Dear Après Friends & Supporters,
On May 4, the one year anniversary of Après, we celebrated this milestone and began looking ahead to stay focused on the corporate culture stigma we’re working so hard to address — the one that sidelines women talent after they’ve actively chosen to care for other human beings: their children and their families.
Is it still a stigma you ask? Indeed.
- When talent application systems don’t allow your resume through if it shows a break in career history.
- When women who have taken a break worry about how to position the volunteering they did so it feels relevant to a possible employer.
- When companies don’t work with their hiring managers to interview this candidate pool without bias toward the break.
- When corporate cultures don’t support flexible work options that respect the need for their current employees to care for loved ones.
- When the pay gap is greater for mothers than women in general.
- When women are the ones constantly asked to get the coffee or make the copies.
- When women’s voices are drowned out around the conference room table.
So, what can you do?
- You can own the gap, embrace it, and not apologize for it. Instead, celebrate it!
- You can share Après with your network and apply to jobs on our site.
- You can value the caregiving time and work with internal teams to see it as an asset.
- You can be more flexible in work arrangements to allow women and men to be caregivers and valuable employees.
- You can work with firms like Après to hire from this talent pool and develop return to work programs where it makes sense.
In one year we have signed over 120 corporate partners who are embracing the career gap and non-linear path many women take.
We’re inspired by their vision and the opportunity to work with each of them, and hope you will spread the word with your networks in sharing this list of companies who are helping shift the paradigm for working women, working mothers, and families.
Best,
The Après Team
