Dr. T. J. Bryan, the chancellor of Fayetteville State University, recently spoke at the Professional Women’s luncheon.

In her address, Dr. Bryan emphasized the role of women both in the home and workplace.

"We are the foundation and backbone of society," Dr. Bryan said. "I'm not saying that we're super women, but some days we come close."

Dr. Bryan told the crowd that like most people, she has been struggling to cope with the tragedy at Virginia Tech.

"As a chancellor, I'm concerned about the safety of my students," Dr. Bryan said. "But we can't put college campuses in a bubble. We do need to be alert, vigilant and be aware of students who seem separated from college life."

Even in the midst of tragic changes like the Virginia Tech shootings, Dr. Bryan said there are opportunities for rebirth and growth.

Hanah Cho for the Sun-Sentinel looks at the recent AAUW study.

Here's a news flash: Women get paid less than men.

Okay, so that's not anything new.

But even just a year out of college, women earn 20 percent less than their male counterparts.

Ten years after graduation, the pay gap gets worse with women earning 69 percent of what men earn, according to a new study by the American Association of University Women Educational Foundation.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore, started a Web-based program called "Women Helping Women Succeed" where students can sign up for e-courses on topics such as leadership, mentorship and networking.

The project, with a $5,000 grant from AAUW, was launched earlier this year.

Sheila Greenwood, a diversity manager in human resource services at the university, says the purpose of the program is to increase awareness of educational and career issues women are facing, including pay disparity.

Female students must have such knowledge "in order to deal with the issue," Greenwood says. "We have to be more educated in what we can do, and professions that we're not going into as females."

M.P. McQueen for The Wall Street Journal reports that disabilities in the workplace are rising.

Disabilities among American workers are growing at an accelerating pace, prompting employers to accommodate more maladies in the workplace, according to new government and industry studies.

The problem is increasingly related to unhealthy lifestyles, including poor eating habits and lack of exercise, insurers and researchers say. Also, an aging work force and rising rates of obesity lead to ailments such as back pain, knee and hip injuries and diabetes. And improved treatments for diseases such as cancer and heart disease have meant that some patients who otherwise would have died survive, but with disabilities.

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The most sought-after corporate board members are those who curry favor with fellow directors, not those who are active in standing up for shareholders, a new academic study has concluded.

The study paints an unflattering picture of outside directors in corporate America, who have come under increased scrutiny in recent years following a series of major U.S. business scandals.

The study by business professors James Westphal of the University of Michigan and Ithai Stern of Northwestern University suggests that directors - who are supposed to be watchdogs for shareholders - still are not independent enough.

The study, based on a survey of 760 directors at large and medium-size U.S. companies, found that directors who ingratiate themselves with peer directors and avoid challenging management can increase their chances of gaining additional board seats at other companies.
"Our findings indicate that directors who engage in monitoring and control behavior are effectively punished in the director labor market," Westphal and Stern wrote. "They are less likely to be selected onto additional boards, and thus they are less likely to become central in the board network" that exists throughout corporate America.

The study, which appears in the current issue of the Academy of Management Journal, is based on survey comments from directors at 300 randomly selected companies.

Anne D'innocenzio, AP Business Writer, reports that Wal-Mart violates workers’ rights.

NEW YORK — Wal-Mart's exploitation of weak U.S. labor laws interferes with workers' rights to organize and violates the human rights of its employees, according to a report by Human Rights Watch, an independent nongovernment organization.

In a 210-page report released Monday, Human Rights Watch said Wal-Mart uses an arsenal of sophisticated tactics — some of which it says are illegal_ aimed at thwarting union organization and creating a climate of fear for its 1.3 million U.S. workers.

The Human Rights Watch study was based on interviews with 41 current and former Wal-Mart workers and managers, as well as labor lawyers and union organizers, between 2004 and early 2007. The organization also said it analyzed cases against Wal-Mart charging the company with violating U.S. labor and employment laws.

While Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is not alone in engaging in illegal anti-union tactics, the retailer "stands out for the extreme sophistication and aggressiveness of its anti-union strategies," said Carol Pier, senior researcher on labor rights and trade for Human Rights Watch and author of the report.

The Boston Globe reports that female lawyers are not pursuing path to partnership.

For women, the law remains a frustrating profession.

Female lawyers continue to face intractable challenges in their attempts to become partners, causing them to abandon law firm careers -- and the legal profession entirely -- at a dramatically higher rate than men, according to a local study to be released today.

The study echoes the findings of other recent major reports, but offers more detailed statistics and demographic data. It also aims to draw attention to the social consequences of this troubling exodus: As fewer women ascend to leadership positions in their firms, the pool of women qualified to become judges, law professors, business chiefs , and law firm managers is shrinking.

Fortune's Stanley Bing answers questions about what goes on at the office.

How do you handle a boss who is physically present at work, but never does any work? All day, every day, he spent his time taking care of personal stuff (rental properties, trading accounts, real estate deals, family matters, food and jokes, telling stories to other people).

All work that needs his approval or reviews are pending...for weeks if not months. Should I go above him? His boss is not that much better. Or simply do things my way?

Kim Perez threw in the towel on commuting three years ago, writes Cindy Krischner Goodman for the Miami Herald.

Now, Perez gets to work by climbing a dozen stairs in her sweats to a desk in her bedroom. The Weston mother of three works as a home-based customer service agent and sets her shifts in half-hour blocks, around school schedules and PTA meetings. Perez says she has permanently ditched the stress of Corporate America. ``When I take my headset off, I'm done with work.''

Working from home has long been attractive to some. And there's a growing number of American workers who crave control over their schedules, hate their commutes, are frustrated with high gas costs and want to become home-based customer service agents.
These things, combined with more innovations in technology, are fueling industry growth as more customer service companies begin using home-based agents.

Workplace expert Tory Johnson suggests anyone considering the career learn what accounts a firm has before signing on. ''It's difficult to deliver a high level of customer service if you're not passionate about the products,'' says Johnson, CEO of Women For Hire. She also recommends a basic aptitude for trouble shooting. ``If you panic at the slightest computer glitch, you could become sour on the industry.''

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- If the typical stay-at-home mother in the United States were paid for her work as a housekeeper, cook and psychologist among other roles, she would earn $138,095 a year, according to research released Wednesday.

This reflected a 3 percent raise from last year's $134,121, according to Salary.com Inc , Waltham, Mass.-based compensation experts.

The 10 jobs listed as comprising a mother's work were housekeeper, cook, day care center teacher, laundry machine operator, van driver, facilities manager, janitor, computer operator, chief executive officer and psychologist, it said.

The typical mother puts in a 92-hour work week, it said, working 40 hours at base pay and 52 hours overtime.

A mother who holds full-time job outside the home would earn an additional $85,939 for the work she does at home, Salary.com.

