Working Mother’s longtime leader reflects on the magazine’s birth, its profound impact on millions of women over the past three decades and how much we have to look forward to.

Eight years before I became a mom, I fell in love with Working Mother magazine. Though I was childless and unmarried, I was asked to join the launch team because I had sold the most ads into the test issue. Selling the ads was easy for me, because I knew how welcome this magazine would have been in my home from the time I was 12 years old. That’s when my mother, Agnes Lange Evans, became a high school teacher and joined what would become an army of “reentry” moms. My mom loved to work, but she’d been fired from her postcollege job as head dietitian for a restaurant chain when she became pregnant with my older brother, Scott. No one asked her if she might want to return to work after the baby. Even though they loved her and had promoted her, it was policy, and she was out. When we think about how things have changed, that’s a good place to start.

Meet the 2009 Working Mothers of the Year There are now more than 30 million moms in this country who work outside the home—that’s two out of every three moms. Fortunately, having a baby no longer means relinquishing your career. It means adjusting your work schedule to include caring for your child. Companies have helped moms thrive in their careers by revamping policies and programs to  retain our remarkable talents as we go through our life cycles as women, mothers and caregivers. And in our current economic crisis, women are approaching 50 percent of the workforce, with many keeping their families financially afloat. I became a working mother in 1987 when I had my son, Robert. Not only was I allowed to return to work, I was fully expected to return after my six-week maternity leave. By then, the most significant shift for working women had already taken place: We no longer had to interrupt our careers when we became moms—we had a choice. Most of the advancement of women in this country stems from that distinction.

Aunt Viola, Career Woman

Growing up, I had a role model who’d made unique choices: my great-aunt Viola. She was the only career woman I knew who wasn’t a teacher. She was a secretary for a very important executive at a big company in downtown Chicago. Aunt Viola was tall and stylish. She wore fitted gray suits and high heels for every occasion. She visited us on Easter, bringing a box of Fannie May chocolates, but she never once stayed overnight because she had to be at work bright and early Monday morning. Aunt Viola never married or had children. Although I always knew I wanted to be a mom, my aunt, who had made a different choice from all the other women I knew, impressed me tremendously.

Pushing the Envelope

Millions of women who have chosen to have a meaningful career like my aunt Viola, and also raise a family like my mother, have relied on Working Mother over the past 30 years for guidance, help, comfort, inspiration and role models as they seek to make this lifestyle work for them. They’ve become our loyal readers as they’ve watched us fight for state-by-state child-care standards. They’ve seen us shape the Working Mother 100 Best Companies, providing benchmarking research that instructs companies on how best to support moms. We’ve advocated for lactation rooms, paid maternity leave, protection from discrimination, support for multicultural women and awareness of the needs of single, adoptive and caregiving moms. And we’ve won some pivotal battles. The world has become less hostile to working moms—indeed, we’ve become the majority. And we’ve seized the opportunity to make choices about our lifestyle that weren’t available before. When Working Mother first launched in 1979, women needed the kind of help my mom needed when she reentered the workforce: How to dress like a professional woman. How to find quality child care. How to ask for a raise. How to talk to our husbands about housework. How to get dinner on the table in a flash. How to handle stress. If it all sounds familiar, that’s because it is. We’ve come so far in our roles as working women, but many of our basic needs have remained remarkably the same. We often feel guilty about our choices. We can feel overworked and underappreciated. And we can feel very, very alone, as I am still told in emails from readers. That’s why Working Mother is here—as a mentor, a champion and a friend that brings together real working moms in a community of extraordinary women.

What’s Next

There’s still so much to do! Here, my five top predictions. I challenge each of you to play a role in the outcome.

Government will inch ahead, enacting more legislative support of working moms. We’ll see the long-awaited improvements to FMLA. Congress will move to require seven days of paid sick leave and at least eight weeks of paid family leave.

Companies will continue to support families, as Working Mother continues to champion the best and urge on the rest.

Dads will continue to evolve. Dads are no longer content to sit on the sidelines of parenthood. Their expanding role will pave the way for more equity of work in the home.

Moms will keep climbing the ladder of power. I believe that the huge ranks of talented moms in middle and upper management will burst through in the next decade because American business needs our talent.

We’ll keep celebrating as we grow and thrive because working moms rely on their magazine to help them be the best moms and the best employees they can be. Thank you to all who have played a role in making Working Mother a voice for the evolving American mom —from talented editors to supportive advertisers, salespeople, Best Companies, cover moms, experts. We thank you all and celebrate with you.

Timeline 1979: Working Mother magazine launches to serve 16 million working moms. 1981: Sandra Day O’Connor is the first working mom on the U.S. Supreme Court. 1986: The Best Companies for Working Mothers debuts. There are 19 million working moms. 1989: Working Mother honors the first Working Mother of the Year. 1993: President Clinton signs FMLA into law, guaranteeing up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. 1996: Working Mother holds the first annual 100 Best Companies WorkLife Congress. 2001: Carol Evans acquires Working Mother—she’s the first mom to own the magazine. 2003: The Best Companies for Multicultural Women is launched. 2008: Hillary Clinton makes 18 million cracks in the presidential glass ceiling. 2009: Congress passes the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act as we celebrate 30 years! Pictured: Carol Evans and her mom share a laugh.