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Stepping off the career fast track is easy. What’s hard is getting back on. Careers, companies, and economies suffer when highly skilled women cannot get back where they belong (a fantastic article from HBR)

This is a fantastic article from Harvard Business School that is well worth a read, ‘Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success’. Subjects covered include Career advancement, Careers & career planning, Families & family life, Women executives, Women in business, Working conditions.

Most professional women step off the career fast track at some point. With children to raise, elderly parents to care for, and other pulls on their time, these women are confronted with one off-ramp after another. When they feel pushed at the same time by long hours and unsatisfying work, the decision to leave becomes even easier. But woe to the woman who intends for that exit to be temporary. The on-ramps for professional women to get back on track are few and far between, the authors confirm. Their new survey research reveals for the first time the extent of the problem–what percentage of highly qualified women leave work and for how long, what obstacles they face coming back, and what price they pay for their time-outs. And what are the implications for corporate America? One thing at least seems clear: As market and economic factors align in ways guaranteed to make talent constraints and skill shortages huge issues again, employers must learn to reverse this brain drain. Like it or not, large numbers of highly qualified, committed women need to take time out of the workplace. The trick is to help them maintain connections that will allow them to re-enter the workforce without being marginalized for the rest of their lives. Strategies for building such connections include creating reduced-hour jobs, providing flexibility in the workday and in the arc of a career, removing the stigma of taking time off, refusing to burn bridges, offering outlets for altruism, and nurturing women’s ambition. 

Click here to read the full article 

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