Last year she would have earned $85,876 for her at-home work, it said.

Salary.com compiled the online responses of 26,000 stay-at-home mothers and 14,000 mothers who also work outside the home.

/PRNewswire/ -- Although many organizations,
including the federal government, tout breastfeeding babies during the
first six months of life as the healthiest choice new mothers can make for
their child, a new survey by the not-for-profit National Women's Health
Resource Center (NWHRC) and Medela, Inc. reveals 32 percent of new mothers
give up breastfeeding less than seven weeks after returning to work because
of significant barriers. This is particularly true of women in retail
settings, younger moms and those with lower paying jobs.

Many work environments are falling short of supporting women and
providing the resources they need to succeed at breastfeeding while
working. The biggest barriers include no privacy, inflexible schedules,
lack of refrigeration to store breast milk and insufficient or lack of
company policies to allow them to take an adequate number of breaks to
pump. In fact, while 60 percent of the survey respondents believe that the
perception of breastfeeding in the workplace has grown more positive in
recent years, 35 percent feel that there has been no change, and five
percent consider it to have grown more negative.

The Badger Herald reports that an equal pay issue between male and female professors inspired a lawsuit on behalf of the female professors.

Seven female medical school professors at Pennsylvania State University sued their employer last week, saying they have been paid less than their male counterparts and have received fewer benefits for the same job.

The professors are asking for back pay in addition to any benefits that are disparate as a result of the alleged discrimination.

The women’s lawyer, Clifford Haines, said the professors have tried to achieve equality in the workplace, adding that suing is a last resort.

“This is not their first choice,” Haines said. “[It is] the only alternative they are left with.”
Haines said the women have felt disrespected in the workplace for many years, adding they should be “adequately and appropriately compensated” for the job they do.

“I think that every woman who is in the position these women are in — who is confronted with a long history of disparity in income — feels a lack of respect that represents a critical part of what my clients want,” Haines said.

The lawsuit, Haines added, places the professors in an awkward situation and jeopardizes their jobs.

Barbara Rabinovitz for Lawyers Weekly Weighs in on the Recent Study

Women attorneys caught in the professional-personal vise that squeezes their time for work and family are continuing to leave the state’s large law firms in significant numbers, but they are finding employment in other law-related sectors far less demanding of their time, according to a newly released survey.

The 2005-2006 study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Workplace Center confirms earlier findings about the ever-increasing numbers of young women entering the law profession while their older female colleagues, juggling the responsibilities of big-firm practice and child-rearing, are exiting law firms at ever-faster rates.

However, this latest survey, which examined rates of attrition among women at large firms and their subsequent career decisions, found that more than 50 percent of the “leavers” of law-firm practice move on to lawyer jobs in government, non-profit organizations or business — sectors said to be more accommodating of the dual demands of work and family.

“Women are not making a choice to stay home as full-time caregivers,” said Boston attorney Pamela E. Berman, acknowledging she was “surprised” to learn that women who leave law firms “don’t stay home; they opt to practice law in another setting.”

The Free Lance-Star reports on the rankings of the "Best Places to Work in the Federal Government."

Worker participation in the latest survey increased by almost 50 percent, demonstrating the growing acceptance of this vital tool to encourage employee feedback on their work environment.

Here are some survey highlights:

Since the last survey in 2005, employee satisfaction increased in 41 percent of all federal organizations.

Among racial and ethnic groups, Asian-Americans reported the highest employee satisfaction, with Hispanics second.

Women were slightly more satisfied than men, and workers under 40 have higher satisfaction rates than those over 40.

Here is the survey's list of the 15 best places to work in the federal government:

1) Nuclear Regulatory Commission

2) Government Accountability Office

3) Securities and Exchange Commission

4) NASA

5) Department of Justice

6) Department of State

7) Social Security Administration

8) General Services Administration

9) Environmental Protection Agency

10) Department of the Army

11) Department of the Air Force

12) Department of Commerce

13) Department of Defense

14) Department of the Treasury

15) Tie: departments of Labor and Veterans Affairs

Lawson Wulsin, for the Cincinnati Enquirer, writes, “Bullying in the workplace does not have to be a career buster.”

Twice your new boss has proposed that you "transfer over." Over and down. "We're restructuring your division," she said.

What's the problem? Where's my performance evaluation? "We'll get back to you," she said, and never did.

Why have my lunch buddies not been available? Why do I not find out about key meetings? When will the ax fall?

In the past month, I've heard tales like this from patients, a colleague and a friend. Like sexual harassment 30 years ago, workplace bullying is a blooming focus of talk and study.

Defined by the Workplace Bullying Institute as "repeated, health-harming mistreatment of an employee by verbal abuse or threatening or intimidating conduct that interferes with work," workplace bullying is usually perpetrated by bosses (71 percent of the time) on women (80 percent). Half of all bullying is woman-on-woman.

Debbie Cafazzo, for The News Tribune writes, More than three decades ago, as the feminist movement drew more women to the workplace, American attitudes about gender roles and families underwent a revolution.

Now, what’s happening seems more like evolution than revolution. And some wonder if the trends might actually be reversing.

“It’s important for the public to understand that change doesn’t occur in a linear way, with either good or bad outcomes,” says Stephanie Coontz, a family historian at The Evergreen State College in Olympia who serves as director of research and public education for the Council on Contemporary Families. Instead, she says, there are always trade-offs.

“We are certainly never going to go back to a situation where everyone is married,” say Coontz, whose 2005 book “Marriage, A History,” documented the transformation of marriage. Nor does she believe that most people in the future will spend the majority of their lives married.

Newsday columnist Patricia Kitchen writes that emotional outbursts at the office are usually considered taboo.

Hannah Seligson says she's not prone to crying. But one day, just four months into her first job, she was called into the big boss's office and told that her immediate supervisor was not happy with her work.

Seligson, now 24, lost it.

She was running on four hours of sleep and immersed in creating an elaborate PowerPoint presentation. So instead of a flicker of a choke-up that might have gone unnoticed, she flipped into full water-sprinkler mode. It came to a point where "I was dry-heaving. I couldn't control myself," she says. "I was just floored. I had been working so hard."

Five months later she had another bad day -- she got fired. But this time she says she shed no tears: "I was just angry I hadn't quit first."

Yes, emotional outbursts at work are generally considered taboo. Just listen to what Martha Stewart said on the TV show "The Apprentice" to a young woman who insisted she was so embarrassed that she wanted to cry: "Cry and you're out of here," Martha told her. "Women in business don't cry, my dear."

Stephanie Armour, for USA TODAY, writes, Some companies are adopting policies that require employees to speak only English on the job, spurring a backlash of lawsuits alleging that such rules can discriminate against immigrants.

