Refocus on the core

AS AN advocate of gender equality and a more inclusive workplace, Jennifer Johnson, president and chief operating officer of Franklin Resources, Inc, had no better role model than her mother, who raised seven children and after some years as a homemaker, went back to university to pursue a medical degree from Stanford Medical School in California.

"I have five kids; my mother had seven. I was an underachiever as I stopped at five,'' she laughs.

"I'm second-generation guilty mom, but maybe less guilty than my mother. She gave me that gift of feeling less guilty. I want my daughters to be confident to choose to work if that's what they want to do. They and their partner may decide on the right person to work, or they both work. Isn't that what society should create an environment for?