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4word Blog

No Supermoms Required

It’s back to school time again. That time of year packed with parent orientations, meet the teacher nights, supply shopping, clothing shopping, shoe shopping, and my favorite this year…..magnetic locker decorations. WHAT? And form, after form, after form to be filled out. And then we realize halfway through… Read More

Strangers In Their Own Church

A hot topic among Christians lately has been single or childless women in the church and how they "fit in." Church small groups, classes, and weekly activities seem to cater either to men or stay-at-home moms. Everyone else in the congregation either gets clumped together into a generic… Read More

One Woman’s Tale of “Having it All”

We are thrilled to introduce you to May Oh. Now the owner of her own law firm in Singapore, May formerly held the position of the first woman director of Mobile Oil. We couldn’t wait to hear how she has managed to balance her vibrant faith, with her… Read More

What’s Missing From "What Works For Women at Work"

This week I read about a new book for professional women. It’s called, “What Works For Women at Work,” and it promises to provide women an “essential toolkit” for getting ahead at work. The authors, a mother-daughter team, interviewed 127 highly successful professional women, and compiled huge amounts… Read More

But Mary Pondered

This time of year there’s a lot to be excited about. Especially if you’re a working mom like me, it’s easy to fill up your time with holiday preparations, decorations, family traditions, office parties, church events, and shopping trips. We’re all running on instinct at this point (well,… Read More

Does the Church Know How To Love Childless Women?

I read a pair of articles this week that touch on this topic from two very different perspectives. One from a married woman in her 40s who has struggled with infertility, and one from an unmarried 28-year-old. Both present a rather stark picture of just how lonely and… Read More

Facing our Challenges as Working Women

Karen Howells has worked as a leadership development consultant for 25 years and executive coach for more than 15 years. In that time, she’s learned a lot about the struggles particular to working women, and she shares some of these with us today. --------------------   4word: What… Read More

Give Mommy Guilt A Time Out

If you’re a working mom like me, I can tell you a few things about yourself. First, you’re tired.  I know. Me too! In each stage of my kids’ lives, I’ve thought that this would get better, that somehow once they got “just a little older,” I would… Read More

Women Who Work, Love and Pray

Diane with 4word Portland leaders Maria (left) and Katie (right) at the Portland Good Friday Breakfast last month. It's been a little more than a year and a half since Diane's book "Work, Love, Pray" was published. Since then, the topic of working mothers and working women has… Read More

Does Working Mom = Massive Guilt?

Meet Tracy Thomas, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Bright Hope, wife of Tojy and mother to Soraya, Caleb and Zachary. Tracy has been a working woman since her teens – she paid for college working at carnivals every summer (as a “carnie” she likes to call it), selling… Read More

Wrestling with Infertility, Part 2

Good afternoon, everyone. We’re back with part two of our first interview with Sandra Crawford Williamson. If you haven’t yet, we recommend that you read part one. Otherwise, read on! -------------------- 4word: What kind of support system did you have going through this? Sandra: That's an interesting question… Read More

Wrestling with Infertility, Part 1

Today begins our interview series with Sandra Crawford Williamson, Founder and CEO of Crawford Consulting and a woman of marvelous faith in the Lord. This week, Sandra is sharing a particularly painful part of her story with us: her struggle through two years of infertility and four miscarriages.… Read More

We Are More Than The Mommy Track

There are a lot of people explaining the “can’ts” and “don’ts” of women in the workplace, but is all this negativity taking us anywhere? Last week the Economist magazine purported to explain “why more women don’t rise to the top of companies.” Two months ago, Ann-Marie Slaughter broke… Read More

Watching the world change, part 2

Yesterday, we posted part one of our follow-up interview with Laura Rodriguez' mom, Judy. As promised, here's part two. -------------------- 4word: Laura also mentioned that in Houston "there was a significant judgment on women who didn't stay home." Can you tell us more about that? How did you… Read More

Watching the world change, Part 1

We’re following up last week’s interview of Laura Rodriguez by interviewing her mom, Judy Kauer, who has led a 30-year career in the business world. In the picture to the left, you see Judy (right), her mother Helen (center) and Laura – three generations of inspiring women! --------------------… Read More

Has the world changed for working women?

Ladies, meet Laura Rodriguez, a fellow 4word woman and reader of Work, Love, Pray. Laura is a recent graduate of the Yale School of Management, and she now works at Barclays’ Investment Banking Division, covering the Commercial Real Estate sector. As you’ll read below, Laura notes similarities between… Read More

Pregnant, Working, and CEO

Should a pregnant CEO be such a big deal? Last week, former Google executive Marissa Mayer took over as the CEO of Yahoo!, Inc. Mayer is young (37 years old), and her appointment brings the number of Fortune 500 female CEOs to just 20. As if that weren’t… Read More

What "Having It All" Means to Me

To wrap up our series on “having it all,” we interviewed several of our 4word board members to ask them one question: what does “having it all” mean to you? Here’s what they said. -------------------- Diane Paddison, founder of 4word & CSO for Cassidy Turley I “had it… Read More

You Can Have "It" All

What does it mean to "have it all"? It’s a phrase we’ve all heard, but last week in an article for The Atlantic, Anne-Marie Slaughter made “having it all” a hot issue. She says professional working moms really can’t do it in today's economic and societal structure. Moreover,… Read More