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Women executives at a panel discussion sponsored by Columbia Universiy in New York, in Dec. 2014, provide ideas for getting more women in Tech fields. Ideas include, mentoring, with early education exposure to technology careers- as early as middle school. One executive says she takes in 150 female high school students to Washington D.C. for leadership training. Other ideas are to turn maternity leave into a positive feature of women's lives by letting women who do well keep their duties by delegating them to others while they are away, and making a smooth pathway back to work full time. The suggestion is to allow a gradual transition to ramp back up to full time work, and allow flexible hours, working from home. In daily work women are encouraged to look for partnerships with other areas of the organization for getting results, and being sensitive to which areas of the organization they need to build support in.

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An ad for a state sponsored campaign to promote women having babies on "Fertility Day," September 22, in Italy, shows a man holding a cigarette that is half burned, with the line: "Don't let your sperm go up in smoke."  The ads were deemed offensive and were withdrawn. Women say the problem is not that women don't want to have babies. It is because women depend on grandparents to provide childcare in a country that lacks enough child care facilities. Companies are still backward when it comes to offering flexible hours for women with small children. Birthrate in Italy is about 1.37 per woman compared to France at about 2.0, because France does better at flexible hours, and social safety net that includes day care and subsidies for families with children. In fact women say in cities it is prudent for women to think about having a second child because of work related issues. Italy spends less on social protection benefits- about 1% of GDP. Has a low female employment rate with some young women having to sign a pre-sign a resignation letter. Only recently did premier Renzi introduce a baby bonus of 80 to 160 euros. But the culture at work and the social support net is not encouraging. ...

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Members of the U.S. Congress lead a lousy life with life split between the capital and their home state location, most are weekend dads or moms. This makes them less likely to grasp the issues of work-life balance and the issues of parenting faced by average working families or couples with both parents working, says this essay in Politico magazine. This is true also of understanding issues facing women and mothers. Hard to believe but this report points out that Congress in the U.S. does not have a family friendly leave policy and no restroom for women till 2011 on the floor of the House. Similar issues face women in Japan and other countries for women in parliament. Former Speaker Ryan says he is tired of being a "weekend Dad." Senator Biden, former vice president says of his commute from Delaware to Washington D.C., he realized that "a child has a thought he wants to share and 12-18 hours later its gone, gone, gone." ...

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John Fritze gives this exceptional report in USA Today with a gallery of black and white pictures on the life and work of an American who truly embodied some of the best spirit of America. Born on a ranch in the Arizona-New Mexico region in America's southwest in the 1920's she built in herself a remarkable resilience to start work in the law when women were not hired for legal work, choosing to start work as an unpaid legal worker at the county attorney's office in San Mateo because he had hired a woman once. Her response -"I loved my work and it was great," shows a remarkable attitude and one that reflected some of the ethos of America in the nineteenth century, what makes America and wins the respect of the world in Asian, African and Latin American countries. Her response at 75 years when retiring was to engage in work she loved and brought value to the nation- creating iCivics website to teach civics knowledge to children. She also led the College of WIlliam and Mary and engaged with young people. ...

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Ms. Claire Goldin, labor economist, wins the Nobel Prize Economics for her work on gender gaps. Claire Miller of NYT looks at the research done by Goldin that shows how women starting out from way behind in education, work and professions have caught up in education and are working in different careers and not letting marraige affect their work. Women Goldin says are now not having the same pay and opportunity only because they cannot work long and inflexible hours men do.Goldin points out that the 1940's period of women growing up missed out on opportunities but generations after that and after 1960 have pursued opportunities that were opening up with time saving appliances at home, Roe vs Wade, and Equal Pay legislation. 

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French photographer Janine Niepce shows women at work since the 1950's the period of emancipation when women gained the same rights as men in society. See these black and white pictures of women in labs, in childcare and everyday life on France 24.

