The company offers daycare services at its Northbrook, Ill., headquarters along with holiday backup care and summer camp. Parents at other sites get help locating daycare services at reduced rates. New mothers can take 12 weeks maternity leave. Five weeks are fully paid. Allstate also offers adoption services.

In 2012, Allstate also made Working Mother's list of Best Companies for Multicultural Women and Top 50 Companies for Executive Women.

“There is tremendous pride in this designation,” says Jorge Quezada, director of inclusive diversity at Allstate in an interview. “First of all, we are a Hall of Fame company with Working Mother, which means we have been on the list for multiple years. Second, whenever you are involved with trying to showcase what you do in the workplace, I think there is a perspective about whether this is about attracting talent? And the answer would be yes. Is this about retention of our employees? The answer would be yes.

“The more we do for working mothers in the workplace, really highlights the focus that we have on working parents as a whole,” he went on to say. “That leads into development and opportunities. We know if people stay with the company and if we provide the benefit—the work-life balance that is needed—we then provide working mothers with the opportunity to move-up within our company.”

At Aon, 59 percent of its workforce of close to 22,000 consists of women, and Working Mother says the broker's Women's International Network hosts skills workshops showing women “how to forge important work relationships” and “show employees how to connect.”

Many of the company's worksites offer bank branches, drycleaners, convenience stores and cafeterias. Half of all workers utilize alternative work schedules. Business-unit leaders are required to nominate a specific percentage of women “for internal leadership initiatives” and “executive's performance reviews evaluate their ability to retain and promote women.” Aon averages seven weeks of full-paid maternity leave and offers adoption leave.

In a statement, Greg Besio, executive vice president and chief resources officer at Aon says, “Aon is committed to attracting and retaining unmatched talent across the globe. We pride ourselves on fostering a work environment and culture that allows mothers to reach their full potential while providing them with the flexibility and resources to help them balance their personal and professional lives.”

The two were among six insurance companies recognized for 2012. The other four were life and health insurers:

• Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.
• Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance.
• MetLife.
• New York Life Insurance.

This story was updated with comments from Allstate.