Features correspondent
Jane Kettlewell is no stranger to hard work. Currently a New York-based wine professional, Kettlewell has been working long hours since she was just 16. As she entered her 50s, however, she realised it was time for a dramatic change.
As a teen, Kettlewell had worked as a night bartender at a top Gatwick Airport hotel after a full day studying business and French in a London university. By the time she was 50, she was still clocking 60-hour weeks as a spokeswoman for a large US wine importer.
The wine business is fun but “one tends to work evenings and weekends,” said Kettlewell, now 53. “It’s not 9-to-5 and then there’s traveling… It just gets to where you have to schedule the laundry.”
Still, Kettlewell loved her work with wine. So she did something unexpected. Rather than chasing the illusive work-life balance, she created something new altogether.
Three years ago, she co-founded Creative Palate, a public relations and marketing firm for vintners and wine importers, with another colleague. Now, her hours are her own. As her own boss, she can meet with clients yet still carve out time for family and friends. Even more importantly, she has something she values more than prestige or an astronomical salary — flexibility.
“I needed a new challenge and starting our own business was part of that,” said Kettlewell. “But the opportunity to manage my schedule… was the primary factor in the decision to strike out on my own.”
Kettlewell is one of a new generation of high-powered women who are redefining success. Rather than racking up prestige, titles and money with powerful jobs working for other people, they seek flexibility while continuing to expand their career.
A majority of women globally want more flexibility in the workplace, according to LinkedIn’s What Women Want @ Work survey. The survey, which polled 5,000 professional women in 13 countries ––including Brazil, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands –– found that almost two-thirds of those asked wanted greater flexibility in the workplace. Meanwhile, the importance women placed on salary when defining professional accomplishments had fallen in the past decade to 45% from 56%. Having an interesting job came out ahead at 58%, according to the study, published in March 2013.
“As women progress in their careers, their definition of success seems to have transformed,” said Ngaire Moyes, a LinkedIn spokeswoman. “Modern working women are not just striving for positions of power or a higher salary. Today’s professional women are far more likely to define success as having an interesting and fulfilling job and being able to successfully balance their work and home lives.”
In the US, government programs help fund entrepreneurs. The US Small Business Administration loaned women $3.8bn in 2013, up 31% since 2009, according Erin Andrew, the agency’s assistant administrator for women’s business ownership.
“Right now, we have 7.8m women-owned businesses in the United States, which is a 20% increase from 2002 to 2007 and we’re continuing to see increases in the number of women-owned businesses,” Andrew said. “Women are usually at 50% or above in our microloan portfolio.” (Microloans are those for $50,000 or less).
There has been a slow rise in the size of the loans women are seeking. This is a good sign because it means they are thinking “beyond personal loans and credit cards and taking on more debt for business that will inevitably, probably, grow,” Andrew said. “It’s a trend we are seeing.”
London-based Anita Heathcote, who heads her own sales, marketing and public relations firm aimed at the luxury hotel industry, said she started ATP Heathcote & Associates Ltd in 2007 without any help from the British government. She said she was unaware of any similar financing help in the UK.
Even without such aid, Heathcote was determined to become her own boss.
“I started my own company because I did not enjoy corporate politics,” Heathcote said. “I wanted to put my years of experience, past achievements and large network of contacts to good use, and I wanted to address the poor quality of life and stress that I went through never having enough time to tackle my own personal / domestic jobs, or go to the gym without having to get up at dark o’clock in the morning.”
Heathcote added, “I am also in my early 50s now, and to be honest, I did feel my age was starting to work against me succeeding further in the corporate world.”
Now, she doesn’t have to look busy. If a personal matter demands Heathcote take time in the afternoon, “I don’t mind clearing my emails at night… when things have gone quiet.” And working from home a few days a week saves her “at least another three hours a day of rush hour traveling time,” she said.
There have been some challenges. For one, she is bringing home less than she did at her previous positions. Still, Heathcote has found the flexibility of being self-employed has improved her quality of life. “There is a financial unpredictability that comes with this,” she said. “But generally, hard work results in better remuneration including the hard work involved in finding new clients and in keeping existing clients happy.”
Eva Bocchiola, a 56-year-old psychotherapist in Milan, left her job in finance two-and-a-half years ago after her third child was born. “It took me a long time and a therapy to realise and to accept that it was impossible, at least for me, to keep together a family with three children and a very demanding job.”
Bocchiola needed “more flexibility and the possibility to decide how to organise my time.” She chose to switch fields entirely, going back to school to study and became a psychotherapist. “Now I enjoy my new life, more freedom, less money and a job that means something to me.”