"We've Come A Long Way Baby" is a term that only women from a certain era remember. It's an old Virginia Slims cigarette ad that glorified the fact that women could now choose to smoke if they wanted to (and kill themselves too, I suppose). The WAHM community has come a long way too. It's time to get some perspective on the changes that have taken place in the Work at Home Mom world. We've come along way since the concept first started picking up steam 20 years ago...
The
term "Work from Home Moms" or WAHM is such a popular term that I
think we sometimes forget to really marvel at its significance.
The
WAHM today is far different than the WAHM we though of say 20 years ago.
Back then traditional WAHM occupations were perhaps, daycare owner, home
typist, tutor, editor, writer beautician of some sort, direct sales and the
like. Nothing wrong with those occupations for for many women, these are
occupations they could not AFFORD to accept - not when they are the sole family
income earner or when their income needs to meet a certain threshold in order
to meet family bills.
Today
a mom who works from home could be anything from a scientific researcher to a
consultant with a firm like Deloitte to an advertising executive with a global
agency.
What
I see more and more these days are career moms tailoring their positions so
that they are able to do what they did in an office tower downtown but in the
comfort of the their own home, within the wonderfully social confines of their
neighborhood.
Sometimes
these women work for a firm as a telecommunter, other times they are indendent
contractors providing services to companies as needed and still in other
situations we have innovative entrepreneur type moms running million dollar
businesses from home or near home.
The
Center for Women's Business reports that in 2006 nearly 10.4 million companies
in the U.S.
were owned by women. These companies generated $1.9 trillion in sales.
According
to national home business associations and the SBA over 10.5 million families
have a parent or parents working from home. Over 50% of those home
businesses are owned by women. A conservative estimate of the total
number of women working from home is in the range of 5 million. Now that
is significant - 5 million women contributing to a sector (women owned
businesses) that generate $1.9 trillion in sales.
Ladies...we
are finding a way to have it all (family, career, community life). It
isn't easy but it is the holy grail that our mother's dreamed of and
we're just grasping.
As
the new editor of the Work at Home Moms section I look forward to sharing
business updates, best practices, marketing tips and so much more with you on a
weekly basis.
Cheers,
Sharon
Editor, Work at Home Moms, Type-A Mom.com
Sharon McMillan is a veteran public relations practitioner. Having spent many years promoting and marketing small businesses and communities, Sharon is now a new urbanism advocate.
Married with two teens, Sharon has spent the better part of her family life juggling kids, juggling dream jobs, pushing telecommuting and work at home solutions on unsuspecting employers and managing her Martha Stewart obsession--though that last point is really only a voyeuristic obsession, since Sharon\'s not genetically wired for nifty domestic projects.
Mom Types 
"We've Come A Long Way Baby" is a term that only women from a certain era remember. It's an old Virginia Slims cigarette ad that glorified the fact that women could now choose to smoke if they wanted to (and kill themselves too, I suppose). The WAHM community has come a long way too. It's time to get some perspective on the changes that have taken place in the Work at Home Mom world. We've come along way since the concept first started picking up steam 20 years ago...