The English-only policies are coming as the number of immigrants in the USA soars: Nearly 11 million residents are not fluent in English, according to U.S. Census data, up from 6.6 million in 1990. Nearly 34 million residents are foreign-born, according to 2003 U.S. Census data. That's up from 24.6 million in 1996.

"This is becoming a much bigger issue," says Amy McAndrew, an employment lawyer at Philadelphia-based Pepper Hamilton. "Employers want to have policies because of safety and customer service, but they have to be careful not to be discriminatory."

Competing in an aggressive marketplace isn’t slowing the progress being made by women business owners, reports Robert Cole for The Kansas City Star.

In the last two decades, the number of majority women-owned firms increased at about twice the rate of all U.S. firms.

Businesses owned by women of color are growing at five times the rate of all privately held firms, according to the Center for Women’s Business Research.

Most owners think there’s little disadvantage for women operating a business. But getting proper credentials can help get your foot in the door, said Courtney Welch, owner of Landworks Inc., a landscaping company based in Edwardsville, Kan.

This month, men and women across the nation will graduate from college and enter the world of work. Yet, many will do so without the skills they'll need to survive and thrive in the workplace.

(PRWEB) May 8, 2007 -- The National Association of Colleges and Employers recently reported that communication skills top the list of what employers look for the most in employees and job candidates. Ironically, communication skills also top the list of skills most lacking in new college graduates.

It's no wonder why employers value good communication as much as they do. It's a skill that prevents accidents and mistakes; saves time and money; and resolves problems among coworkers, bosses or customers, according to Marsha J. Ludden, M.A., author of the new workbook Effective Workplace Communication, Third Edition.

Despite its impact on workplace efficiency, communication is still a skill everyone from new graduates to seasoned professionals struggle to perfect. Often this is because people forget about the most important component of good communication -- active listening. Ludden believes listening is not only essential in the workplace, but to an individual's career success as well.

The Tribune weighs in on the equal pay issue.

No one should be surprised at the recent report that a pay gap still exists between men and women. The issue of women's rights and equality has been around for generations. And while changes have been made, progress seems incredibly painful and disturbingly inappropriate.

But let's keep the situation in perspective. It's been less than 100 years since women were granted the right to vote in the United States. (The 19th Amendment was ratified on Aug. 18, 1920.)

This doesn't mean women should just accept the status quo. What it does mean is society as a whole -- men and women -- must have a heightened awareness that change is needed, but it definitely will be up to the women to lead the charge for reform.

Elsewhere, MSNBC contributor Eve Tahmincioglu reports that one reason for the pay gap is that women do not speak up.

Shellye Archambeau knows a lot about how much men and women make in corporate America, having been a top executive for more than two decades, running major businesses at companies such as IBM and Blockbuster.

Could it be that women are partly to blame for the persistent pay gap between males and females in the work force? Are many of us lame negotiators, afraid to toot our own horns and bring up the taboo subject of money?

Archambeau thinks so.

Women aren't the only victims of sexual harassment in the workplace, reports Scott Flander. More than 15 percent of all harassment claims filed with federal and state EEO agencies now come from men -- a figure that's been steadily rising since the early 1990s.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports that during the last fiscal year, 15.4 percent of the approximately 12,000 sexual-harassment claims came from men, compared with 14.3 percent in the prior fiscal year, and 9 percent in 1992.

Often, such cases involve men who are harassed by other men because they are perceived as being gay -- whether or not they are actually gay, says Deborah Zalesne, a law professor at the City University of New York, who specializes in sexual harassment law.

If you're not Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts or even Britney Spears, it's no picnic making a career comeback after time out of the workplace.

Tory Johnson, Good Morning America’s workplace contributor and Women for Hire’s CEO, asks, Are you really ready to reenter the job market?

AP Sports Columnist Nancy Armour writes that the NBA gets race and workplace right.

Say what you want about the dress code brouhaha or the study that came out last week suggesting racial bias among referees. When it comes to the touchy issues of race and workplace diversity, the NBA gets it. Better than most.

The NBA got an A- when it comes to the number of minorities and women in top jobs, according to the annual Racial and Gender Report Card. When the season began, 40 percent of the NBA's head coaches were black. It has the only black CEOs and presidents in men's pro sports, and three of its 30 teams have black general managers.

Associated Press Writer, Bradley S. Klapper, reports on a recent U.N. Study.

The disabled, gays and lesbians, and people living with HIV/AIDS are suffering from new and more subtle forms of workplace discrimination, the U.N. labor agency said Thursday.

Despite major advances in the fight against discrimination, gender, race and religion continue to determine how people are treated in the employment market and at the workplace, the International Labor Organization said in its flagship report on global working conditions.

Women are especially prone to labor discrimination, the ILO said in outlining only a mixed bag of success since the last installment of its "equality at work" series four years ago.

Dana Knight, reporting for IndyStar.com, looks at how being a parent prepares one for the office.

No CEO or high-ranking manager's career skills can compare to Dawn Nowakoski's. She's a pro at being patient with her subordinates, solving problems and perfecting time management.

After nearly two decades honing her skills at home with her children, Nowakoski has entered the work force and says nothing could have prepared her better than motherhood.

Conventional workplace thinking says combining a career and motherhood means somehow being out of whack. But could it be that being a mom gives women an advantage in the workplace?

"We can make the most of it by knowing ourselves and the strengths we have gained through motherhood," says Kelly Watson, president of Career Partners, which works with executives who want to succeed at work and family.

BusinessWeek Online reports that there are plenty of jobs for MBA graduates.

After his interviews were over this spring, Michigan State University MBA student Derek Teo waited for an offer. The 29-year-old marketing major from Singapore was nervous he would be left without a job when he graduated. But within days he had three options to choose from. "I would have been surprised just to get one," Teo says. "But when I got two in one day and one a few days later, I was very surprised."

With multiple offers, Teo had the chance to evaluate which position would best fit his career plan and keep him close to his wife, Hong Hui Tang, who was also assessing several options. "I looked at my interests and what I wanted to be doing," he says. The couple elected to work an hour and a half away from each other, Teo at Whirlpool (NYSE:WHR - News) and Tang at Motorola (NYSE:MOT - News).

In Demand

Like Tang and Teo, the typical MBA graduate will consider more than one offer this year. While it wasn't too many years ago that students were happy with a single offer, 2006 graduates snagged an average of 2.3 offers, according to a study by career adviser WetFeet.

And this year, companies expect to hire 22% more MBAs than a year ago, according to the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE)--the highest increase since 2001, thanks to retiring baby boomers and the strong economy (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/3/07, "Survey: MBAs Search for Google").

Read Sue Van Der Hout’s Interview with Tory Johnson, CEO of Women for Hire and Workplace Contributor for Good Morning America here.

Julia Feldmeir, Washington Post Staff writer, reports on how to give yourself praise at work without sounding like a braggart.

