1.  Some people believe that organizations should share some of the responsibility for childbearing, which is absolutely necessary for a society’s self-preservation. Concepts such as the “mommy track,” “baby paid sabbatical” and “child care at work” have been proposed as ways that firms can fulfill this responsibility. Do you agree? Do you think firms would offer such programs voluntarily, without government mandate? Explain.

2.  Many managers look negatively at a “résumé gap”—the duration of time a person is not in the workforce. Although few managers would admit it, they might not hire a woman of childbearing age or promote her to a more responsible position for fear that she might become pregnant. How can a firm deal with these potential biases? Explain.

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ww Discussion Case 1 YOU MANAGE IT! Making Time for a Baby from According to Hewlett, "In just 30 fearing our fertility to squandering it-and very unwittingly." A few years later after the publication of Hewlett's book, Lawrence H. Summer, President of Harvard University, created a furor in 2005 by arguing that bias could not entirely explain the lack of gender diversity in the sciences. According to him, "what is behind all of this (disparity in representation by gender) is the general clash between people's (read women) legitimate family desires and employers' current desire for high power and high intensity." He made other remarks that high power and high intensity are innate or intrinsic to males (for whom presumably family life is less important), and hence gender discrimination by employers is a lesser factor in explaining the shortage of women in certain occupations. Summer resigned in 2006 under intense pressure by faculty and students at Harvard. years we've gone age 20, the risk of miscarriage is about 9 percent; it doubles by age 35, then doubles again by the time a woman reaches her early forties. As many women have become dedicated to their careers-putting off having children to focus on their work- there has been a 100 percent rise in the past 20 years of child- less women ages 40 to 44. Economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett states in her book, Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest At for Children (Talk Miramax Books), that ambitious young women who hope to have kids are heading down a bad piece of road if they think they can spend a decade establishing their careers and wait until 35 or beyond to establish their families. many women have embraced a "male model" of single-minded career focus, and the result is "an epi- demic of childlessness" among professional women. She con- ducted a national survey of 1,647 “high-achieving women," of 1,168 who earn in the top 10 percent of income of their age group or hold degrees in law or medicine and another 479 who are highly educated but are no longer in the work- force. What she learned shocked her. She found that 42 percent of high-achieving women in corporate America-companies with 5,000 or more employees-were still childless after age 40. That ratio was 49 percent of women who earn $100,000 or many Hewlett argues that Critical Thinking Questions made up 1. Hewlett suggests a problem for women in their twenties: The best years for having children coincide with the best years for establishing a career. How do you think women should handle this situation? What role should men play when their partners face this predicament? Explain. 2. Some people believe that organizations should share some of the responsibility for childbearing, which is absolutely necessary for a society's self-preservation. Concepts such as the "mommy track," "baby paid sabbat- ical," and "child care at work" have been proposed as ways that firms can fulfill this responsibility. Do you agree? Do you think firms would offer such programs vol- untarily without government mandate? Explain. 3. Many managers look negatively at a "résumé gap"-the duration of time a person is not in the workforce. Although few managers would admit it, they might not hire a woman of childbearing age or promote her to a more responsible position for fear that she might become pregnant. How can a firm deal with these potential biases? Explain. more. Many other women were able to have only one child because they started their families too late. “They've been making a lot of money," says Dr. David Adamson, a leading fer- tility specialist at Stanford University, "but it won't buy back the time." Hewlett argues that be childless. When she asked women to recall their intentions many women did not actually choose to at the time they were finishing college, Hewlett found that only 14 percent said that they definitely did not want to have children. For most women whom Hewlett interviewed, childlessness was what one called "a creeping non-choice." Time passes, work is relentless. The travel, the hours-relationships are hard to sustain. By the time a woman marries and feels settled enough in her career to think of starting a family, it may often be too late. "They go to a doctor, take a blood test and are told the game is over before it even begins," says I.A.'s Madsen. "They