Women Worldwide with Deirdre Breakenridge

This episode is dedicated to all those women in the workforce who are trying to strike the perfect balance between their professional life and personal life, to those women who want to be empowered in their career and still carve out significant time for their partner and children. I’m one of them, and so is today’s guest.

 

Suzanne Brown is a strategic marketing and business consultant, speaker, and an expert on and an advocate for professional part-time working moms. She's also the author of a new book that's coming out in September, called Mompowerment: Insights from Successful Professional Part-time Working Moms Who Balance Career and Family.

 

In this episode of Women Worldwide, Suzanne encourages all the mothers in our audience to think differently about their career approach, plus explains how employers can (and why they should) support women who choose a part-time or flexible career path.

 

In This Episode

  • Research that supports part-time work schedules for moms
  • The mindset shift women need if they want a nontraditional schedule
  • Tips for becoming more efficient with your time at work
  • The importance of discussing work/life balance with the women around us
  • How to discuss the transition with your team at work

 

Quotes in This Episode

“[Early in my career], all the models that I had of working moms didn't really show me work-life balance... I really wanted to own my life again; I wanted my life back.” —Suzanne Brown

 

“Not all of us can spend 24/7, 52 weeks year with our significant others, so having that work to still keep you engaged can be very important—but it can actually keep you happier… In all of the many bits of research that I did, I found it really interesting that part time working moms are actually happier than full time working moms and stay-at-home moms.” —Suzanne Brown

 

“There is a kind of a mind shift that has to happen, because when you go to work part-time, it's generally not just cutting your hours. You have to think differently about working part-time. You have to think about your productivity a little bit differently.” —Suzanne Brown

 

“All of the generations are coming at it from a different approach but their end goal is the same. ‘I want more work-life balance. I want more control over my schedule. I want more time with my family." And that might not necessarily be with their kids. It might be with grandkids, or it might be with their aging parents. It looks different based on who you're talking to.” —Suzanne Brown

 

“In all the conversations that I had when I was in grad school or as a college age student, I didn't really hear about work-life balance… That just wasn't a constant conversation that I was having. But I think that if we can get that information out there, we can learn from each other.” —Suzanne Brown

 

Resources

Mompowerment

The Mompowerment Community on Facebook and Twitter

Writing from Laura Vanderkam

 

Direct download: SuzanneBrownonWomenWorldwide.mp3
Category:Business -- posted at: 5:52pm EDT

1