Trouble talking yourself up in the workplace? Focus on the positive.

Tory Johnson, chief executive of the job assistance company Women for Hire, says people worry too much about being judged, a fear that can prevent some from touting their achievements. Johnson says that when she tells an anecdote about a brief call she received from Bill Clinton, who congratulated her on a career fair she held after Sept. 11, 2001, she gets two responses: "One is a smile, as if to say, 'You go, girl!" she says. "The other is much more of a look to say, "Well, well, isn't Tory pleased with herself?" Ultimately, as a small-business owner, Johnson chooses to be proud of her accomplishments and share them. "If I focused on the naysayers, I'd never speak up," she says.

Writer Ellen Goodman reports that discrimination against moms is practiced openly.

It's become a Mother's Day tradition on a par with candy, flowers and guilt. While advertisers wax poetically about the priceless work of motherhood, economists tally up the paycheck for the services she performs.

This year, salary.com estimates the value of a full-time mom at $138,095, up 3 percent from last year. The monetary value of a second-shift mom is $85,939, on top of her day job.

But, alas, the check is not in the mail. Nor will mom find it next to the maple syrup on her bed tray. Motherhood is what the economists call a monopsony, a job for which there is only one employer. And it's a rare child who's saved up to fill mom's piggybank, let alone a 401(k).

Mothers in the workplace still are treated as if they were a third gender. Here's a Mother's Day card from a study just published by Shelley Correll in the American Journal of Sociology: Correll performed an experiment to see if there was a motherhood penalty in the job market. She and her colleagues at Cornell University created an ideal job applicant with a successful track record, an uninterrupted work history, a boffo resume, the whole deal. Then they tucked a little telltale factoid into some of the resumes with a tip-off about mom-ness. It described her as an officer in a parent-teacher association.

PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, in honor of Mother's Day, many of the nation's most influential women's groups, including the National Council of Women's Organizations, the National Organization of Women (NOW), CODEPINK, National Congress of Black Women, National Committee on Pay Equity, Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW), National Women's Conference, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, International Women's Democracy Center, Coalition of Labor Union Women, Black Women United for Action, National Women's Political Caucus, Veteran Feminists of America, and the Dolores Huerta Foundation signed a joint letter that calls on Wal-Mart to address its record of mistreating women workers and help "make this Mother's Day the best ever for Wal-Mart's Associates and mothers all across our country."

The New York Times reports, human resources professionals and career counselors say that in the last several years, more high-level executives (those making more than $150,000) have turned to executive coaches and professional résumé writers. They see it as a way to gain an edge in self-marketing, said Steven Miranda, chief human resource and strategic planning officer for the Society for Human Resource Management.

There is a sense among some executives that using traditional search firms is still effective, but that these firms essentially work for the employer, not the job seeker, he said.

Tory Johnson, president of Women for Hire, a group in New York that organizes career expos and seminars, recently coached a client for two months, charging just over $15,000 for the service.

“We did everything for her, from revising her résumé, to prepping her for interviews and negotiations and putting her in direct contact with recruiters and decision makers,” Ms. Johnson said. “A committed individual who is willing to do his or her part, not just rely on the expertise of a coach, can and usually does land a position faster and for more money than those who go it alone.”

Ms. Johnson said her client found a $185,000-a-year executive position that includes bonuses and other incentives.

For Bend Weekly News, Michael Kinsman writes that discrimination was supposed to have been put to rest 44 years ago. President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act on June 10, 1963.

The law said employers must pay equal wages to men and women who perform jobs that require substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility, and that are performed under similar working conditions.

There is no ambiguity there. The law is straightforward.

The arguments beg for us to move ahead of this issue and start treating women more equitably in our workplaces.

Whether you're a college student, a seasoned professional with 30 years under your belt, or a mom looking to make a career comeback, we believe every woman has something to share with others. Do you think you have a flair for combining humor and seriousness to your career-related triumphs and challenges to engage other women? Would your workplace anecdotes and experiences provide comic relief or valuable lessons to your peers?

If you've answered yes to both questions, we'd love to welcome you as a Women For Hire blogger. We're selecting a group of every day women to submit daily, weekly or bi-weekly content offering a fresh perspective on any number of topics. From working at home and managing work and family to dealing with office politics, and navigating advancement and leadership obstacles to overcoming job search rejection, please send us a sample of the type of content you'd like to contribute. Also include a brief summary of your background and experience, along with the frequency you'd like to contribute. Blog entries should be about 250 words. E-mail submissions to blogger@womenforhire.com by July 13.

Infozine.com reports on a recent study published in Law & Social Inquiry.

A study published in Law & Social Inquiry conclusively demonstrates that federal efforts to improve diversity in the workplace are effective at the management level. The groundbreaking new study evaluates the efficacy of both discrimination lawsuits and affirmative action compliance reviews at improving the numbers of women and minorities moving into management positions, finding that both methods prove beneficial.

"For those who argue that civil rights enforcement has been merely ceremonial, we offer clear evidence that compliance reviews and Title VII lawsuits have had a significant impact on the careers of women and minorities," say study authors Alexandra Kalev and Frank Dobbin, who insist that the continued involvement of the federal government in diversifying business remains essential.

(MARKET WIRE) -- May 14, 2007 -- Based on findings released today by WITI (Women in Technology International) and Compel Ltd., a management consulting and research firm, there is a simultaneously fascinating and disturbing paradox at play in today's technology workplaces. According to research conducted jointly by the organizations, 75 percent of today's women in technology roles would advise a young woman starting her career to enter a technology-related field. Yet, only 52 percent believe their organizations offer "favorable climates" for women.

The findings in the "Women in Technology 2007 Report" derive from an on-line survey conducted and analyzed from December 2006 through March 2007. A total of 1,985 women responded to 34 multiple-choice and three open-ended questions.

Stepanie Armour reports that English Only Policies in the Workplace are Creating Lawsuits

Some companies are adopting policies that require employees to speak only English on the job, spurring a backlash of lawsuits alleging that such rules can discriminate against immigrants.

The English-only policies are coming as the number of immigrants in the U.S. soars: Nearly 11 million residents are not fluent in English, according to U.S. Census data, up from 6.6 million in 1990. Nearly 34 million residents are foreign-born, according to 2003 U.S. Census data. That's up from 24.6 million in 1996.

"This is becoming a much bigger issue," says Amy McAndrew, an employment lawyer at Philadelphia-based Pepper Hamilton. "Employers want to have policies because of safety and customer service, but they have to be careful not to be discriminatory."

Connie Glaser, bizwomen columnist and author of GenderTalk Works: Seven Steps for Cracking the Gender Code at Work, dissects the differences between the way men and women communicate in this Q&A first published in the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Find out the answers to these questions:
What is the main difference between the way men and women talk?
How can women get out of the habit of apologizing excessively?