are shocked, devastated and angry." Women generally know their fertility declines with age; they just don't realize Team Exercise Assume that top executives of a high-technology firm would like to offer women more opportunities to balance career and family. These executives believe that attracting and retaining talented women will give the firm a competitive advantage. how much and how fast. 151 ww Discussion Case 1 YOU MANAGE IT! Making Time for a Baby from According to Hewlett, "In just 30 fearing our fertility to squandering it-and very unwittingly." A few years later after the publication of Hewlett's book, Lawrence H. Summer, President of Harvard University, created a furor in 2005 by arguing that bias could not entirely explain the lack of gender diversity in the sciences. According to him, "what is behind all of this (disparity in representation by gender) is the general clash between people's (read women) legitimate family desires and employers' current desire for high power and high intensity." He made other remarks that high power and high intensity are innate or intrinsic to males (for whom presumably family life is less important), and hence gender discrimination by employers is a lesser factor in explaining the shortage of women in certain occupations. Summer resigned in 2006 under intense pressure by faculty and students at Harvard. years we've gone age 20, the risk of miscarriage is about 9 percent; it doubles by age 35, then doubles again by the time a woman reaches her early forties. As many women have become dedicated to their careers-putting off having children to focus on their work- there has been a 100 percent rise in the past 20 years of child- less women ages 40 to 44. Economist Sylvia Ann Hewlett states in her book, Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest At for Children (Talk Miramax Books), that ambitious young women who hope to have kids are heading down a bad piece of road if they think they can spend a decade establishing their careers and wait until 35 or beyond to establish their families. many women have embraced a "male model" of single-minded career focus, and the result is "an epi- demic of childlessness" among professional women. She con- ducted a national survey of 1,647 “high-achieving women," of 1,168 who earn in the top 10 percent of income of their age group or hold degrees in law or medicine and another 479 who are highly educated but are no longer in the work- force. What she learned shocked her. She found that 42 percent of high-achieving women in corporate America-companies with 5,000 or more employees-were still childless after age 40. That ratio was 49 percent of women who earn $100,000 or many Hewlett argues that Critical Thinking Questions made up 1. Hewlett suggests a problem for women in their twenties: The best years for having children coincide with the best years for establishing a career. How do you think women should handle this situation? What role should men play when their partners face this predicament? Explain. 2. Some people believe that organizations should share some of the responsibility for childbearing, which is absolutely necessary for a society's self-preservation. Concepts such as the "mommy track," "baby paid sabbat- ical," and "child care at work" have been proposed as ways that firms can fulfill this responsibility. Do you agree? Do you think firms would offer such programs vol- untarily without government mandate? Explain. 3. Many managers look negatively at a "résumé gap"-the duration of time a person is not in the workforce. Although few managers would admit it, they might not hire a woman of childbearing age or promote her to a more responsible position for fear that she might become pregnant. How can a firm deal with these potential biases? Explain. more. Many other women were able to have only one child because they started their families too late. “They've been making a lot of money," says Dr. David Adamson, a leading fer- tility specialist at Stanford University, "but it won't buy back the time." Hewlett argues that be childless. When she asked women to recall their intentions many women did not actually choose to at the time they were finishing college, Hewlett found that only 14 percent said that they definitely did not want to have children. For most women whom Hewlett interviewed, childlessness was what one called "a creeping non-choice." Time passes, work is relentless. The travel, the hours-relationships are hard to sustain. By the time a woman marries and feels settled enough in her career to think of starting a family, it may often be too late. "They go to a doctor, take a blood test and are told the game is over before it even begins," says I.A.'s Madsen. "They are shocked, devastated and angry." Women generally know their fertility declines with age; they just don't realize Team Exercise Assume that top executives of a high-technology firm would like to offer women more opportunities to balance career and family. These executives believe that attracting and retaining talented women will give the firm a competitive advantage. how much and how fast. 151

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