Woman's Work

No woman, we've been told recently, should have to sacrifice her career in order to have a family. It sounds good and thoughtful, but what does it mean exactly? There are surely many women who work for pay who cannot be said to have a career, with what that implies of choice and fulfillment. Conversely not all women who have careers necessarily get paid for their work - for example women who want to provide high-level support to a husband's or a relative's career and are happy and fulfilled in doing so. It takes all sorts and there are all sorts. And then the word 'sacrifice' carries a heavy emotional charge, but only in one direction. No one wants to say that a woman may be sacrificing her children in order to have the sort of career she could expect to have if she'd remained childless. So un-PC to even think in that way! And yet it must happen. An enlightened approach to women and paid work should be able to take into account that mothers come in all shapes and sizes, figuratively speaking, as much as women come in all shapes and sizes physically. Some of us can combine career and children, some of us can't. Some of us have careers to start with, some of us don't. Some of us want to work but can't. Some of us want to stay at home but can't. An  enlightened approach to women and work should have no problem in positing that a woman bringing up her own children is in fact working. Moreover, that a woman bringing up her own children is not necessarily doing so because she is privileged enough to do this as a lifestyle choice. For some of us, especially those who are doing this work alone, multitasking is just not possible. Not everyone has plentiful reserves of energy, not everyone is strong. Furthermore - and further down the line - an enlightened approach to women and paid work should be able to recognise that mothers who've put in a decade or two of child-rearing can have a lot to contribute to society, business etc. Why not make a point of understanding the resources that returning mothers could bring to the table? Then those of us who are ready to return to paid work need not be greeted like the unwelcome ghost at the banquet, or at the quickly snatched desk-top lunch*
*Which is a lunch 'al desko':  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-29725013