Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success

by Sylvia Ann Hewlett

With talent shortages looming over the next decade, what can companies do to attract and retain the large number of professional women who are forced off the career highway?

By documenting the successful efforts of a group of cutting-edge global companies to retain talented women and reintegrate them if they’ve already left, Off-Ramps and On-Ramps answers this critical question. Working closely with companies such as Ernst & Young, Goldman Sachs, Time Warner, General Electric and others, author Sylvia Ann Hewlett identifies what works and why. Based on firsthand experience with these companies, along with extensive data that provides the most comprehensive and nuanced portrait of women's career paths, this book documents the actions forward-thinking companies must take to reverse the female brain drain and ensure their access to talent over the long term.

Genres: Nonfiction, Leadership, Business

299 pages, Hardcover

First published April 16, 2007

Reviews

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

useful to know that there are other people attempting to change the political structure of the U.S. so that businesses are held to their fundamental purpose of helping people rather than pretending that business is paramount and that it is a good idea for people to spend their lives trying to be "model workers"

listening to the rhetoric in the U.S., one tends to forget that business are just human constructs, not divinely wrought and if employees can't live decent lives then businesses need to adjust.

[CarrieLyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't actually finish it because I got the point and felt like most of the facts that were detailed in the book were pretty out of date already. Written before the economic downturn in 2008, some of the statements in the book about the need for women to return to the workforce rang a little hollow. On the other hand, updates recently like more generous parental leave at many companies happened too late to be discussed in the book. But overall, I think the idea that women should be welcome to take off ramps and on ramps throughout their careers without it stigmatizing them is absolutely right and was deservedly highlighted by this book. Maybe a new edition or a follow-on is in order?

[Marjoleine]

Off-ramps and scenic routes: easy and common. On-ramps? Much harder than you would think. So don't take a "break" from work as a woman/mother, unless you are fine with potentially ending your career right there and then.
The book shows that scenic routes in real careers is possible at a few firms, but the question - which the writer poses herself as well - is whether these practices will become more widespread, or will just remain "special projects", eventually disappearing in the next recession.

[Elizabeth Johansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ubelievably good book with statistics from the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force drawing on data from 34 member corporations representing 2.5 million employees in 152 countries worldwide. They collected data about why women leave the workforce and why most of them want to reenter the workforce. A large portion of the book is dedicated to case studies of flexible work offerings from various companies with accompanying business cases.

[Allison Tatterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting perspective.

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

A perfectly good book about why women leave work and how businesses can keep them, but written for businesses rather than individuals, so of limited interest.