I just wrote about the idea of having a home based business and being able to work from anywhere in the world. How nice would that be?

It’s funny though. I was just thinking about how, when I was growing up as a child – the news, books, documentaries, and movies always made it seem that many people would be working shorter work weeks, fewer hours with higher incomes and that many people would be working from home.

I do believe that over the last decade or so that this has become a reality for more and more people.

The internet and advanced communications technology has made it possible for many people to work fewer hours in their place of business, work from home, work abroad and to make good money while doing so.

I think that women have probably had the most luck at taking advantage of the way things have changed with how we work.

I mean, if a woman wants to have children she often must take some time off to recover from giving birth and to care for her new born child. There are still many countries that do not guarantee maternity leave and that a job will still be waiting for a woman when they return from caring for their newborn. I could be wrong but I think even in the US – at least in some states, Maternity leave is not guaranteed. Maternity and or paternity leave is guaranteed here in Canada and that does make it easier for people to have a family and go back to the workforce when their child is a year old.

Women who don’t have maternity leave or who opt to stay at home while their children are young were traditionally left income- less. With the cost of living going up and up it’s hard for any family to not need two incomes.

I know several women who have used the internet to generate an income. Either through coming up with a fantastic website that generates a good income through advertising, or by creating small e-businesses that they can work from home. Some of these women have been inventive too and have come up with new products- often related to children or child care and have started out by selling these items over the internet.

Other women have worked out a deal with their place of employment whereby they are able to do most of their work at home and perhaps only go into the office once a week or less, yet still make the same or almost the same income as when they worked 40+ hours each week in the office.

Prior to the internet – say 15+ years ago, this just wasn’t possible. Yes men and women were still finding ways to make income from home and were being creative entrepreneurs, but there were fewer of them out there than there is now.

How has the internet changed your life? Do you work from home or generate some extra money through work on the internet or through your website or blog?