Women@Work: Julie Meringer by David Pereyra Snapshot: Baby's Just Fine, Now Off to Work You Go Julie Meringer is in the middle of morning drive time traffic, 8 a.m. on the road to Boston, Mass., from Watertown. The 7 mile commute normally runs half an hour, though this morning will take a bit longer due to wind and New England coastal rains. Julie handles conditions well, says no, the weather's fine, and makes her way in to Boston, deftly handing cell phone and traffic, the connection breaking only once. She's leaving behind in daycare her 19-month-old daughter Ally. But Julie is on, positive and articulate about her current life, with an easy sense of humor. As she tells more of her story she brightens, confident that things, metaphorically speaking, are on the right road. "I don't do drop off or pick up, which can make me feel guilty sometimes," Julie says, touching on her daughter Ally's daycare and aftercare solutions. Those responsibilities are left up to her husband, a 6th grade teacher who works half days due to middle school hours. She also gets daycare and aftercare support from her family network--grandparents, sisters, brothers. At 31, Julie is a Research Director at Forrester Research, one of the first and leading research companies keeping tabs on the global Internet economy and its impact on society and business. She was employee number 14 in a company that now employs more that 450 people. She speaks matter-of-factly about being the primary breadwinner and how her husband watches after Ally. While pregnant, Julie took time off and her husband taught middle school in Watertown full time, as well as coached sports. Now, she is back at Forrester leading a team of people that studies the ISP industry and how it develops and delivers full service solutions to other companies. She also leads a team launching a new groundbreaking product in the automotive industry. After graduating from the University of New Hampshire, Julie traveled to Japan to teach English, and then returned to the U.S. to prepare for law school. She lined up two jobs: law clerk or research assistant at Forrester, at the time a very small technology-focused market research company. Forrester's groundbreaking 1993 report, "Defining Social Computing," articulated the role e-commerce, and the Internet itself, would play as a significant agent of change in our society. "I called my older brother who worked at Hewlett Packard," says Julie. "He told me that he kept seeing these reports from Forrester Research laying around on people's desks. 'There's something about them,' he said. So, I decided to take a job with them." That was in 1991. She's been on a fast track ever since. Choose Your Lifestyle Is Julie breaking any glass ceilings or punching through invisible walls? According to recent statistics by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is still a dollar gap between men and women in the workplace. For women over 25 years old, the dollar difference ratio is 75 cents to the dollar. For those under 25, women earned nearly 92 percent of what men did in the same age bracket. The wage gap is closing, but more importantly, there is a subtle societal shift in child rearing and family life, historically one of the primary barriers women face in the workplace. And as younger women, and men, begin to assume executive positions, family and lifestyle choices made by them begin to reshape the workplace. Witness the dot-com casual attire that is fast replacing corporate coats and ties. When Julie traveled to industry events five years ago the halls were filled with "99 percent white males." That's changed. "The internet is essentially a marketing tool," she says. "And that has allowed women to rise in the ranks. It's been invigorating to see the changes. The whole mystique about GenXers is changing. They're growing up and having families. Society as a whole is really changing," she continues, optimistically. "Away from individualism." "We chose, as a family, these roles," Julie says of her husband's decision to work their lives around her high growth career. "I must add, that Forrester has been very, very supportive. This company really believes the family comes first in people's lives and that's allowed me to do what I do." But, she continues, "I'm not going to pretend. I like to go into work every day." More snapshots: • Kellie Smythe, Director of Internet Partnerships at ANC • Sharon Collins, Graphic Designer and Owner of SecondSiteStudio.com