The March 2007 edition of American Prospect offered a fantastic – and sobering – look at work/life balance, particularly for working families and moms.  All the articles were thought-provoking, but Ann Friedman's article "Grade Inflation" was eye-opening for me.  Friedman argues that when listing companies that are great for working moms, organizations like Working Mother magazine and Catalyst, a nonprofit consulting and research firm that specializes in women in business, generally award their largest donors and/or advertisers.  I know that I should not be so surprised, but call me naïve. 

Here are some excerpts from Friedman's piece that I found most disturbing:

The application for inclusion on the [Working Mother] "100 Best Companies" list is filled out by corporate HR departments. The magazine does not interview lower-level female employees before deciding whether to include a company on the list. In her book, Taking on the Big Boys, Ellen Bravo writes about how Sprint made the 1992 "Best Companies" list: "[O]perators were amazed as they read the descriptions of flextime, job-sharing, and adoption aid, which none of them enjoyed. It turned out the company did have such policies -- but only for managers."

One of the important criteria for making the Working Mother list is what the magazine calls a company's "workforce profile," which measures advancement of women (and women of color) into upper-level management positions. On its 2005 "Best Companies" list, for example, Allstate, American Express, and General Mills were named top companies for women of color. Those three companies also made Latina Style magazine's list of top employers for Hispanic women. At each, 30 percent of newly hired hourly workers are women of color, but 0 percent of new executives are. And of the 18 firms in Working Mother's "Hall of Fame," most have only two or three women board members. The average "Hall of Fame" board of directors is more than 80 percent male.

Indeed, many companies on the Working Mother list have been slapped with lawsuits as well. One such company, Novartis, is currently being sued by a dozen female employees for discrimination in pay and promotions, particularly after they had children. At least two of the companies in Working Mother's "Hall of Fame" have been sued for sex discrimination in the past two years.

Each of the interviewed companies that make these lists noted that they understand that their rating system isn't perfect, but that if they had standards what were too stringent, no one would ever win.  That only depresses me more.