Women are coming back to work, survey finds

A3

Editor's note
Candice Mac Lean

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

The presence of women in the workplace is on the rise.
A Statistics Canada survey recently revealed that rising labour market participation of mothers has been the driving force behind a jump in the percentage of parents working full-time jobs across the country.
In the Kennebecasis Valley, this trend is especially present.
Women here have been encouraged and accepted into a labour force that thrives on small businesses and local entrepreneurs.
In an interview earlier this year, dedicated mom and successful business manager Jane DeMerchant proved to be an example of the movement and talked candidly about the desire to be a mother and have a career.
“I love being there for them and I didn’t want to give that up but I didn’t want to go forever not doing anything with my education,” she said at the time.
DeMerchant said when hiring for The DPL Group, a technology-based company, she actually favours mothers because of their work ethic.
“I find they can multi-task, they definitely have commitment and they’ll do anything you ask them to,” she said. “They’re not hard to work with because they’re used to juggling. I tend to look for stay-at-home moms who want to go back to work because I’ve lived that.”
The Statistics Canada study found that between 1980 and 2005 the proportion of families with two parents working on a full-time, full-year basis more than doubled from 15 per cent to 32 per cent. It suggests that mothers entering the labour force was the main cause of the jump.
At a recent gala held to celebrate the 30th anniversary of small business week (organized, primarily, by the Kennebecasis Valley Chamber of Commerce’s female executive director), women glistened in the crowd of more than 200 of the region’s biggest names in business.
Of 20 local businesses nominated in four categories, at least half were owned or co-owned by women entrepreneurs.
Beyond that, females are responsible for a flurry of activity in the valley business sector. Just this month, a mom of two opened an eco-friendly retail store on Hampton Rd. At the gala, another mom took home the top honour for her fashion, esthetics and makeup business.
The valley has become aflutter with unique new business ventures (where else can you grab a coffee, get a tan, have a bra fitting and buy new shoes in the same set of strip malls?) and most of the credit in these cases goes to the ladies.
It’s about time women start to take on more responsibility in the workplace and the valley is a fabulous place to do it. If you can make work ethic, confidence and intelligence a trend, you can do anything.

Candice Mac Lean is the editor of KV Style. Reach her at maclean.candice@kvstyle.com.