Analysis Of The Article 'Management Women And The New Facts Of Life'

“Management Women and the New Facts of Life” is an article that was published in a Harvard Business review by Felice N. Schwartz, that ignited many opinions bombarding the capability of women to exceed under limitations. In the article, Schwartz addresses the topic of inequality among women in the workplace and the impact having a family can have on their career and development, a challenge that has yet to be solved then and now throughout corporate America. While examining the difficult challenges women face in the workplace, she also provides readers with her perceptive of a proper solution that involves full disclosure and part-time functioning. Suggesting women be willing to omit their sense of privacy as they seek a more fitting work environment

The stereotypical sexist ideas are what creates the challenge of inequality women continue to face today. This prompts her to divide women into two specific groups: “career and family” driven women: mothers who desire the development of their career with the flexibility of balancing a family, and “career-only” driven women: who put their careers front and center above all else. It is a difficult decision to make for women when determining who they want to be for not only themselves but for their future. As indicated, diversity in what women want is a crucial part in managing the characteristics of women from each group. Like many men, solely career-driven women decide to sacrifice any existence of a personal life in order to take full advantage of opportunities available. Oftentimes, these women are referenced with the term masculinity while career-only driven “mothers” are criticized for feeling content, while allowing others to raise their children as they pursue their career. Schwartz assures women that being “career-only” driven is ok and says we need such women to serve as role models for younger female adults to allow for a competitive job market to grow. Schwartz suggests employers welcome career-primary women and identifying them early on and

If women uphold Schwartz suggested solution “within a very few years, women will equal men in numbers as well in every area of economic activity” (Schwartz, 75). Even while seeing this happen many times today the fact of the matter today is that women still fall short of equal pay. Schwartz highlights in her article a very important aspect that remains the issue to this problem, when she says “to make women equal to men in the workplace we have chosen on the whole not to discuss this single most significant difference between them. Unless we do, we cannot evaluate the cost of recruiting, developing, and moving women up” (Schwartz, 75). The topic of maternity maybe an uncomfortable topic to discuss with both your employee or your employer but, in order to evaluate the cost of this difference between men and women, is to address it from the very beginning. If women learn to detract their value of privacy with limitations about maternity and be more open about the topic with employers the possibility of flexibility can become greater. Driving employers to embrace the identity of both the “career-only” and “career and family” driven paths. The key is to allow women the option to rotate back and forth into their desired role, the same for