The Business Ethics Blog

Working Mother magazine has put together their 21st annual list of the 100 Best Companies (which they also refer to as the most “family-friendly” companies in America).

Programs we could only imagine a few years ago—16 months of maternity leave, free backup care, phase-back programs, $10,000 in adoption reimbursement—are now a reality at many of our Working Mother 100 Best Companies. In selecting this year’s winners, we gave special weight to leave policies, because it’s critical for a mother to be able to stay home as long as possible with her newborn without suffering professionally.

WM lists their top 100 in alphabetical order, so I can’t tell you who topped the list. Among the welll-known companies included, however, are Aflac, Allstate, American Express, and Avon. There are also a few surprises (i.e., companies that have overall various kinds of image / social responsibility problems) such as Dow Corning, Ford, GlaxoSmithKline, and Microsoft.

What is the WM list based on? There isn’t a lot of specific information, but according to WM’s Methodology page:

Seven areas are measured and scored: workforce profile, compensation, child care, flexibility, time off and leaves, family-friendly programs and company culture.

Helpfully, the list also provides access to extra information about just what makes each company a good place for working moms.

Interestingly, BusinessWeek leaves out the whole “mom” angle, and entitles their version of the story List of 100 top places for women to work (so, is that women generally? Are they trying to keep the headline short, or just assuming that all women are current-or-potential moms?)

(Thanks to Feministing for the story.)