NewsonWomen: Women in Business, Women Entrepreneurs: 4 Flexible Work Options for Working Women who Want More Balance in their Lives.

Brie Weiler Reynolds (pictured), the Content and Social Media Manager at the telecommuting and flexible job listings site FlexJobs, believes Marissa Mayer is just one more example of how women are making it work. "With Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer reaching the height of the corporate world while being seven months pregnant, we wonder how she’ll do it," said Brie. "Thanks to the rise of flexible work arrangements, the balancing act of being CEO while raising a new baby is no longer an impossibility. While many women have been executives and raised children at the same time, more high-profile cases are being played out in public which helps boost the idea that it’s possible for all of us."

Brie offers job seekers career advice through the FlexJobs Blog, and has these suggestions for working women:

"For any woman balancing the demands of a career and family, here are four flexible work options to help you do both with more ease and greater control. Consider pitching one of these to your current company:

Telecommuting
"Professional women looking for more time in their day and more control over their work schedules should consider telecommuting. Telecommuting means you’re either working from home or working from a remote location away from the office, like a coffee shop. The advantages of telecommuting include eliminating your commute, spending less time getting ready in the mornings, saving money on gas, and being able to do things around the house during work breaks that would otherwise have to wait until nights or weekends."

Flexible schedules
"For someone who wants to stay in the office but would like a schedule that better fits their lives, flexible schedules are a great idea. There are a number of different flexible schedules. You might start and end your day earlier or later to avoid rush-hour traffic or coincide with school hours. You could ask for flextime so that you can take care of personal commitments like doctor appointments. A compressed workweek would allow you to work a standard 40-hour workweek in four days, with an extra day off each week. And combined “Paid Time Off - PTO” combines sick, vacation, and personal days into one large pile of days off to be used as you see fit."

Reduced hours
"If your schedule feels overloaded consider reducing to a part-time schedule (typically 20-30 hours per week) or job sharing, where your job is managed by two people. So, if you’re working 70 hours a week and need to rein in your crazy schedule, your job could be handled by yourself and one other person, perhaps a part-time person, so that you’re working 45 hours and they’re working 25."

A combination of flexible work arrangements
"A ROWE, or Results Only Work Environment, is a mash-up of every type of workplace flexibility. In this flexible work arrangement, the only thing that matters is your output. Not where, when, how, or for how long you’re working, just the quality of your results. It’s a bit Utopian, but 20 years ago, the very idea of workplace flexibility was a dream. It makes sense that because we’ve now reached critical mass with flexible work options, an even more flexible option would spring forth."

Company won’t flex? Find a new one.
"As you consider flexible work options, it may occur to you that your current workplace is not yet ready for the type of flexibility that you want. If that’s the case, it may be time to seek out other more flexible opportunities. FlexJobs is the leading job search service for flexible jobs, and their listings include telecommuting, flexible schedule, part-time, and freelance jobs."

If you are interested in looking for a more flexible job arrangement, Brie has this advice -"To begin, you can search for companies who have offered flexible work options in the past through FlexJobs’ Guide to the Best Companies for Flexible Jobs. This free searchable database has information on over 15,000 companies who have offered legitimate, professional-level flexible jobs in the past," Brie explains. " For executive-level jobs, browse through FlexJobs’ Executive Management Jobs category, which lists only jobs at the director, executive, officer, head, or president level, including associate and vice positions. Or, search for jobs in one of over 50 flexible jobs categories based on industry, including marketing, business, science, government, medicine, education, non-profit, law, art, and everything in between."

"Whether you change your current work schedule or your place of work entirely, flexible job options are increasingly common and sought after for women at all levels of industry."