美英报刊阅读教程Lesson 3 课文

Lesson 3 Women Leap Off Corporate Ladder

Many turn to start-ups for freedom1 Women’s start-ups have higher success

By Stephanie Armou

Corporations are losing thousands of female employees and managers eager to start businesses of their own.

Professional women say they’ re leaving corporate jobs because of advancement barriers, scant help balancing work and family, and a desire to pursue an entrepreneurial goal.2

Like a growing number of women, JoAnn Corn abandoned a successful corporate career to launch her own business, Health Care Resources, a Denver-based firm3.

“I was petrified,” says Corn, who has continually expanded her business. “1 was just champing at the bit.4 My mind was filled with these ideas, but they were suppressed.”

An unprecedented number of professional women are taking the same initiative. The number of female-owned businesses is growing at nearly twice the national average, a pace that alarms some private employers.

“The loss of women’s talents in corporations is becoming increasingly worrisome,” says Sheila Wellington, president of Catalyst, a New York-based nonprofit and research advisory group5. “Clearly, the message to Corporate America is maintain these women.”

The number of female-owned businesses grew by 78% from 1987 to 1996, according to the National Foundation for Women Business Owners (NFWBO) 6. There were about 8 million female-owned businesses in 1996, or 36% of all businesses. Many women are shunning the private

sector7 because of:

•Barriers to advancement. Nearly 30% of female entrepreneurs with prior private-sector experience cited glass-ceiling issues8 as the major reason they left corporations, based on a 1998 survey by Catalyst, NFWBO and The Committee of 200, and organization of businesswomen. “There didn’t seem to be a lot of opportunity for moving up,” says Diahann Lassus, who started her own financial planning firm in New Providence, N. J.9, after quitting a corporate management job. “I felt like the opportunities weren’t there anymore.”

Diahann Lassus giving a lecture

•More flexibility. Even though entrepreneurs toil long hours, many can choose when they work. “I can’t wait for the day when I’m just doing my own business,” says Tammie Chestnut, 27, of Tempe, Ariz.10, who recently launched a resume consulting busi ness”, The Resum6 Shop, while working for the Tempe Chamber of Commerce. “I want freedom. 1 want to take the day off to spend with my child.”

The need for flexibility was cited by more than half the female business owners as a major reason for leaving corp orate positions, based on the survey by Catalyst and other women’ s groups.

“I wanted to work part time and choose my own hours,” says Aura Ahuvia, 33, who launched a monthly publication, The Washtenaw Parent12, in 1995 from her home in Ann Arbor, Mich13. “It gave me more flexibility than any job around here. If my kids get sick, I can take the day off.”•An entrepreneurial spark14. Many women say entrepreneurial interests were stifled at corporate