Voted 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2006

It was announced yesterday morning. It was astounding news. It is the grist of retention and healthy corporate culture fundamentals. The announcement was made by Working Mother magazine CEO Carol Evans regarding the 100 best companies to work for in 2006, the most mom friendly.
Now it is true that this site is dedicated to serving the interests of college students and recent college graduates. However, those populations are not entirely your traditional student. With the fact that so many are admitting that a degree is important to one’s career opportunities and advancement, many are either returning to university after a break or embarking on studies at a more mature age. So it’s not entirely unreasonable for us to be interested in companies that address parent-friendly issues. In fact, the criteria for making the list are: (a) flexibility, (b) leave time for new parents, (c) child care, (d) elder care, and the (e) number of women occupying top jobs.
Likewise, college students do start families while in school. Additionally, there are women who have left the workforce in order to raise familites for a time and are now ready to re-enter the workforce. These populations have dual priorities: (a) where to work that will be healthy for one’s career and (b) where to work in order to have an environment that bends to the demands of raising the next crop of responsible and focused workers.

So as soon as the announcement was made, the scouring process began to ascertain which are the 100 best for 2006.
Only two companies have made the list each of the 21 years that Working Mother has announced its determination. Those two are IBM and Johnson & Johnson. Those are also two long-standing forerunners on the diversity front. These two companies deserve some closer scrutiny.
But which are the top ten? It’s an interesting mix: Abbott Laboratories; Bon Secours Richmond Health System; Ernst & Young LLP; HSBC USA Inc.; IBM Corp.; JPMorgan Chase & Co.; Patagonia Inc.; PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP; Principal Financial Group, and S.C. Johnson & Son Inc.
Without further ado, here’s the list of 100, in alphabetical order:

• Abbott Laboratories
• Accenture
• Aflac Inc.
• Allstate Insurance Co.
• American Express Co.
• Arnold & Porter LLP
• Astrazeneca
• Avon Products Inc.
• Bank of America
• Baptist Health South Florida
• Bayer Corp.
• Bon Secours Richmond Health System
• Booz Allen Hamilton
• The Boston Consulting Group
• Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
• Bronson Healthcare Group Inc.
• Capital One Financial Corp.
• Carlson Companies
• Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta
• Children’s Memorial Hospital
• Citigroup Inc.
• CJW Medical Center
• Colgate-Palmolive Co.
• Cornell University
• Covington & Burling LLP
• Credit Suisse Securities LLC
• DaimlerChrysler Corp.
• Deloitte & Touche USA LLP
• Deutsche Bank
• Discovery Communications Inc.
• Dow Corning Corp.
• Dupont Co.
• Eli Lilly & Co.
• Ernst & Young LLP
• Fannie Mae
• First Horizon National Corp.
• First National Bank
• Ford Motor Co.
• Genentech
• General Electric Co.
• General Mills
• GlaxoSmithKline
• Goldman, Sachs & Co.
• Grant Thornton LLP
• Gurwin Jewish Geriatric Center
• Harvard University
• Hewlett-Packard Co.
• HSBC-North America
• IBM Corp.
• IKEA North America Services LLC
• Inova Health System
• JFK Medical Center
• Johnson & Johnson
• JPMorgan Chase
• Kellogg Co.
• KPMG LLP
• Kraft Foods Inc.
• Lego Systems Inc.
• Lehman Brothers
• Massachusetts General Hospital
• Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.
• The McGraw-Hill Companies
• Merck & Co. Inc.
• Mercy Health System
• MetLife Inc.
• Microsoft Corp.
• Morgan Stanley
• Motorola Inc.
• Northern Trust Corp.
• Northwestern Memorial Healthcare
• Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.
• Patagonia Inc.
• Pearson Education
• Pfizer Inc.
• The Phoenix Companies Inc.
• Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
• PNC Financial Services Group Inc.
• PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
• Principal Financial Group
• The Procter & Gamble Co.
• Providence Alaska Medical Center
• Prudential Financial
• Republic Bancorp Inc.
• Rodale Inc.
• RSM McGladrey Inc.
• S.C. Johnson & Son Inc.
• Schering-Plough
• Scripps Health
• Texas Instruments Inc.
• The Timberland Co.
• TriHealth
• Turner Broadcasting System Inc.
• UBS
• Union Pacific Railroad
• Verizon Communications/Verizon Wireless
• Wachovia Corp.
• Wells Fargo & Co.
• West Virginia University Hospitals
• Wyeth
• Yale-New Haven Hospital