A woman's place

How many times have we heard the old saying “A woman’s place is in the home”? I know I’ve heard it before. But the beauty of the time and society that we live in is that women are no longer restricted to being housewives and mothers alone. In recent decades, women have climbed their way to the top of the corporate ladder and been as successful as men in the business world.\nBut does this professional freedom come at the cost of women’s abandonment of all other roles to make a place for themselves in a “man’s world”? Do all women considering business have to choose between having a career and having a family?\nAbsolutely not.\nWomen of today, you do not have to make that choice. Many companies now offer flexible work schedules and child care, creating opportunities for women to build careers and families.\nA degree in business opens so many doors to women because it provides so many options. There are numerous companies of differing sizes, levels of intensity and time commitments. Women can choose exactly how much of their time, energy and effort they want to devote to a career and how much to a family. With modern technology, women can easily be stay-at-home moms and run their own businesses at the same time. \nMany women hesitate to enter business because they believe it requires skills they don’t have or aren’t comfortable using. But again, the beauty of a business degree is the variety of options available for people with different strengths and interests. Business offers something for everyone: accounting and finance for the mathematically inclined, marketing for the visual and creative, management for those intrigued by human interaction. Creativity and business are not mutually exclusive, and a business degree can just as easily lead to a management job at Macy’s as it could to an investment banking position at Goldman Sachs.\nYou don’t have to give up your other interests to pursue business, because you can incorporate those interests into your business education and career. Companies have come to appreciate and value the strong interpersonal and communication skills that women offer, especially as the focus is now on successful teamwork rather than individual performance. \nSo to my fellow women out there considering a career in the business world, don’t look at it as giving up the opportunity to have a family. Look at it as an opportunity to live up to your potential as a bright, successful businesswoman – in addition to devoting yourself as a wife and mother. Never forget you can have both a successful family and a successful career. It’s just up to you to make it happen.