Fortune teamed up with Experience Inc. to find companies that offer impressive perks to new hires just out of college - ranging from generous salaries to workplace flexibility, from enviable benefits to serious growth opportunities.

Motley Fool contributor Rich Duprey writes, The lure of the leisurely life gets stronger the closer we get to retirement age. Whether we're facing a company mandate or a self-imposed date to take that gold watch, being a short-timer makes us think more about what we'd rather be doing.

Yet it also brings on doubts about whether we've prepared ourselves financially for the downtime. Even if you've been following a sound financial plan for years, it's not uncommon to feel some insecurity. While it's been ingrained in us that we should want to retire, it's becoming more common that simply by working a bit longer, we can ensure we achieve the financial security that will make retirement rewarding and fulfilling.

GRAND RAPIDS (AP) — The entire 19th floor and a lounge at a JW Marriott hotel being built by direct-sales giant Alticor Inc. and set to open in September will be reserved exclusively for female clientele.

Andrea Groom, a spokeswoman for the 24-story, 340-room hotel being constructed alongside the Grand River in Grand Rapids, said more than half of all business travelers are women.

"A lot of women are saying they're not feeling like they're safe when they're traveling to a strange city," Groom told The Grand Rapids Press for a story published Wednesday. "They don't necessarily want to go down to a lounge and feel like they are getting hit on by guys."

The women-only rooms will have amenities not found in other rooms, such as chenille throw blankets, ionic hair dryers, jewelry holders and special bath products. Access to those rooms will come at a $25- to $30-per-night premium over the standard rate of about $229.

Harold Core, a spokesman for the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, said he was uncertain about the legality of a hotel offering a women-only floor.

Tyler Cowen writes in The New York Times that [t]he most commonly cited culprits for the income inequality in America — outsourcing, immigration and the gains of the super-rich — are diversions from the main issue. Instead, the problem is largely one of (a lack of) education.

Immigration has a smaller influence on wages than is often believed as well. Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, both professors of economics at Harvard, estimate the numbers in their recent paper, “The Race Between Education and Technology: The Evolution of U.S. Educational Wage Differentials, 1890 to 2005,” soon to be expanded into a book.

College graduates have been gaining relative to high school graduates. But competition from immigrant labor accounts for only 10 percent of the change in the wages of unskilled workers, relative to the skilled, since 1950.

Lisa Belkin, for The New York Times, revisits a “nasty and noisy debate” inspired by a past article on “opting out.”

A study by the Families and Work Institute shows that 24 percent of women and 13 percent of men who work full-time would like to work part-time. And among the youngest workers, those now having children and most actively juggling family and career, Fortune magazine found that 61 percent would leave their job if they could find another that allows them to telecommute.

Which is leading companies to look deeper for flexibility. The law firm of Heller Ehrman, for instance, created a group called the Opt-In Project, which has spent the past year studying the way the firm does business. At the end of the month, the group plans to unveil a proposal to abandon the idea of billable hours that is deeply ingrained in the profession. “We can’t afford to keep losing all these people,” says Patricia Gillette, founder of the project. “The way we currently reward spending more and more hours at work makes no sense in a world where people demand balance.”

This growing demand for balance, or what I prefer to call sanity, is also leading businesses to accept that some employees will leave no matter how much flexibility exists, and that it is better to keep the door open for their return, rather than slamming it tight.

Marcia Heroux Pounds, for the Sun-Sentinel, reports on how to address employee complaints.

Get information from several people relevant to the situation. In one case Dionne investigated, an employee's sexual harassment claim initially was called "unsubstantiated," but workers interviewed observed several instances of the woman frantically crying as she was coming out of a manager's office.

Interview subjects in person. Dionne said that's important because body language, eye contact and other signals can be important to a witness' credibility. Choose a confidential setting and seat the interviewee closest to the door so he or she doesn't feel trapped, he advised.

Ask open-ended questions. Similar to a job interview, questioning should not be those that can be answered with a "yes" or "no."

Establish a relevant time frame. "When is the first time you met this person?" might be a beginning question, for example. He keeps drilling down to obtain relevant information.

Pause once in a while during the interview. That often prompts the other person to talk rather than sit through an uncomfortable silence. Repetitive questioning also can be effective, he says.

Ask the toughest questions last. Obtain a statement from the person at the end of the interview. Dionne recalls when he was a rookie investigator he failed to get a written, signed statement and the person later denied saying what he had said in the interview.

The scale might soon be tipping in the male-dominated, fight-to-the-death corporate arena, reports Matthew Kirdahy for Forbes.com.

For the increasing number of women who aspire to achieve "alpha status" in the workplace, there is a relatively new, apparently flourishing but hardly cheap program.
A workshop and boot camp that guarantees to turn you into a leader, BecomeAlpha has piqued the interest of the wealthy--and women especially--according to the program's co-founding partner, who goes by the moniker Drawk.

Drawk--Nathan Kwast, 30, originally from Alberta, Canada--started BecomeAlpha in November 2006 and says it seems to be more women than men seeking out his and his colleagues' counsel on confidence because females tend to be the first to admit if they're lacking this nerve, whether it's during the job interview process or when they're interacting with a mate.

MAYNARD, Mass. (BusinessWire EON/PRWEB ) May 21, 2007 -- The high school graduating class of 2007 is a tenacious and well-connected demographic, according to Monster’s first annual nationwide survey of graduating seniors. Among the findings, two-thirds of those surveyed already have work experience under their belts as they commence the next phase of their life, whether that involves pursuing higher education, beginning their career or entering the military. Monster is the leading global online careers and recruitment resource and flagship brand of Monster Worldwide, Inc. (NASDAQ: MNST).

“Monster’s inaugural High School Graduate Survey shows that seniors are not passively waiting for opportunity to knock on their door – they have strategic post-graduation plans and they realize it is never too early to consider their long-term career path,” said Diana Nicholson, senior vice president and general manager of Monster Youth. “Many students already have an intended major and are aggressively preparing for their future now.”

Jenna Russell, Globe Staff, reports on how rumors led to employees being fired.

HOOKSETT, N.H. -- No one knows exactly where the rumor started. But everyone in this small town knows what happened when the gossip -- about a close relationship between two married town employees -- finally reached the ear of one of its subjects.

Town Administrator David Jodoin was deeply troubled by the rumors about his personal life. He complained to the Hooksett Town Council, which launched an investigation of the gossip at the town offices. When the brief probe was over, the town moved quickly to action, and fired four town employees for spreading the rumor.

If town officials hoped to quell the chatter, their action has had the opposite result. The town hall drama has become the hottest topic at Robie's Country Store, the unofficial epicenter of buzz about local affairs; the rumor has been aired in the pages of local newspapers. And the firings of the four women -- long time employees who had earned stellar performance reviews -- have unleashed a wave of disbelief and anger among many residents.

