BusinessReport.com

When Mary Eymard entered banking 23 years ago, there were few women at the First National Bank of Commerce where she launched her career—and even fewer in management-level positions. Nearly a quarter of a century later, that situation has improved—somewhat.

“I have seen a positive increase in female officer positions,” says Eymard, who has remained with the financial institution, now JPMorgan Chase, and is a vice president in its assets management division. “But there still aren’t as many as females, especially in managerial positions.”

Indeed, as far as women have come in the past 30 years, they still have a long way to go. Yes, they’ve been welcomed into the work place and by next year will account for nearly 50% of the nation’s work force. But they still earn nearly 25% less than their male counterparts and hold only a fraction of the upper-level positions in Corporate America.

It’s a problem that may be caused in some small part by a lingering discrimination against women. But most research and professional women attribute it to women still assuming the primary responsibility for raising the children in most families, meaning they either opt to put themselves on a less aggressive career path or their employers force them onto it.

True, companies do seem to be making a greater effort to offer flex time to help accommodate working mothers, but that only gets them so far. The women who successfully ascend to the top of the corporate ladder are the ones who either don’t have a family or who make their careers their top priority.

“Employers are definitely more accommodating and flexible because they have to be,” says Eymard, who has juggled mothering her two school-age children with a full-time career. “But that doesn’t help the woman who’s trying to move up. She’s still at a disadvantage.”

Statistics support that assertion. In 2005, women earned just 77 cents for every $1 that men made—a hefty differential that adds up to $455,000 over the course of a 25-year-old woman’s lifetime. What’s more, though women will comprise 49% of the American work force next year, they held just 15.6% of the corporate officer positions in the Fortune 500 companies last year, a slight decrease from the year before. Also down last year was the number of major corporations that could count three or more women among their corporate officers.

Janice Pellar knows why. As owner and CEO of a local tech company she has seen it firsthand among colleagues and employees.

“Women will take time out for child rearing, and when they come back it’s like they’re starting from scratch,” she says. “They’re always playing catch up.”

But they never do get ahead of the curve. A woman who opts out of the work force for three or more years earns 37% less upon her re-entry than the average man, according to Amy Traylor, the president of the local chapter of the American Businesswomen’s Association.

“These are highly educated women,” says Traylor, who is a credentialing coordinator for physicians. “They’re opting out to take care of children, and there is a high price that comes with that."

Even if women don’t leave their jobs to have babies and raise children, they still tend to shoulder more of the child care burden than do men. During an average week in the late 1990s, 5% of full-time working women were absent from their jobs compared to just 2.5% of men—and it’s not because the women were sick more frequently. It’s that someone had to stay home with the kids.

Companies both locally and nationwide are making more accommodations for working women, offering flexible and part-time schedules to help working mothers. A case in point is Pellar’s company, EMCO Technologies, which she took over from her parents in the 1970s. The company has placed employees on a staggered schedule under which they work 80 hours on then get nine hours off, which is every other Friday.

“This gives them time to schedule doctor’s appointments and things like that,” she says.

Of course, that doesn’t help if a child suddenly comes down with the flu or has a class field trip. That’s why EMCO is also flexible in allowing employees to use vacation or sick time for various personal leaves. Pellar says it makes good business sense to do so.

“In this economy, when you can find a good worker, that’s the overriding issue,” she says. “I’m looking for the best workers I can find, and they’re at a premium.”

Eymard’s bank has also been somewhat flexible. As a manager, she has been able to grant some discretion to those who work under her, allowing one of her assistants, for instance, to work a later schedule because the woman needed to get her children to school in the morning. Similarly, Eymard herself has been given some latitude to take time off for her own family when necessary.

“They’re normally pretty flexible with me when I’ve tried to do something because I’ve tried not to make it an issue,” she says. “I haven’t let it affect my work performance.”

But to move into management is another issue entirely, and it’s a sacrifice some women can’t or aren’t willing to make. In the world of banking, Eymard says, it’s the women who don’t have children, have grown children or have a full-time nanny who are able to put in the long hours and make the business trips that result in promotions.

“When I have to be in Chicago, I have to be there and I can’t tell my boss no,” she says.

Pellar has seen that same dynamic in other segments of the business world as well. Women have a harder time getting to the top because they’re still the primary caregivers—and it’s hard to do both well.

“There is an inequality because of choices that women, rightly or wrongly, make,” she says. “How do we effectively deal with that?”

There aren’t any easy answers. To force employers to make accommodations for working mothers is one thing; to force them to promote those same employees is another issue. Perhaps there’s some middle ground, but finding it remains a challenge—and one that women in business consistently confront.

“It’s definitely an issue and a very complex one,” Traylor says. “There are many different factors and no simple solution.”