Working Moms Have a Secret: We Love Our Jobs
Think the workplace brings mothers nothing but guilt and stress? Think again.
It’s possible to love two things at once.
Photographer: Ariel Skelley/Digital VisionIf I say to you “working mom,” what image pops into your mind? A girlboss with a baby in a briefcase? An employee who can’t be fully committed to the job? A harried-looking woman who feels guilty all the time and can’t find 10 minutes to take a damn shower?
Judging by falling birthrates and declining intentions to have children, a growing share of educated women are evidently deciding that working motherhood is so unappealing they’ll just opt out of having kids. And as a working mom myself, I’m not going to say it’s always a rose garden. The United States certainly makes it harder than it needs to be, between the lack of paid leave, the high cost of child care, and a million other policy choices.