More “SWAT” Teams
May 7th, 2008 by Cali & Jody
We were pleased to see this post from Mojo Mom about SWAT (”smart women with available time”) teams. The context is Sue Shellenbarger’s story in the Wall Street Journal about an experimental project (running business simulations) at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler business school. As Mojo Mom notes, these simulations only happen occasionally, “so Kenan-Flagler needed executive-level talent that could assemble at a moment’s notice to work on an intense but brief project.”
Mojo Mom was one of the project’s participants. Not only did she rock it, but she knows she rocked it:
“When you think of ’stay-at-home Mom’ versus ‘MBA student,’ a stereotypical image might be minnows swimming with sharks. It was good to confront that image because when it came right down to it, I actually felt more like the shark. Because the MBA students are very smart, we might forget that most of them have not been in the working world for more than a few years. Compared to a twentysomething, I have come to appreciate the life experience I have accumulated through every work and family challenge I have faced.”
We would love to see more statements like this be part of our national conversation about work and life. Having a kid and being a parent is not a business liability. It’s bad enough that we stigmatize women for not being “available” after they have kids. But we also sell them short for not being as capable. The irony is that having children, like any major life experience, presents challenges that can make you stronger and smarter and better. If we dropped the labels and focused on what people could accomplish, we’d have SWAT (and SMAT) teams all over the place.
Thanks for sharing our SWAT story. I wanted to point out that once men come on board, we can say that SWAT covers all “Smart Workers With Avaiable Time.” I agree that when men have flexibility, that will also free up women to keep working. We’re all in this together, in so many ways.