The best response to a rumor is a truthful rebuttal, said Nicholas DiFonzo , a psychology professor who studies rumors at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He said rumors can be deeply damaging, but he also supported Branch's view of gossip as a normal way to work through uncertainty.

"People are going to try to figure out the facts of the matter, and they view that as their basic right," DiFonzo said.

Sharon Reed Abboud, for Quintessential Careers, interviewed Women For Hire’s CEO, Tory Johnson

Transitioning back to work can be difficult for long time stay-at-home parents. Often transitioning career-seekers have lost touch with their professional network. They send their resume in response to job ads and usually end up without a job or with a job that is below their professional level. There is a better way.

Job-seekers who have been home for three, five, or even 10 years or more can ease into a professional job if they strategize their job search carefully. By considering the following eight factors with advice from some of America’s career experts, most transitioning career-seekers should be able to jump right back into the professional work force.

Tory Johnson, CEO of Women for Hire and author of Take this Book to Work: How to Ask for (and Get) Money, Fulfillment and Advancement also urges career-seekers to network with such network members as neighborhood friends and PTA contacts.

"These are people who know your work ethic and like you and trust you -- so they are more eager to either help you get hired or hire you themselves," Johnson said.

(Alexandria, Va., May 22, 2007)—According to new numbers from the Leading Indicator of National Employment® (LINE), manufacturing hiring will be much weaker in June 2007 than it was in June 2006. Within the larger service-sector, growth will be just slightly stronger than in June 2006. LINE is a collaborative effort between the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations.

This LINE employment expectations report references the same June period as the report the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will release on July 6, 2007. The responses in the LINE survey are weighted using the proportion of total employment represented by the respondent’s industry.

Compared with a year ago, new-hire compensation is rising more slowly within manufacturing, but more rapidly within the service-sector. The number of vacant positions that employers are actively trying to fill is rising rapidly within the exempt manufacturing sector, but has dropped significantly in the exempt service-sector and in the non-exempt manufacturing and service-sectors. Recruiting difficulty increased in the service-sector, but eased in manufacturing. In both sectors, recruiting difficulty remains a major concern.

The Nation’s Liza Featherstone writes, When you pay $4 for a cup of coffee-flavored foamy milk at Starbucks, part of what you're buying is an illusion of environmental responsibility. How they treat their workers is a different story.

Last week Starbucks faced legal and political trouble from its own workers. On the third anniversary of the founding of the IWW Starbucks Union, baristas in Chicago marched into a shop and told the manager they were signing up. (Starbucks workers have chosen to organize without government-mediated elections, through an interesting model called "solidarity unionism.")

Meanwhile, baristas in Grand Rapids, Michigan announced that they were filing a legal complaint against the company for violating their organizing rights through unlawful surveillance and other questionable tactics. All over the world -- Austria, England, Spain and Australia, as well as the United States -- Starbucks workers demonstrated in front of stores to protest the company's union-busting practices.

Four town employees with 46 years of service between them were fired, in part for gossiping and discussing rumors of an improper relationship between the town administrator and another employee that Hooksett residents now agree were not true.

Gossip is ingrained in American culture, from the elementary school playground to the office water cooler. But Tory Johnson, "Good Morning America's" workplace contributor, said people should be careful about what they say when they're on the clock.

"Free speech only goes so far," Johnson said. "An employer definitely has the right to defend his reputation."

In Hooksett the four firings are ironically now the talk of the town. But for the women out of work, the controversy is not a matter of idle chatter -- they want to get back to work.

Variety columnist Pamela Robinson’s hot tip of the week: Always keep your network of business connections current - even if you take a sabbatical, or decide to travel for awhile.

Today, the women I meet & talk to want balance in their lives. They want to be married, at a younger age than the previous generation, they want to have children, & some want to be stay-at-home mothers. There is a pride in childrearing, that didn’t exist when I started my career (hence the term “latch-key kid”) & can say that it continued on until the mid to late nineties. There was a shift to wanting family life to take priority, and I believe that the first internet boom had a profound impact on this aspect of life. The big tech companies offered their employees creature comforts not formerly found in the workplace… the office became a campus, with pets allowed, childcare, cafeterias with free meals, & generally a familial feeling permeated the workplace. I distinctly remember my first visit to a company in Silicon Valley, “WebTV” before Microsoft bought them. There were animals roaming all over the offices, their were futons in the halls for overworked people who stayed up all night to nap, and everyone was in jeans, Birkenstocks & T-shirts. Quite a cultural change from the way older corporations operated or the dress codes of execs at the entertainment companies or talent agencies.

Now, most of the women I meet between 25-40 are interested in working at their convenience. They want to work from home, or work on a part-time basis, telecommute or job share if that is possible. The barriers that my generation faced are not there as blatantly as they were in the early 70’s, so the shift toward balance is easier.

Stephanie Armour, for Gannett News Service, reports on employers who are accommodating moms who breastfeed.

As the number of working mothers grows, more employers are responding by offering lactation programs and schedule changes that allow new moms to continue breastfeeding.
The number of employers with lactation programs has grown from 16 percent in 1999 to 23 percent in 2006, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. These include major employers such as S.C. Johnson, Ford Motor and Ernst & Young.

SAN DIEGO and MCLEAN, Va., May 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Science Applications International Corporation announced today that Deborah Alderson, president of its Defense Solutions Group was recognized as a winner by the Women in Technology (WIT) organization. WIT contributes to the success of professional women in the Washington technology community.

This year's awards recognize women who embody the WIT spirit to connect, lead, succeed and who have excelled in their roles as mentors, leaders and role models.

"The caliber of the nominations that WIT received this year for its Leadership Awards was outstanding," said Marguerete Luter, president of WIT. "We are thrilled to recognize Deb Alderson for her stellar contributions to the technology community at large and to SAIC specifically."

The Granholm administration on Tuesday sent official notices to unions representing state workers warning them of possible layoffs on or after June 22, reports the Lansing State Journal.

The Civil Service Commission passed rules for laying off nonunionized workers in April.
There's talk of a partial government shutdown for four days after July 4. By splitting the days off over two weeks, the state could avoid unemployment claims.
There are 14,300 state employees working in the tri-county area.

Newswise — A restrictive drinking culture at work curbs an individual’s overall alcohol intake, including outside of work, suggests research published ahead of print in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

The researchers base their findings on a detailed analysis of workplace attitudes towards drinking and drinking behaviours in over 5,000 employees in 16 different organisations, representing a range of different sectors.

The employees were quizzed about how often they drank alcohol, and when and where they did so.

