Baby, this just isn't working for me

Interesting, if not somewhat discouraging, article on Guardian Unlimited yesterday: "Baby, this just isn't working for me."

The article begins: "Women with young children suffer more discrimination at work than any other group..." according to a UK government-commissioned report.

Apparently American women are not the only ones struggling with work/parenting issues.

One paragraph in particular that struck me:

"Nothing prepares you for parenthood, according to the cliche, and certainly nothing prepares the young, successful working woman for the painful realisation, as she hits her 30s, that this is the decade in which she's expected to do two completely contradictory things: start a family and at the same time shift her career into the highest gear if she is to win the biggest prizes. The 30s is a decade of brutal reckoning for many women as they are forced to recalibrate everything they have been told since they were children - yes, they can achieve anything they set their minds on, but at a cost that no one ever spelt out to them. How large that cost is depends entirely on the individual woman, her own understanding of motherhood and the kind of engagement she wants with her own children. A few working mothers resolve that conflict to their own satisfaction; the vast majority live uncomfortably with an internal dialogue of self-doubt."

This is not to say you can't be a mother and have a high-powered career. Take a look at this article on Yahoo! Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker.

But I do agree that many career women do encounter a brutal reckoning once they have children. There's nothing like having a baby to force you to re-examine your life.