I am frightened. A crisis is looming. I can already feel it. And I wonder: Am I giving up? What will I do without my identity as a media princess, an aspiring queen of a media empire? I need my crown, my social network, my expense account. Will I even know who I am without a business card that clearly shouts, “Voila! C’est moi!”? This is a significant turning point in my life.
The changes I face are very difficult for me to accept. My mother always told me that there is no comfort in change, but little personal growth without it. Well, it’s personal growth that I choose – in a big way. I'm pregnant.
That was 7 years ago.
Now I have two beautiful children, and I get to experience life through the eyes of a 4 year old and a 7 year old. Molly shows me the beauty in shells and pretend-princesses and silly dances. Jason teaches me a new life at lightning speed; by now, I pitch a baseball better than any mom in town. What these two teach me goes far beyond the syllabus of all those leading-and-managing-people courses I took almost a decade ago.
I’m lucky.
Opting out of the workforce has given me so many new rewards, so many new ways to measure my performance, even a new crown to wear. In fact, I may never have discovered my new passion had I not lived through the ups and downs of stay-at-home motherhood.
That passion is the promise of the Women’s Movement, a world where women can be successful at home and at the office, simultaneously. While the world has changed dramatically for women since 1963 when Betty Friedan wrote “The Feminine Mystique,” far too many of the old roadblocks remain, stubbornly stuck in place. Yes, women today can go speeding towards any and all educational and career aspirations. There are far fewer speed bumps in getting equal pay for equal work when compared with our male counterparts.
Increasingly we find fewer hurdles when competing with men for top executive positions; in fact, we are on the up-ramp in securing these posts. We are even told that we’ve earned the right to opt in or opt out of the workforce. Ah, but that’s where we often get stopped dead in our tracks. Exercising that right comes with a big price to pay, and offers many roadblocks that are bigger than anyone could have anticipated. I know this.