And they were asked to reveal their attitudes to social drinking, including whether they thought alcohol boosted workplace morale, was good for business, alleviated boredom, improved their health, was harmful, or set a bad example.

Their responses were tied in with those of their supervisors and managers who were also quizzed about the drinking culture in their respective divisions.

Working Mother magazine Wednesday announced that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is a 2007 Best Company for Multicultural Women. Now in its fifth year, the Working Mother Best Companies for Multicultural Women initiative celebrates employers that are establishing groundbreaking diversity policies and programs to encourage the hiring and advancement of African-American, Hispanic, Asian-American and Native-American women.

"Working Mother magazine is making a difference in the way corporate America views diversity and its multicultural employees," said Suzanne Riss, editor in chief, Working Mother magazine. "They're holding managers accountable for helping workplace diversity thrive. We have the good fortune to live in one of the most culturally rich countries in the world, and Wal-Mart recognizes that this richness is a workplace asset. Harnessing the wealth of talents and perspectives that people of different backgrounds have to offer is helping Wal-Mart excel in our increasingly global and competitive world. Wal-Mart is truly leading by example."

Anthony Cronin, business editor for TheDay.com, reports that employers have to face a shifting workforce.

Barbara Reinhold sees challenges ahead for employers and employees, but she also sees opportunities, as well.

The challenge for employers, says the author and careers expert, is they need to start listening to what employees want in order to keep them around. Loyalty to employers, after all, isn't what it used to be.

And this nation's work force is shrinking, and getting older. So she says employers need to begin to “truly differentiate the important tasks from the less important ones.” There just won't be enough workers around to be able to “do things because 'that's the way we do it here.' ”

The Associated Press reports that America’s lowest-paid workers won a $2.10 raise Thursday, with Congress approving the first increase in the federal minimum wage in almost a decade.

President George W. Bush was expected to sign the bill quickly, and workers who now make $5.15 an hour will see their paychecks go up by 70 cents per hour before the end of the summer. Another 70 cents will be added next year, and by summer 2009, all minimum-wage jobs will pay no less than $7.25 an hour.

Claude Solnik, for Long Island Business News, writes that female executives are missing from the best-paid list.

Female executives failed to make the list of Long Island’s best-paid public company executives last year, as male compensation surged and the region’s top women-led companies moved out.

Cablevision chief Jim Dolan led the annual Top 100 ranking with total compensation of almost $16 million in 2006, but you have to slide off the charts to what would be position No. 154 to find a woman – Veeco Instruments Executive Vice President Jeannine P. Sargent, who earned $660,000 last year.

“It is very much the function of an ‘old boys’ network,’ ” said Dana Friedman, president of Women on the Job, a not-for-profit organization that promotes workplace rights for women. “There are qualified women who should be earning high salaries, serving in executive positions, and they’re not,” she said.

To be fair, one cause of the Top 100 shutout is that multiple companies with high-paid female executives have shipped off the Island. Linda Huett, who headed Weight Watchers when the company relocated to Manhattan in 2005, was Long Island’s top-paid public company female executive, earning $4.6 million and ranking 15th overall on the 2004 list.

John Schwartz asks in The New York Times, “When did the office become funny?”

Not your office — but that office on screen. You know, the paper supply company where Steve Carell tortures his employees on “The Office” on NBC. Or the high-tech company that a band of misfit cubicle slaves tries to rip off in “Office Space,” the 1999 cult hit by the director Mike Judge.

Television sitcoms, of course, have taken us to the office before. On “Bewitched,” Darrin Stephens’s advertising agency, McMann & Tate, was one of the few places that viewers saw outside of the cozy home at 1164 Morning Glory Circle.

Comedy may have been slow to exploit the world of work fully because television and movie writers have been more likely to see the office as a place of high drama and manipulation — a trend that seems to parallel, in some ways, the sensibility of novels.

Knowledge at Wharton reported on a recent fellowship program.

This spring, Wharton and the University of Pennsylvania law school hosted 37 professional women from the Middle East for a four-week legal and business fellowship program. Depending on their professional experience, the women attended classes at Wharton executive education or the law school, and then began five-month internships with large companies and top-tier law firms across the U.S.

The program, in partnership with America-Mideast Educational and Training Services and the U.S. State Department, teaches management, business and legal skills, and encourages women to share information and network with each other as well as the faculty.

John Paul Newport and Russell Adams report for The Wall Street Journal that golf outings are no longer as popular as they once were in the business world.

Early one Friday afternoon about 20 years ago, Wendy Baker, then a senior vice president at the insurance company Continental, was leaving her office when she ran into another female executive.

"Where is everyone?" Ms. Baker asked. Many of the company's executive men were off at a golf outing. "We're the ones in charge here. Why aren't we out there?" Ms. Baker said.

Almost immediately, she says, she began taking golf lessons, and soon she and a group of friends were playing socially on a weekly basis. Within two years she had developed enough talent to feel comfortable using golf in her business dealings. Today, Ms. Baker is president of Lloyds America, the U.S. arm of the British insurance syndicate, and a respectable 12-handicap golfer.

In a sense, business golf is a collusion that has developed over the years between business people and their clients. And it used to be much worse -- or much better, depending on your point of view. As late as the 1970s, Time magazine had a full-time staffer -- a top-flight golfer named Sonny West -- whose only duties were to play golf with the magazine's best advertising customers.

Today, though, things are different. Participation levels in golf have been flat for a decade in part because fewer people can justify the hours it takes to play a round or the expense. And the workplace has changed dramatically. Women who may not be steeped in golf now occupy executive positions, and many of the tech geeks who run the world would rather be mountain biking. At the same time, corporate perks are under intense scrutiny and booking time on the company jet for golf outings to Bermuda seldom flies anymore.

We may say as a country that we value families and mothers, but a rise in job discrimination complaints by moms highlights how far most workplaces are from that ideal, writes Nathan Newman for The Coffee House. Yesterday, to help clarify the responsibilities of employers, the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued new guidelines on what kinds of discrimination against parents is illegal.

Syndicate columnist Tom Purcell writes, The Wall Street Journal article nearly brought me to tears: Crying has become acceptable in the workplace.

A growing number of workers, especially those in their 20s and 30s, no longer see crying at work as a bad thing. They think it's bad to conceal their emotions.

Jean Twenge, a professor at San Diego State, said those workers were raised by parents who encouraged them to express their feelings -- parents who continually told them how smart and talented and perfect they are.

Now that these runts are in the workplace -- now that they're in reality -- they can't handle the pressure. Their meany bosses -- greedy fellows who care about turning profits -- are demanding and critical. No wonder everybody is crying.

One woman -- an accountant in her early 30s -- broke into tears when her boss asked her to install software on her computer. When the boss asked her why she was blubbering, the woman said, "You scare me!"

