Companies should be prepared that in the future more women will work for them. New talent will be dominantly female, because more females graduate from colleges and universities then males and they also graduate with better results. Also women want to continue to work after having children.

Last month it was announced that the number of working females has risen in 2006 and now over 3 million women are working, a new record. This trend will continue says Saskia Keuzenkamp, professor emancipation in international comparison perspectives of the VU in Amsterdam. “It will take about 20 to 25 years, but eventually their will be an equal amount men working as women. The main difference is the amount of working hours. The percentage woman who work part-time has only risen. Females like to work part-time, even if they don’t have children.”

If employers want women to work more hours they should make changes in their organisation, says Keuzenkamp. “When women are asked under which conditions they want to work more hours, their number one comment is more influence in work hours and their second comment is more working at home.”

Employers will have to give people who work 4 days a week even career chances as people who work full time. “They should look at part-timers as an organisation matter, not as a individual choice,” says Organisation advisor Anneke van Doorne-Huiskes. “If you want women working in your company, you have to keep up with them. Talent does not disappear after giving birth.”

Source: Intermediair