By Lori Jolly
“We can do it!” This was a poignant signature for women in the workforce in the 1940’s. While World War II was in full swing, the role of an apron clad woman with a bouncing baby on her hip, quickly changed from turning out steaming casseroles and fluffy 3-layer cakes to a more active role. While our boys were launching missiles into foreign territories and running for cover, their caretaker role at home was quickly replaced by their wives, mothers and sisters. Munition factories were filled with women and girls who, either by choice or necessity, lined up to punch a clock every morning and left at night, having been in contact with hazardous substances such as TNT and nitric acid for 8-12 hours that day! For many of these women (referred to as ‘Munitionettes’), this was a welcome change from society’s ideal for them of dependent wives and mothers. Many husbands and boyfriends were surprised to come home to a paycheck receiving, fully independent, trouser clad clone of the image they carried with them into deployment!
I began recruiting eleven years ago. Located in a small Texas town dominated by manufacturing and industrial warehouses, I spent countless hours in my local recruiting office. Working often until 8 or 9 at night, I was fully immersed and fulfilled in my community clients having placed family, friends and complete strangers into successful positions. Over the course of these years, I interviewed many women who were the sole providers for their families. These women worked 2nd and 3rd shifts, leaving their children at home to care for themselves or in the hands of low income daycare. As my career moved on, I recruited polished career women; wives, mothers, and girls, who grew up in private schools and went on to grad school as a matter of course. The unchanging constant throughout both of these extremes remains stoically the same. A desire for more flexibility in the workplace and a more balanced home and work life. These extremes had children at home and whether your name was called over the warehouse loudspeaker to take a call from the daycare or whether it came via frantic text from the nanny, both sets of women stepped out of meetings or away from packing a truck to rush home. Would they have chosen to stay home and take care of that toddler day in and day out? Some would. Others find their fulfillment in the delicate balance of motherhood and career. And therein lies the question facing over 70% of working women and mothers today! Are we doing enough for the job that pays our bills? Finances our vacations? For the role we find such fulfillment? Are we fulfilling our children’s needs and the core role of motherhood that seems at times, threatened by the very salvation of our day job? Ah yes, there it is!
And then I became a mother myself. Oh how that changed the game! No more late nights at the office, client dinners were guilt ridden and overnight business trips? Absolutely not. I suddenly realized, I indeed, did not ‘have it all’. The term ‘have it all’ is so fluid! What it means to a mother working 2nd shift, 5 days a week in a warehouse who misses her kid’s soccer practices and bedtime is entirely different from a C level executive who is traveling 40% of the time and who misses weeks at a time! Or is it? Regardless of your career path as a woman and a mother, the need for a work life balance are strikingly the same. So what keeps us from pursuing that dream?
“What if I fall? Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?” ― Erin Hanson
Fear of the unknown can be crippling! The quote above is one we usually equate with encouraging a child in a new project or skill, but what if we took this to heart and did not care about the fall? How empowering is that! Falling is one step closer to walking and then running whether it be in a new career choice or pursuing your passion! There are hundreds of education programs that allow a working parent to complete their degree or certification in many areas. Find what you love, start your own company, search for the job that will allow you the flexibility to pick your children up from school – or, find the job that allows you to travel 40% of the time! ‘Having it all’ is entirely personal and looks different for each of us.
The heartbeat of a woman’s societal role throughout history is resoundingly strong; it is as much about perseverance and an innate understanding of her power as it is mothering and working. But how much more is it than that? It is about exploring your dreams, your interests, your heart. Family? Work? Hobbies? Endeavors? Having it all for each of us is that complex dance, the way we chose to weave the tapestry of our life that is unique to each of us. From the suffrage movement, to ‘manning’ a machine in a munitions factory or burning our bras in the 1960’s, the message is clear. You can do it, nothing is out of reach! So whether you choose to run your home based MLM business from your smartphone, make origami tulips at your kitchen table or (like me) pump breast milk for your newborn on a cross country business trip, you CAN have it all!
I was fortunate to find this work and life balance right here at San Diego Human Resources Consulting. Founder Julie Wootton realized an overlooked resource of countless strong HR professionals, like myself, who left the stringent corporate structure to take time to raise a family. Julie began hiring brilliant, family-oriented professionals, (once again like me), who needed a flexible schedule and the opportunity to work virtually from home. As a result, the SDHRC team is not only the best in the business, but we are the happiest, and it resonates in our interactions with customers, vendors and colleagues.
For more information on how to create your own work and life professional bench, give our coach a call!
