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Home Blog work-life balance The Washington Post Shares Working-Mothers’ Stories of Opting In and Out of the Workforce

The Washington Post Shares Working-Mothers’ Stories of Opting In and Out of the Workforce

June 3, 2011

Prominent writer and reporter, Brigid Schulte, posted an article today on The Washington Post: Working-Mother Readers Share Stories of Opting In and Out of the Workforce.   The article was an update to a prior piece she wrote, Movement to Keep Moms Working is Remaking the Workplace, which drew an overwhelming response and hundreds of comments from readers.  Brigid Shulte asked readers to shares their stories of opting in and opting out of the workforce, and wrote a second article based on those stories.

The recent Washington post article quoted stories of many different women, and categorized them into “inspirational” stories, “depressing” stories, and “hopeful” stories.  Some women stated that flexible work schedules like 4 days in the office “created as many problems as it solved” while others shared stories of “entire businesses that have embraced flexible work for everyone.”

The article quoted a depressing story from a mother of two children under five, who worked for a big trade association in DC for seven years:  

I’ve had good performance reviews for many years, until recently. My new supervisor, a woman who’s never married, has no children, has just announced that she’s stripping my flexibility away, because according to her, it has become such a problem, that according to her, the organization’s low morale is caused by MY flexibility. It has become her weapon of attack. Not only she’s taking my flexible schedule away, but also rewrote my job description, with expanded work responsibilities, at no pay…

Erin Giglia of Montage Legal Group was included as an example in the “inspirational” portion of the article:

….I struggled to make it work because there did not seem to be a good alternative. Laurie opted out when her baby was about 6 months old. I tried to make it work for about a year, but ultimately opted out in early 2009. Laurie and I decided to do contract work together, just for the support and to back each other up. Pretty soon, friends and friends of friends asked if they could join us, and the vision which is now Montage Legal Group was born. Montage Legal Group now has 20 freelance attorneys, all former big-firm lawyers who opted out in favor of flexibility and more time with family. Our attorneys come from schools like Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Michigan Law, Georgetown, etc. and were trained at firms like Gibson Dunn, Latham & Watkins, Morgan Lewis, Allen Matkins, etc….

The goals of the company, in addition to providing law firms with excellent attorneys at an exceptional value, are to keep women in the legal practice instead of opting out entirely, and bringing women back in after an extended absence.

The article stated “The universal theme from readers was pretty consistent: it ain’t working now, and something’s gotta give.”  Fortunately, many companies are making efforts to find solutions so they can utilize the talent pool they have already trained.  Montage Legal also strives to create positive change with its unique model.  To post your comments on Brigid Schulte’s article, click here: Working-Mother Readers Share Stories of OptingIn and Out of the Workforce. 

Filed Under: work-life balance

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