Women And Family-Friendly Benefits: Does Fear Of Negative Perceptions By Management Affect The Decisions Of Women To Take Advantage Of Family Leave Programs

Abstract

While women in America have made significant progress regarding the assimilation into the labor-force, the workplace has been slow to adapt to accommodate working mothers. In recent news, American companies such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft have received positive press attention for their generous family-friendly policies. Yet while these policies may benefit the companies by generating media attention, women may still choose not to take advantage of these programs. This exploratory study seeks to understand workplace conditions for professional, working mothers in order to better assess the effectiveness of family friendly policies. The results indicated that while society and business had made considerable progress, significant improvements are still needed.