"I would work even if my family didn't need the money - and our children are thriving."
So says Linda Mason, chairman and co-founder of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc., a provider of employer-sponsored child care. Mason is a working wife and mother, and she's not alone in her opinion.
A 2001 Bright Horizons poll of 12,000 employed mothers nationwide shows that 72 percent would continue to work even if income were not a motivating factor. Mason also cites a recent Catalyst poll in which 67 percent of working moms said the same thing.
Does this suggest that working mothers want to get away from their kids?
"Not at all," asserted Mason, age 49, who is married to Roger Brown, co-founder and executive chairman of the firm. They have three children, ages 14, 12 and 7. "What it means is that women have discovered what men have known all along: that there are many benefits to working in addition to financial ones, such as having a place to go to, developing your skills, feeling as if you're a contributing member of the community, having friendships with colleagues and growing as a person."
And there's one more very important reason, according to Mason: "It means you will have a more balanced relationship with your partner and be less dependent."
As you can tell, Mason, who has an MBA and founded Bright Horizons in 1986 with her husband, feels deeply about working mothers. They're the subject of her new book, "The Working Mother's Guide to Life" ($16.95, Three Rivers Press).
"Being an employed mother is a great role model for children," said Mason, who started Bright Horizons after running emergency programs with her husband for children in Africa and Asia. "And many mothers I interviewed for my book thought that their working gives their sons a model of an independent woman and that it opens up a world of possibilities for their daughters."
When Mason and Brown started Bright Horizons, they ran two corporate centers and had 40 teachers. They've grown since then. "Today, we're a public company with 480 centers, 15,000 employees and $450 million in annual revenues," Mason said.
The impetus for starting the forward-looking company - it was among the first to recognize that employers wanted to attract and retain women with children but didn't have the expertise to run day-care centers - "was to make a difference in children's lives," she said.
"At the time, U.S. Census figures showed that the number of new mothers entering the labor force was rapidly increasing, and so was the demand for child care. Today, the need is growing even more, with 65 percent of all mothers with children under 5 working full time. The trend toward mothers in the workplace doesn't go up and down with economic times. It keeps increasing."
But being an employed parent is not all fun and games, as every working mother knows.
"No mother can feel comfortable working if she feels her children aren't being well cared for," said Mason, whose own children were enrolled at the on-site center she has at headquarters for employees.
Yet she suggests women can be successful in both roles of mother and worker. I asked her if that isn't a restatement of the old Superwoman theory, in which women get to do everything. Isn't that exhausting, I asked her? Men aren't expected to do that.
"Women can do it but not alone - they need fully engaged partners and strong support systems, including neighbors, friends and extended family," Mason said. "Otherwise, it's a recipe for burnout."
In addition to having "a full partner at home," the executive says working moms also need excellent child-care arrangements "for peace of mind" and to "make sure you work for a family-friendly employer."
In other words, a family-friendly employer with on-site child care.
© 2003, Chicago Tribune.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