It's not just women who are crying. Although they are more likely to cry than men, it has become more socially acceptable for both men and women to cry, according to Stephanie Shields, a psychology professor at Pennsylvania State University.

The weather's getting warmer and necklines are dipping lower -- sometimes, too low.

From the beach to the mall to the office, women seem to be showing off their cleavage more than ever before. Why? According to Elisabeth Squires, author of "Boobs: A Guide to Your Girls," American breasts are getting bigger while shirts are getting smaller.

"We are seeing more cleavage these days for a few reasons. First, the fashion of the day is tight and skinny. At the same time, women are bigger than they were even 15 years ago. Bra fitters tell me that an E cup is the new C cup," Squires said on "Good Morning America."

"We have to remember that while more women are showing more cleavage, you really have to use your breast power responsibly," Squires said.

CNN Supreme Court Producer Bill Mears reports that U.S. Supreme Court Rules 5-4 in favor of Goodyear Tire in pay discrimination lawsuit.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A female worker at a tire plant who claimed pay discrimination lost her appeal before the Supreme Court on Tuesday, after the conservative majority concluded she missed a critical deadline for filing a lawsuit.

Lilly Ledbetter accused Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. of gender discrimination because court records showed she was being paid $6,000 less than men doing the same work, including those who were the lowest paid in their job duties.

But a divided 5-4 high court concluded Ledbetter had had only a federally mandated 180-day window in which to make her initial claim.

"The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) charging period is triggered when a discrete unlawful practice takes place," concluded Justice Samuel Alito. Such a "filing deadline protects employers from the burden of defending claims arising from employment decisions long past."

In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg accused her conservative colleagues of being "indifferent" to victims of pay discrimination.

Cary Silverstein, for Small Business Times, provides strategies for a healthy workplace atmosphere.

Since the Virginia Tech tragedy, more companies are deciding to focus on strategies that could help them create a more psychologically healthy workplace.

Each year, the American Psychological Association recognizes companies that work proactively to provide employees with an opportunity to feel more in control of their lives both at work and in their homes. These programs not only benefit the employee, but they pay large dividends to the employer.

Why institute a program that will lead to a psychology healthy workplace? Here are a few reasons for you to consider:

1. Two-thirds of both men and women say, “Work has a significant impact on their stress level.”
2. One-fourth of employees view their jobs as the No. 1 stressor in their lives.
3. Productivity losses related to personal and family health problems cost U.S. employers $1,685 per employee year or $225.8 billion annually.
4. Employers could save $3.50 for every dollar spent on improving their work environment in terms of reduced absenteeism and health care costs.
5. In 2001, 8.8 million sick days were used due to untreated or mistreated depression.

Freelance journalist and editor, Laura Vanderkam, asks, “When You Work For Yourself, is ‘Maternity Leave’ Possible?”

I'm rushing to write this post because at some point in the next few days (God willing) I will give birth to my first child. This is both exciting and terrifying for me. I'm sure birth is exciting and terrifying for all new parents. But my particular situation also presents an interesting challenge from a work/life perspective.

I'm a freelance journalist and editor. I work for myself. I have for the past five years. I usually work from home. As people are fond of pointing out as they notice my protruding belly, "it's so great that your work is so flexible!"

It is. I don't have to ask anyone's permission to take time off. But like many micro-business owners, I work more than fifty hours a week. Those are real hours, not "have a meeting and then hang around in the office kitchen and then schedule a pointless conference call and whoops is it noon already?" hours. If I don't drum up work, it will not appear. If my business isn't pulling in money, I will not get paid. Given these realities, the question arises: Is it even possible for the self-employed to go on maternity leave?

It's a question a growing number of women will face. The number of women-owned businesses, as the Center for Women's Business Research is fond of pointing out, is growing at twice the rate of all businesses. Entrepreneurs in general are better at blending work and family than corporate women; Creating a Life author Sylvia Ann Hewlett's groundbreaking research found that only 22% of high-achieving entrepreneurs were childless in middle age, compared with 42% of corporate women. But many of these entrepreneurs launched their businesses after they had their children.

Washington Post Services’ Mary Ellen Slayter writes about a new book that offers advice for young women in the workplace.

Don't let yourself get ``assistant-ized.''

It's one of the many perils of being a young woman in today's job market, Hannah Seligson warns in her new book, New Girl on the Job: Advice From the Trenches (Citadel Press, $19.95).

There are enough issues that specifically affect young women, such as salary negotiations and the tendency to pigeonhole women into support rather than leadership roles, that she felt they deserved their own career guide, she said.

New Girl covers the key things that any young woman needs to know to thrive at those first couple of jobs.

Young women often hang on to jobs for way too long, even jobs where they are grossly overworked and under-compensated. It's as if they are afraid to leave. But staying put comes at a cost. DON'T WASTE TIME.

Many people would like the chance to walk away from their jobs and be able to work from home, but several people fall victim to scams. Eyewitness News Everywhere uncovers legitimate work-at-home jobs for those willing to work.

Bob Sachs is a nationally known shoe seller who ships hundreds of pairs of shoes across the country every month. Sachs runs his business from his garage in Southeast Memphis.
Sachs' business is booming, and eBay considers the business so successful that the company considers him to be an expert who can help other people trying to work from home.

However, business consultant and work-at-home expert Tory Johnson says it's not easy.

"You definitely have to treat it like a business," Johnson said." "You have to remember that working from home means there's no manager looking over your shoulder. There is no person to kind of prod you along."

Johnson said you have to keep the same ready-to-work attitude as if you were going to the office everyday.

Newsday reports Motorola plans to drop 4,000 jobs.

Motorola Inc., the world's second-biggest mobile-phone maker, will eliminate 4,000 jobs, the second round of firings this year as it works to return to a profit.

[The company did not indicate how many jobs may be eliminated at the former Symbol Technologies, based in Holtsville, which it acquired last year, but a Motorola spokeswoman told Newsday the reduction will apply to "all businesses and functions, companywide." Motorola had 66,000 employees at the end of last year. Symbol reported earlier last year that it employed 1,200 on Long Island, but declined to give an updated figure this year.]

Heather Cassell reports on a study titled, “The Sexual Harassment of Uppity Women" by Jennifer L. Berdahl, Ph.D., an assistant professor of organizational behavior at Toronto University's Rotman School of Management.

"My study shows that you don't even have to be obviously butch or transgender, you just have to be outspoken, assertive, and independent to be treated this way," said Berdahl, 40, whose research is focused on workplace harassment. She began her sexual harassment research 10 years ago studying how men who deviated from gender roles were harassed in the workplace.

"It's really a pretty strong barrier put up for women in the workplace and it presents a double bind for them because if they are feminine and submissive, then they might be liked, but not respected at work," Berdahl said. "Then, if they are outspoken and assertive, they might be treated badly and derogated and put back into their place."