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About 1.5 million mothers of school age children in March 2021 are missing from the US workforce as mothers are slow to return to the workforce. Both men and women had lower labor force participation, but as men's is rebounding the mothers are still slow to rebound. One mother in Brooklyn, New York, with 3 school age children is typical. She decided to hastily quit work to take care of children at home during 2020 at a stressful time, and has found it difficult to return to work in 2021. It has brought men and women closer to their children but also made it harder to pursue their careers.

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It has been done before, Muslim nations shifting their entire mindset to modernization. Under Kemal Ataturk this happened in the 1920's after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and Ataturk seeing the colonial powers effort to dismember their region turned his effort to modernize Turkey with only one single objective that ensured freedom from colonial powers. Leslie Chang says in this WSJ report that Egyptian women are not joining the workforce in large numbers as they do in large numbers in China, India, Taiwan, South Korea, and Muslim nations such as Malaysia and Bangladesh. For every one woman working there are four at home and it is culturally frowned upon for women to work. There are a small number of highly educated women but this is deceptive says Chang as the overwhelming number are at home and they cannot make a contribution to the economy. See the report in WSJ alongside about the weak condition of the Egyptian economy and how with high inflation of 30% and weak currency, Egypt with help not coming from wealthy Gulf neighbors Saudis and UAE, has taken a $8 billion IMF loan. Egypt and Pakistan show the need for culture and education to make the shift to modernization to work hand in hand, the entire goals of nationhood to shift to one single objective of modernization. For this to happen a national consensus around modernization has to be achieved so that the entire culture is focused on simply one overriding objective.  ...

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The large response triggered on the internet by Anne-Marie Slaughter's article in the July/August 2012 issue of the Atlantic on women and work, how it is difficult for women to work and raise children without making changes in today's American society so that a healthy balance can be achieved.

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Christine Armstong gives this excellent story in The Times on how difficult it is for women to maintain work-life balance in today's work and business environment that gives little allowance for things like raising a family and children. In interviews with many women she describes each situation with insights and what it means for working women and for dads.

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Dressing up for the office after all the remote work away from the office during the pandemic takes some work. Doing it under 12 minutes- Farna Krentcil in the WSJ shows women how to do it quickly and look good.

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Women were one of the hardest hit groups during the pandemic. Not only were they forced to leave work but also had to shoulder more childcare responsibilities. About 30% of women who changed jobs during the pandemic got new jobs that paid 30% higher with salary and bonus, according to the Conference Board. In 2022 women are coming back to the workplace with better wage gains to makeup for the momentum lost during the worst part of the pandemic period.

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Women have one of three positions in senior management in the federal government compared to one of six in corporate management. Women make up 41% of management positions at the Government Accountability Office, a federal agency that has women friendly policies including family friendy culture, daycare site at the Washington headquarters, flexible relocation policy, telework policies, and advancing women to positions even as they balance their professional and personal lives such as needs of children. It is not necessary to work 70-80 hours a week to advance to senior positions as in law firms. Susan Poling is a senior executive supervising 156 lawyers, and says in the beginning she was able to work part time to spend more time with her son and still have great things to do and be given higher responsibilities.

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More of Nepal's women take on the work of mountain guides in the high mountains of the Himalayas in this story in the DW.com.

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This is another article in the Guardian's "Mother Load" series on the difficulties facing women as they raise children with busy work lives.

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More women tend to work in sectors such as retailing and personal care, and with the hardest hit sectors including fields in which we find more women such as education, leisure, hospitality, a lot more women will be affected. The unemployment rate for women and men started at 3.5% in February before the pandemic. In April the unemployment rate went up to 14.4%. Of this women unemployment was at 16.2% and men was at 13.5%. The women were adversely affected where their presence is highest - in food preparation, health care support and personal service.

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How arranging hybrid work on a 3-2 or 2-3 office and remote days arrangement involves looking at different aspects of its effect on people. Women's needs are different from men's, different individuals have different emotional reactions, getting work organized, setting up new offices so that they have appeal as workspaces, are all aspects of hybrid work that have to be addressed.

