Univ. Gets Nod for Working Moms

For a third year, Harvard University has been recognized by Working Mother Magazine as one of the top 100 employers in the country for working mothers.

Each year, the magazine chooses among hundreds of submitted applications and bases their final rankings on over 500 points of consideration, with a special emphasis on three issues—flexible scheduling, child-care options, and time off for new parents.

“(Our system) is a pretty thorough check of the company,” said Della Delafuente, the magazine’s deputy editor. “If they are on that list, they have qualified for that list, they’ve met the benchmarks.”

Nancy Costikyan, Harvard’s Manager of Work/Life Resources and a mother of two, helps to coordinate some of the resources that have earned Harvard the status a mom-friendly employer. “Harvard has continued to develop and expand the way it provides Employee Assistance Programs to its workforce. And we have made the distribution of a whole range of Work/Life services more equitable and accessible,” she said.

Some of those resources include comprehensive health and dental insurance, six on-site Harvard affiliated and subsidized day care centers, emergency back-up care programs, and a wide variety of parental leaves for eligible staff.

Margo Seltzer, a professor of computer science at Harvard and mother of two, says she has benefited from the University’s family friendly policies.

“The things that I think have been great are, one, the parental leave policy that allowed me a semester of teaching release after my children were born. Another thing, although there’s no official policy, I brought both my kids to work with me for several months after they were born.”

Moms outside of the classroom also cited great satisfaction with the programs that Harvard offers to help them balance their obligations to both their families and careers.

“I feel that Harvard is ahead of the curve with benefits for working parents,” said Paige Lewin, the Associate Director of Community Programs at Harvard and mother of a 16-month-old son. “Before coming to Harvard, I worked in corporate environments for eight years, and each of the companies I worked for didn’t come close to offering the kind of benefits that Harvard does,” she said.

Harvard’s vice president for human resources, Marilyn Hausammann, has also taken advantage of the University’s offerings and said she was glad to work for an institution that recognizes the demands mothers face.

“As the head of human resources, I feel very good about being associated with an institution that offers the kind of programs that we do. I value being in that kind of environment. I actually think that it is an important ingredient to get people to come and stay.”

Along with Harvard, six other New England employers made the list, including Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Springfield, Mass. and Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut.