More Women Advancing in the Workplace : Survey: Magazine finds them gaining in corporate hierarchy. More support for parental policies is also cited by Working Mother.

L.A. Times Archives

Sept. 22, 1992 12 AM PT

From Associated Press

NEW YORK —

Women advanced further in America’s corporate hierarchy this last year, chipping away at the “glass ceiling” that has limited their executive aspirations, Working Mother said in a survey released Monday.

The magazine’s seventh annual survey of the best companies for working mothers also shows that more employers have expanded efforts to enhance the workplace for parents despite the recessionary belt-tightening that has affected many businesses.

The October issue profiles 100 companies, up from 85 last year and 75 companies in 1990. Future surveys will be limited to 100 companies, ensuring that the list is competitive, Editor-in-Chief Judsen Culbreth said.

Among companies cited for promoting women are Great Western Bank, based in Chatsworth, where nearly 60% of the highest-paying jobs are held by women. Elsewhere, a third of the marketing managers at General Mills are women, and Procter & Gamble elected six female vice presidents, the first women to hold the post in the company’s 155-year history.

Culbreth conceded that these women are not necessarily mothers--survey researchers didn’t ask whether they had children--but she said their advancement “is good news for all women,” mothers included.

In evaluating individual company policies, Working Mother researchers based their assessment on four criteria: pay, advancement opportunities, child care support and benefits--such as job-protected maternity leave, flexible work scheduling, job-sharing and allowances for the care of elderly parents.

The magazine did not rank the companies from best to worst, but said 10 were especially notable because of their high scores in these categories. They are, in alphabetical order, Aetna Life & Casualty, Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital, Corning, Fel-Pro, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, Morrison & Foerster, the St. Paul Cos. and SAS Institute.

When it comes to the biggest issues facing working women, time leads the pack, and more companies seem willing to vary the traditional 40-hour workweek to accommodate parents.

“People are willing to trade money for time, especially if it means being able to be home when a child comes home from school,” Culbreth said. Options such as job-sharing and a compressed workweek--working four 10-hour days instead of five eight-hour days--are gaining in popularity.

At the Seattle Times, for example, three reporters shared a beat so each could take two months off at a time. DuPont has a program to help match workers who want to work part-time through job sharing, and Unum Life Insurance said it plans to hire consultants to help employees establish offices in their homes.

Support for child care has also increased. A simple thing many companies can do is allow an employee to set aside pretax dollars earmarked for child care expenses.

But many companies go far beyond that. Fifty-six of the companies cited by Working Mother offer on-site or near-site child care.

S.C. Johnson & Son of Racine, Wis., for example, opened a child care center last year that now serves 200 children of employees. Besides full- and part-time day care, the company also runs after-school programs, summer camp and has 14 children enrolled in an accredited kindergarten. The company subsidizes 30% of the operating costs.

Still, it is not realistic for every company to establish a child care center, Culbreth said.

“People who work in a large metropolitan area may not want to bring their kids into the city to be at an on-site center, and many companies don’t have the $5 million to put up” to establish a day care center, she said.

Among other creative policies that ease the pressure on working parents, the St. Petersburg Times has arranged for a local hospital to care for mildly ill children for $2.50 an hour on days when parents must be at work.

Among the more generous leave policies, IBM gives 162 weeks--that’s more than three years--unpaid leave for childbirth with optional part-time phase-in.

Good Places for Moms to Work

In a survey of 100 U.S. firms, Working Mother magazine ranked 10 as the most progressive for working mothers. Also included are other California firms.

Most Progressive Company/Location

Aetna Life & Casualty/Hartford, Conn.

Beth Israel Hospital/Boston

Corning Inc./Corning, N.Y.

Fel-Pro/Skokie, Ill.

International Business Machines/Armonk, N.Y.

Johnson & Johnson/New Brunswick, N.J.

Merck & Co./Whitehouse Station, N.J.

Morrison & Foerster/San Francisco

St. Paul Cos./St. Paul, Minn.

SAS Institute/Cary, N.C.

Other California Firms Company/Location