CBC Makes Carolina Parent Family-Friendly 40 List for Third Time
A buffet greets the attendees of Carolina Parent’s Women @ Work breakfast. |
MCC’s Mitzi Veal (left) & NMG’s Angela Connor discuss their struggles as working mothers. |
On Wednesday, September 17, 2008, Carolina Parent magazine honored 40 North Carolina companies for offering outstanding family-friendly options, and Capitol Broadcasting was on the list for the third time. The celebration for the 10th annual NC Family-Friendly 40 list took place during the Women @ Work Breakfast in American Tobacco’s Bay 7 in downtown Durham.
Sister publications in the Charlotte and Triad participated in compiling the Family-Friendly 40 as well. Winners came from across the state and ranged from a small 10-person company to large government agencies. The honorees were “highlighted for their readiness to listen and respond to parents’ needs as they strive to balance work and family.”
A record number of companies vied for a slot on the Family-Family 40 list this year.
Anna Millar tells about the winning companies. She herself has been in a job share at UNC’s Kenan Flager Business School for 5 years. |
“Companies had to have strong benefits to even be considered,” said UNC Kenan-Flager Business School’s Anna Millar, a participant in the judging process. “It’s truly commendable that Carolina Parent has focused on this issue [work-life balance] for the past ten years. Most of us feel like we are still in the pioneering phase.”
CBC received recognition for offering benefits such as employee subsidies for child care, an extensive wellness program, parenting & family support, manager training, and much more.
This year’s Carolina Parent Women at Work Breakfast focused on the phenomenon of “opting out.” Professor and author Pamela Stone provided the keynote address, focusing on the findings in her book “Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home.” Stone’s research focused on educated professional women in high level positions who had left their jobs to stay home with children. She said that they were not quitting to return to a traditional family system but because the working world didn’t have choices for them.
Pamela Stone delivers the keynote about why professional women opt out of careers. |
Dress for Success volunteers collect donations of business suits & clothing for their organization. |
Stone stated that professional and management jobs were created on a male model from decades ago, when men had wives who stayed at home to care for their children and the home. She said the solution is to reduce work hours across the board, erasing the standard that employees in many positions are expected to work 60 hours work weeks.
Corp’s Van Williams (l to r), ATC’s Valerie Ward & FOX 50’s Chris Downey help represent CBC at the Family-Friendly 40 ceremony. |
She said we need to think about greater flexibility and to view flexibility and part-time options for all rather than pigeon-holing those options as women only. She said the current view marginalizes those options because they are considered women-oriented.
Stone praised the companies on the Family-Friendly 40 list for supporting their employees and making balancing work and life a possibility and a priority.
“Each year at this breakfast I’m struck by what an incredible struggle it is to balance home and career,” said Carolina Parenting, Inc. President Mark Ethridge. “But I’m also struck by how you all pull it off.”
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Learn More
CBC Helps Two Reporters Keep Up with Their Careers While Caring for Their Families
WRAL-TV Reporters Amanda Lamb & Sloane Heffernan are featured in Carolina Parent’s Sept 2008 issue for their creative solution to balancing work & family. Read the article here.
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