When Elizabeth MacBride rejoined her newspaper as the managing editor, two months after the birth of her daughter, she found it increasingly difficult to balance the grueling working hours and motherhood.
Six months down the road, she quit her job and started freelancing, which soon morphed into her own venture.
"I didn't win myself less work. I'm sure I work harder than many working mothers in traditional jobs. But my schedule is my own," she writes for Forbes.
MacBride is one of the thousands of women all across the world jumping ship to escape from the corporate world. They may have different motivations for switch, but this shift evinces a considerable change in the traditional work culture.
Sara Horowitz, the founder and Executive Director of Freelancers Union thinks that most women choose to work independently because they find it difficult to adjust to conventional work structures. The long hours, disparity in pay and lack of opportunities to grow within corporations could all be the driving factors behind the move.
"Even more than our male counterparts, our lives play out in stages that don't fit well with a corporate world dominated by men," she writes for Fast Company.
An independent study conducted for the Freelancers Union reveals that of about 53 million freelancing Americans, a clear majority of 53% are women.
But what seems even more promising is the fact that most women do not stop at freelancing. According to research from American Express Open Forum, women are starting an average of 1200 businesses a day. They are also leading the crowdsourcing space and often raising more funds than their male counterparts for startups. Furthermore, according to The Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute, it is estimated that women owned businesses would create 5.5 million jobs in the US by 2018.
But not all numbers paint a rosy picture. Women often find it hard to take the leap from freelancing or regular jobs to entrepreneurship. According to a report published by the U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Foundation, only 1.6% of venture-backed companies have a female founder and just 20% have a female C-level executive. The struggle is common in women all across the world, especially in emerging economies- the primary reasons being a lack of mentoring and support mixed with inaccessibility to the required capital.
Thankfully there are some incredible initiatives geared at supporting women entrepreneurs. Goldman Sachs's 10,000 Women programme has been providing under resourced women with business and management education since 2008. The targeted approach has been sufficiently rewarding. 90% of the participants have mentored other women upon the completion of their programme and 69% of the graduates increased revenues.
On a different scale, women-led initiatives like Hello Fearless, are attracting aspiring female entrepreneurs to launch their own dream businesses. Female Entrepreneur Association International is another resource group for female business owners and independent workers.
Through creating such networks, women business leaders are inspiring other women to pursue their dreams. With smarter phones and innovative technology on their side they have options, arenas and platforms that never existed before. Earlier this year, The Economist reported on how independent workers available at a moment's notice are reshaping traditional careers and company structures. It seems women, at least in America, are leading this change.
The post How Women Are Trailblazing The Future Of Work Culture appeared first on GetSerio.