is critical for today’s women to actively manage her finances. It is not enough that a woman earn a sustainable wage, she must also be savvy in her spending and saving habits. Throughout all stages of life, a woman needs to know what her financial options include and when she should be acting on them. With the proliferation of financial services and products, the task of uncovering basic needs at each stage can be overwhelming. Women are often not aware of opportunities for investment that could lead to savings and wealth accumulation and these skills need to be learned.
Homeownership, for example, is an opportunity for wealth building. Yet, while women’s roles and responsibilities are changing, major gaps still exist between the genders. Recent data shows that 69% of single men with children own homes, as opposed to 45% for single women with children.
Standardized education is necessary to assist women in achieving financial independence as well as to dispel any myths about their borrowing power.
Choose 2 Lead Women’s Foundation’s Financial Literacy Project focuses on the financial well-being of all women and their access to relevant information and education that will help them throughout their lives.
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Young Women’s Mentor and Guidance Program
Young women today live in an era of diversified work and educational opportunities, unlike their mothers and grandmothers. Today’s college-age women can benefit from curriculum/training that helps them define who they are, teaches them how to set goals for what they want in work and family, and teaches them to seek mentors and later be mentors. In addition, this program teaches young women to think about issues such as savings and home ownership.
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