Qualified Workforce

Can I just say this?

We keep hearing from heads of state, political candidates, senators, congressmen, businessmen, mainstream media and Wall Street that the United States is suffering from a labor shortage.

I call bullshit.

Look across the dinner table and see that beautiful wife? See your brazen sister, your wise mother and the really smart neighbor?

She’s not just a “SAHM.”

She has a masters degree.

She has a doctorate degree.

She’s got 10 to 20 years of experience in the labs, in the newsroom, in the office, in the market, on wall street, in the classroom, in virtually every sphere of industry that exists.

Women hold half the knowledge and a very high level of training and experience, not to mention the creativity and ingenuity this country needs.

This country is FULL of skilled and knowledgeable women who are waiting to be invited back into the workforce.

What are they waiting for?

Family-friendly working conditions and equal pay.

Instead of claiming they have to move their operations overseas or import workers for a qualified workforce, employers would be wise to look at the resource right in front of their face: WOMEN.

Qualified and educated women who are worn out from sexual harassment from coworkers, pregnancy discrimination, lack of family medical leave, working hours that extend 2 crucial hours past the school day, lack of sick days, etc.

Solution – employers should stop being so attached to the workplace policies and the rigid 40 hour work week that shut half their qualified workforce out and invite the women back.

They’ll come.

Visit Momsrising.org for information about what kinds of specific workplace policies will lure women back to their industries.