More Women Leaving the Corporate World

An increasing number of women are leaving big companies to start their own businesses, according to a new article in the March/April issue of Across The Board, The Conference Board's bimonthly magazine.
"Escape from Corporate America" concludes that despite diversity initiatives in the last decade, many organizations still unconsciously treat women as second-class citizens.
According to Cheskin Research, women are starting businesses at twice the rate of men and have become a major force in both the traditional and e business marketplaces. The Center for Women's Business Research estimates that as of 2002 there were 6.2 million women-owned businesses employing 9.2 million workers and generating $1.15 trillion in annual revenue.
"In the interest of security, women used to be willing to channel their time, energy and effort to the corporation's needs at the expense of fulfilling their own professional goals -- but no more," says Laurel Delaney, author of the article and founder of GlobeTrade.com, a Chicago-based global marketing and consulting company. "In starting their own businesses, they're seeking freedom, flexibility, recognition, more money and opportunities to leave a legacy -- all of the things they once thought they would find within corporations."
A study by Catalyst, a nonprofit research and advisory organization working to advance women in business and the professions, shows that 29% of women business owners with prior private-sector experience cited glass ceiling issues as the major reason for leaving corporate positions. Of those women, 44% felt their contributions were not recognized or valued.
One-third of the women surveyed by Catalyst said they were not taken seriously by their employer or supervisor. Fifty-eight percent of the survey participants said nothing could attract them back to the corporate world. However, 24% said they could be lured back by more money, and 11% by greater flexibility. Lack of flexibility is an even bigger problem for women in Corporate America than glass ceiling issues; 51% of the women surveyed cited the desire for more flexibility as their major reason for leaving corporate positions.
"As women walk out the door after years of training, what really walks out is the potential that those women would have brought to Corporate America," says Sheila Wellington, Catalyst president.
Marilyn Moats kennedy, managing partner of Illinois-based Career Strategies, says women "see corporations as places to hone your skills, but not stay long term. They object to office politics, asking, 'Why do I have to toady to some old guy who ceased to be productive years ago?' "
Some of the most successful women business owners are refugees from Corporate America, suggests Linda Darragh, vice president of the Women's Business Development Center in Chicago.
While Corporate America may be losing a vital resource, the economy is apparently benefitting from the increase in female entrepreneurship. According to the 2002 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, a study published by Babson College, London Business School and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, entrepreneurship is one of the best indicators of a country's economic success, and a good way to accelerate the pace of entrepreneurial activity is to encourage women to participate.

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