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Over 100 women scientists are part of the Chandrayan moon missions of Indian space agency ISRO. Many are leader of project teams and head key parts of the scientific efforts of ISRO. Prime minister Modi says the moon mission shows the strength of women or 'nari shakti' and the potential of the younger generation of women for careers in science and technology. About 25% of the 16,000 employees of ISRO space agency are women, and Modi says "they will inspire women for generations to come." Women make up 43% of graduates in STEM scientific fields, yet when it comes to being part of scientific institutes or universities this drops to 14%, an imbalance that prime minister Modi and ISRO women seek to address. DW.com looks at the work of women in the moon, mars and solar missions including Ritu Karidhal, Nidhi Porwal, Reema Ghosh, Kalpana Kalahasti. Kalahasti is deputy project director and has overseen the satellite imaging that will be done from Chandrayan 3. Reema Ghosh worked on the "Pragyan" rover that is now exploring the moon's surface. ...

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The Indian Civil Service, known as the IAS, Indian Administrative Service is playing a key role in the modernization and transformation of India. Names such as Mr. Parmeswaran Iyer, who headed the Swacch Bharat Mission (Clean India Mission) or Ms. Ashwini Bhide who heads the effort at transforming Mumbai with a new Metro subway system, are well known. Thousands of other IAS officers run the effort to transform the country. Before 2006 only 20% of women entered the IAS, today as this report in Indian Express shows 34% of persons entering the IAS through the UPSC exams are women, and the top scoring women candidates are women, setting the ground for the work in the decades ahead.

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David Gelles of the NYT column Corner Office, talks to the head of Accenture, Julie Sweet, about creating an inclusive workplace and levelling the playing field for women. In this interview Julie Sweet talks openly about her upbringing in the small Orange County, California town of Tustin. Her mother graduated from college when Julie was in her freshman year. After several jobs to help her family she went to law school and joined a New York law firm. She tells Gelles about her experience at this law firm Cravath where there were very few women partners and about breaking down sobbing at a unconscious-bias training session at the firm when asked about her own experience as a woman. After being elected partner she set up the first woman's program leading up to bringing more women upto the point where today women are 25% of the partners. Accidently she takes a call from a recruiter 17 years later about a position as general counsel at Accenture. She accepts the offer and five years later she is made the CEO North America of this consulting company with 469,000 employees. Asked about what tactics are effective in creating a level playing field for women Julie Sweet says it comes from making it a business priority. Making diversity and women a priority with measurable goals. Set goals, have accountable leaders and measure progress, says Sweet. Accenture did a study and found stats that were shocking. 40% of companies have no plan for advancing leadership, and less than 40% look at attrition between men and women. A big disappointment but also a large opportunity here to get results by putting in place some basic things. In 2015 She set Accenture goals for 40% women, and sees 2020 goal at gender parity 50-50%. For a firm with hundreds of thousands of consultants worldwide what are the qualities she sees as important in hiring? Sweet says lots of different interests and curiosity for learning. Next comes being able to do straight talk with clients, to deliver tough messages as companies are constantly telling her they want to hear what they need to hear not what they want to hear. ...

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Estimates show one in five new mothers or about 800,000 mothers in America are experiencing anxiety disorders during the pregnancy or a year after giving birth. Mental health disorders are now the leading cause of maternal death, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The US is the only high income nation in the world without paid maternity leave and this increases risks of mental health. About one in four women return to work within 4 weeks of giving birth. This report shows the work done by the University of North Carolina Chapel Hills's Center for Women Mood Disorders, one of only 3 inpatient facilities for mental health in the US. 

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With childcare and part time jobs, age discrimination that makes it harder to get jobs after age 50 years, French women work longer for smaller pensions than men, says this report in The Guardian.

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Missing workers in direct contact service industries with the Great Resignation in the US and Europe. The US is missing 4.3 million workers. This also includes many women who have not returned to work as the pandemic drags on. The share of the population in the US 16 years or older either working or looking for work is at 63.3%. Workers are quitting at the highest rates in manufacturing, retail and trade, transportation and utilities, and in professional or business services. Quitting is high for women, workers without college degree and in low paying service industries such as hotels, restaurants, and child care. It appears now that these trends will stay and not be reversed easily.