Today's corporations, hard pressed by fierce competition in a global marketplace, are also locked in a fierce competition at home for the best and most talented workers, many of whom are women trying to balance work and family.

In "survival of the fittest" mode, the most progressive, forward looking businesses are now trying to better utilize their assets--women managers, whom they've invested in recruiting and training --and reducing the high cost of turnover by working to overcome gender bias in their ranks.

Women make up about 50% of the work force. That's a very substantial resource not to use effectively. If women were an expensive piece of high tech equipment, their controllers wouldn't allow corporations not to make more effective use of them. The ideal situation, to allow women to perform at their peak, would the availability of flexible schedules and work sites to accomodate their needs, but only a small percent of major corporations provide that opportunity. Women want to identify those few "family-friendly" companies who seek to pay and advance women equitably, and help them balance their family time, concerns and responsibilities.

In fact, one of the major motivating factors for women to launch their own companies is to increase their ability to balance family and work. Over the past 40 years, the number of working women with preschool children has quadrupled. These women, who are taking less time off for childbirth, want to be able to have families but also remain committed to their careers, just as men are . Since most corporations still do not provide flexible schedules and work sites to accommodate women's needs,entrepreneurship becomes an appealing alternative.

Debra Fields, founder of Mrs. Fields Cookies is said to have started her business, in part, because it would give her the flexibility to balance her child-rearing duties with work. She now has four young daughters.

Diane Graham of Stratco has had four babies all of whom she has brought to the office as infants and taken on business trips for the first four or five months of their lives. These women are executives and business owners, not entry level employees. What this signifies is that the conflict between family and work responsibilites does not decrease or disappear with age or increased income or the fact that one has moved up the career ladder.

At a certain point, working women also may have to assume at least some responsibilities for elderly or infirm parents or in-laws. Some have both young children and elderly parents to care for, in addition to a job. If one is not employed by an extremely progressive, affluent, and employee conscious company, which offers support programs and facilities to help meet those urgent family needs, entreprenuership may, indeed, seem the only way out of this common dilemma for working women.

To look on the positive side, many women, including senators, university presidents and governers, like the very capable and charismatic former Governer Ann Richards of Texas, have given credit to their backgrounds as wives and mothers for providing them with "management" and "entrepreneurial" skills. Patricia Dedominic, president of the National Association of Women Business Owners, says of characteristic women strengths that help them as entrepreneurs:

Women have had to do lots of juggling. That's a real plus. They can work out of their homes. It has now become acceptable, and the phone companies and computer companies and fax sellers are making their products reasonable and effective. Your customers don't have to know if you are on Madison Avenue or on a farm today. That helps people who want to raise families and enjoy a certain ... quality of life, and it also eliminates commuting. Women (business owners) are finding it's time to own the system and not just ask permission to join it.