Breaking with tradition

"Why do female MBA candidates slip off their wedding rings before going to job interviews? Why do men--with working wives--still feel the inexorable pressure of being the financial support of the family? Why does the number of men who think women have an equal chance keep going up while women feel they are standing still?" "For over thirty years, Felice Schwartz has worked for women's advancement in the workplace. She is the founder of Catalyst, an organization dedicated to that purpose, and the author of the Harvard Business Review article that touched off the controversial "Mommy Track Debate" and exposed the hidden barriers to women's career growth." "Now, in Breaking with Tradition, she tackles the big picture and reveals what life is really like for women in corporations, professional firms, and academic and public institutions; how unexpressed conflicts still undermine two-paycheck marriages; and how the bottom line of corporate America suffers when women's real needs are ignored...or sabotaged by old traditions and views." "She begins with two stunning observations. A conspiracy of silence stifles discussion of obstacles to women's advancement. And women and men are different in the workplace--the immutable difference being women have babies. Put these two facts together and one begins to understand why top management in American corporations is nearly all male and why most women who aspire to the highest level in corporate positions or professional partnerships stay childless and single." "Felice Schwartz explains why this is not only detrimental to women and men, their marriages, and their children, but why it is bad for business. She backs up her views with hard dollars and cents figures along with information gathered during Catalyst's many years of working in the field with major corporations. Most of all, she offers business leaders a battery of solutions: ways to manage maternity, the institutionalization of flexible work arrangements, a new corporate structure to replace the outmoded pyramid, and much more." "Breaking with Tradition dares to put the hidden agendas and issues "on the table" and by doing so, makes an eloquent argument for a total metamorphosis of the corporate way of life. The bottom line, says Schwartz, is that family issues are work issues; and all problems are remedial. Clear-sighted, provocative, and ultimately optimistic, this book will undoubtably stimulate discussion and debate and provide the essential groundwork for building a true partnership between women and their employers, between women and their families, and among women themselves."--BOOK JACKET.