I just came across "Most emailed News Stories" on My Yahoo! and i found this interesting news that should be an inspiration to many companies around the world, including academic institutions and hopefully the governmental offices to adopt this method for their working mothers employees. Just click the entry's header for more info on the article.
Herewith, i include the list of the top 100 companies (based in the USA) which have supported such campaign and initiated day-care centres for their female employee's children (as stated in the article):
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, Mivh.
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, Jamesville, 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.
Even though i am not married yet, i have thought about it many, many years ago when it comes to having family in the future. I could somehow envisage myself as a possessive mother and a worrier one too, and because of that, i would somehow prefer to have my children as near to me as possible, as in walking distance or nearby office block, while i am working. I used to think of inventing a safe but also quiet baby cot system equipped with wireless radio transmission of higher wavelength frequency to be connected to a special pager so i would know when my baby needs feeding and all without creating a whole lot of earth-shattering noises while i carry on with my works. And if i am in the middle of some very important meetings/lectures/seminars/conferences/and so on, I could actually send a message to the carers/child-minders/day-care matrons on the to-do things and so on. In addition, they could reach me easier too whenever certain (possibly delicate) issues arise regarding my kids, especially when they are feeling poorly.
In Malaysia, i seldom see this trend practised in many companies in KL and even around klang valley. This includes the academic institutions. Well, some universities do provide nearby day-care centre but only for those kids of 3 years old and above. Many malaysians send their young ones to some licenced as well as non-licenced nurseries/childminders, and some prefer to hire bibik (a term used to address indonesian maids) to do the nanny job on top of doing the house chores and cooking. Otherwise, they left the caring job to their old mothers. I do know that a lot of big companies tend to have their own private gyms as one of the attractions, which supposedly to allure the younger,more energetic employees to work there. Somehow, they forget that this younger generations will soon be thinking of having their own families and such consequences will end up a burden to the mothers mostly. And in the essence of that, they forget that their female employees would end up a mother one day.
Do i sound broody enough to you? I like kids but i am not too keen on them. I am OK to layan them but not to the extent of too excited or too motherly. But i do know that if one day I will have kids of my own, I will definitely strive for the best for them.
More and more bright women with promising futures in their professional fields struggle between raising their family and job. I see some of my female doctor friends opted to do locum instead of full time practising doctors just to attain flexible hours. Those who prefer to climb much higher corporate ladder or those who are ambitious in any respective profession, would either discharge the idea of getting married or if they are married, having children is out of question. A few of the married ones ended up in divorce due to career constraints and demands. Such is already fast becoming a popular trend especially in the western countries.
On a total 180 degrees flip side, more than half of those women in the arab gulfs and indian subcontinental become a fulltime housewives as that is encouraged in their society despite holding a university degree. In Pakistan for instance, such practise has become a norm that the ladies hardly find it strange when their husbands decided that home is their place. Not only have the ladies gone through arranged marriage, they are also arranged to be domesticated. My male pakistani friends, when asked about this tradition, seemed to be all agreed that it may be the best method to secure marital harmony and societal balance.
Good thing in Malaysia, muslim women have secured much better positions and are given more freedoms of choice to pursue with their lives (and destiny, ultimately). Amazingly, many of the successful ones are those with children (some even have 8 or 9) and still married. OK, some of their husbands practise polygamy but most are monogamous at best. It must be due to the islamic teachings and eastern moral cultures that they somehow managed to bring up their children in a more apt surroundings while still managed to become high flyers, the so called movers and shakers of their companies/institutions/government offices/etc. But of course, it takes two to tango. Behind a successful malaysian muslim woman is a doting, loving and equally or maybe even more successful husband. I see a professor-couple (both husband and wife are professors in science and engineering) with nine children, and almost all their children grew up properly and followed their parents step by doing well in their studies. This is just one example out of tenth of thousands more of them in Malaysia.
I reckon Lynette Scavo (Desperate Housewives character played by Felicity Huffman) has inspired many high-flying working mothers around the world on the importance of tackling family issues while still able to carry on with their job.
2 comments:
Dear Manal,
In UM where I work, we have this kindergarten by the name of TadikUM (Tadika UM). It is meant for all academic staff's children aged 3-6. Apparently, it is the FIRST kindergarten that used the Montessori Learning Program in M'sia (back in 1976). The best part is that, the monthly fee is only about RM100 a month! Can u believe that? They never change the rate since 1976! As we know, current private Montessori kindergartens can charge abt RM400-RM500/month easily for a child. So in that sense, I think UWA (Univ. Women Assoc.) has done a great job in maintaining their female professionals' sanity ;). As for kids below the above age, there is also a nursery just next to the Tadikum building, however, I prefer to send my younger one to a babysitter nearby. So yes, we do have the appropriate facility for the kids, even though not all private companies adopt the same policy. The lost is theirs. But sadly, the maternity leave still holds at 60 days. However, for both my kids, I just took another 30 days extra (habiskan all my annual leaves for that!) so that I could breastfeed the kids longer. Hope that the govt will approve the petition to increase the maternity leave to 84 days soon.
Hehe sorry dear, terpanjang my story.. I'm quite touched with this topic :)
shiha,
Not a problem at all. The comment box doesnt state word limit so u can share with us as much info as possible.
In UKM, it's called Tadika Siswa Muda.
Somehow, to allow such 84 days maternity leave (ML) means more flexibility for the pregnant mothers to reschedule all her works prior to her due. Kalau kat UK, after the 2nd month of ML,u r paid half of ur salary and if u feel like continuing it, u get 25% of ur salary till u report your duty.
Esp primary n secondary schooling system, they should allow more temping and try to hire more male teachers as well. And maybe extra allowance for the younger/available teachers who can take over those on leave. Problem la nowadays men tak minat jadi educator.
I dunno la shiha, there are a LOT that needs to be discussed when it comes to revising the labour right constitutions...sigh.....
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