NEW YORK -- Working Mother magazine released its annual list ofthe top 100 places to work, with its chief executive touting animprovement in mother-friendly benefits in corporate America.
Working Mother CEO Carol Evans, who wrote the book 'This Is HowWe Do It: The Working Mothers' Manifesto,' said that in order toretain female employees, a growing number of companies are offeringcustomized schedules.
'There are some very, very creative ideas, and this is allrelated to what we saw in the past, with women dropping off the edgeof a cliff, when they said it's either working full time or not atall,' Evans said.
This year's list includes 18 new names, representing some churn,and the magazine cites growing concern among companies that theywill lose qualified female employees if they do not upgrade theirbenefits.
'Our country needs women to have babies; our companies needwomen's brainpower and time,' she said. 'Those two things goingtogether really demand that companies wake up to this new culture.'
The magazine used five main criteria for its judgments:flexibility, leave time for new parents, child care, elder care andthe number of women occupying top jobs.
The 10 companies that best satisfied the five criteria were:Abbott Laboratories, Bon Secours Richmond Health System, Ernst &Young LLP, HSBC USA Inc., IBM Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co., PatagoniaInc., PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP, Principal Financial Group, andS.C. Johnson & Son Inc.
Redmond's Microsoft Inc. is the only company listed that'sheadquartered in Washington.
IBM and Johnson & Johnson are the only companies that have beenon the list in each of its 21 years. IBM offers new mothers theoption to take 144 weeks' leave, Evans said.
The Boston Consulting Group is one of 18 companies new to thelist, for which the magazine solicits 550-question applications. Itoffers emergency child care and three months' paid maternity leave.
Julie Gish, 31, a project leader in the group's Chicago office,said she is grateful for the leave and flexible work policies, whicheased her work life after her son Charlie was born a year ago lastSaturday.
Gish took the paid leave and six weeks' unpaid leave, thenreturned to work at 60 percent time. She now works 80 percent time.
'They do that because they recognize that while women may need totake time out in their careers, it is certainly in their interest inthe long run to offer flexible working arrangements,' she said.
Working Mother Magazine's Top 100 Places To Work
The top 100 companies -- in
alphabetical order -- for working
mothers, as determined by Working
Mother magazine:
Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, Ill.
Accenture Ltd., New York, N.Y.
Aflac Inc., Columbus, Ga.
Allstate Corp., Northbrook, Ill.
American Express Co., New York, N.Y.
Arnold & Porter LLP, Washington, D.C.
AstraZeneca PLC, Wilmington, Del.
Avon Products Inc., New York, N.Y.
Bank of America Corp., Charlotte, N.C.
Baptist Health South Florida, Coral Gables, Fla.
Bayer AG, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Bon Secours Richmond Health System, Richmond, Va.
Booz Allen Hamilton, McLean, Va.
The Boston Consulting Group, Boston, Mass.
Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., New York, N.Y.
Bronson Healthcare Group, Kalamazoo, Mich.
Capital One Financial Corp., McLean, Va.
Carlson Cos., Minnetonka, Minn.
Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Ga.
Children's Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Ill.
Citigroup Inc., New York, N.Y.
CJW Medical Center, Richmond, Va.
Colgate-Palmolive Co., New York, N.Y.
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
Covington & Burling LLP, Washington, D.C.
Credit Suisse Group, New York, N.Y.
DaimlerChrysler AG, Auburn Hills, Mich.
Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, New York, N.Y.
Deutsche Bank AG, New York, N.Y.
Discovery Communications Inc., Silver Spring, Md.
Dow Corning, Midland, Mich.
DuPont Co., Wilmington, Del.
Eli Lilly & Co., Indianapolis, Ind.
Ernst & Young LLP, New York, N.Y.
Fannie Mae, Washington, D.C.
First Horizon National Corp., Memphis, Tenn.
First National Bank of Omaha, Omaha, Neb.
Ford Motor Co., Dearborn, Mich.
Genentech Inc., South San Francisco, Calif.
General Electric Co., Fairfield, Conn.
General Mills Inc., Minneapolis, Minn.
GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Philadelphia, PA
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., New York, N.Y.
Grant Thornton LLP, Chicago, Ill.
Gurwin Jewish Geriatric Center, Commack, N.Y.
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
Hewlett Packard Co., Palo Alto, Calif.
HSBC USA Inc., Prospect Heights, Ill.
IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y.
Ikea, Plymouth Meeting, Pa.
Inova Health System, Falls Church, Va.
JFK Medical Center, Atlantis, Fla.
Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, N.J.
JPMorgan Chase & Co., New York, N.Y.
Kellogg Co., Battle Creek, Mich.
KPMG LLP, New York, N.Y.
Kraft Foods Inc., Northfield, Ill.
Lego Systems Inc., Enfield, Conn.
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., New York, N.Y.
Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Mass.
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., Springfield, Mass.
McGraw-Hill Cos., New York, N.Y.
Merck & Co., Whitehouse Station, N.J.
Mercy Health System, Janesville, Wis.
MetLife Inc., Long Island City, N.Y.
Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash.
Morgan Stanley, New York, N.Y.
Motorola Inc., Schaumburg, Ill.
Northern Trust Corp., Chicago, Ill.
Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, Chicago, Ill.
Novartis AG, East Hanover, N.J.
Patagonia Inc., Ventura, Calif.
Pearson PLC, Upper Saddle River, N.J.
Pfizer Inc., New York, N.Y.
Phoenix Cos., Hartford, Conn.
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, New York, N.Y.
PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Pittsburgh, Pa.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP, New York, N.Y.
Principal Financial Group, Des Moines, Iowa
Procter & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, Ohio
Providence Alaska Medical Center, Anchorage, Ala.
Prudential Financial Inc., Newark, N.J.
Republic Bancorp., Owosso, Mich.
Rodale Inc., Emmaus, Pa.
RSM McGladrey Inc., Bloomington, Minn.
S.C. Johnson & Son Inc., Racine, Wis.
Schering-Plough, Kenilworth, N.J.
Scripps Health, San Diego, Calif.
Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, Texas
Timberland Co., Stratham, N.H.
Trihealth, Cincinnati, Ohio
Turner Broadcasting System Inc., Atlanta, Ga.
UBS, New York, N.Y.
Union Pacific Railroad, Omaha, Neb.
Verizon Communications Inc., Bedminster, N.J.
Wachovia Corp., Charlotte, N.C.
Wells Fargo & Co., San Francisco, Calif.
West Virginia University Hospitals, Morgantown, W.Va.
Wyeth, Madison, N.J.
Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, Conn.
