From Baby to Briefcase

Here is an exerpt from 'From Baby to Briefcase' by Louisa Dent in Women's Health & Fitness Magazine vol.13, no.1, 2007 in the Wellbeing section.

Really highlights the dilemmas faced by career mums wanting to return to work but experiencing all sorts of dilemmas - not least the issue of personal identity.

Here are some bits (couldn't upload scanned article) ......

"To give birth to a child is to shoot out of the orgit of the normal world and land on a planet called motherhood, where for several months you can do nothing but think, eat, sleep, breathe and live for your beautiful baby....

"Yet the orbit into outer space does eventually lead back to Earth, in an average time of seven months, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics - the time taken for mothers to start working again, post-baby.

"Although this is an average time, there is nothing average about childbirth and the changes that follow. Each and every mother is different and has a unique story to tell. Most of the stories reveal a deep conflict of emotion that occurs when women try to assimilate themselves back into the normal working world of clocks, competition and coffee breaks...

"Claire's story raises the issue of motherhood in our society and the challenges that mothers face in order to keep their identities whilst raising children. In a world that defines people by what they do in the workplace, the mothering task is made all the more difficult.

"Meredith is a mother of two children, aged nine and 14. She is a psychologist and now runs a private practise as a careers counsellor. Around 70 per cent of her clients are mothers who are returning to the workforce.

"She agrees that mothering is undervalued. "You go to a party and you meet someone you don't know, the first thing you ask them is, 'What do you do?' Personal identity is all about careers.""

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What's been your experience?

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mbhadmin

  #2      

working women....

yes, working women seems to define us and yet when you say that you are a" working woman" people seem to constantly devalue the SAHM role if that's been your choice.

I have to say that the competition thing is hardest and the most pressure I ever feel is from other women who are, miraculously to my eyes, managing to "have it all" by working at a career, holding a relationship together meaningfully, having happy healthy kids and who even find time for study and career advancement.
By comparison I am then on the dark side of the moon, somewhere in a space that nobody properly values, not even my spouse.
But I like my life!

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:::iona:::