It s time, they say, to start eyeing the next ascent. The challenge now is to make our current environment reflect the realities, particularly of women s lives, says Mary Rouse, UW-Madison s assistant vice chancellor for student affairs. Women are doing an incredible amount of balancing, and there s a real disharmony in that many of the workplaces have not changed to reflect the restructuring of women s lives. Working women want, first and foremost, more flexible flextime. Seventy-five percent of the calls I get are from people wondering if they can get fired for leaving work to take care of a sick child, says Pat Ruppert, who makes attorney referrals for the State Bar of Wisconsin.
Many women also say it s time for employers to pay women fairly.
And institutions outside the workplace must change, starting with the Madison public schools. We still don t have public structures that support working families, says Joan Fischer, communications director at the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. If I could change one thing with a magic wand, it would be to make the school system more compatible. The working mothers participating in Fischer s focus group agreed, saying that countywide, school schedules seem riddled with half days, early releases and late starts, all of which conflict with traditional work schedules. Others want year-round schooling.