Flexible working hours, homeworking opportunities and cover for emergencies or school holidays are the top concerns for working mothers, according to a British survey on Thursday.
The survey of 1,677 people by specialist employment advice website workingmums.co.uk showed that despite a tougher job climate, in which redundancies(裁员) had risen dramatically during the crisis, mothers demanded for a more flexible schedule.
Flexible hours for full-time jobs came top of the list for 85 percent of respondents who were asked what they thought made for a family-friendly employer. That came just ahead of homeworking opportunities.
“Flexibility is really key and able to help achieve an element of work/life balance,” workingmums.co.uk founder Gillian Nissim told reporters.
She said the crisis had not reduced the urgency of this issue for working mums and that employers who want to be prepared for the eventual upturn would do well to listen to them rather than risk losing them to more forward-thinking rivals.
Many women said they had considered setting up their own business as a way around the flexibility problem and nearly half (45 percent) of respondents said they had looked into it.
Nissim said the workingmums.co.uk database alone showed that on average working mums have more than 15 years of work experience and a range of valuable skills picked up in the workplace and from their parenting experiences.
“So the benefits to employers of being able to accommodate (适应) a degree of flexibility is significant,” she said.
Part-time work, flexibility around emergency cover or school holidays were the next highest concerns with extended maternity （产假） pay as well on the list of concerns.More than half (54 percent) of respondents said they would accept a less well-paid job in return for flexibility, with 40 percent prepared to consider this option.
小题1:The passage mainly discuss the problem of _______.
| A．working mothers requiring flexible working hours. |
| B．working mothers planning to set up their own businesses. |
| C．well-paid jobs. |
| D．unemployment at the time of financial crisis. |
小题2: Flexibility of working hours can help women _______.
| A．to have an extended maternity. |
| B．to have opportunities to operate their own companies. |
| C．to strike a balance between work and life. |
| D．to pick up a range of valuable skills. |
小题3:It can be inferred from the last paragraph that _____.
| A．40 percent of the respondents are ready to have less-paid jobs instead of full-time jobs. |
| B．more than half of the respondents would accept a less well-paid job if they were given a job of flexible hours. |
| C．the highest concern of working mums is about part-time work. |
| D．women were more concerned about extended maternity pay than school holidays. |
小题4: If you are the editor of a newspaper, which column will you fit this article in?
| A．Advertisements. | B．People. | C．Education. | D．Career. |