Am I the only one who thinks this is a sad indictment of the way things are for women in practice?[/lauren]
I totally agree. I see many of my friends who got good degrees in college and have loads of experience being forced to choose between having another baby or staying in their careers. They are being taken out of the job market just as they are reaching the peak of their careers because they simply cannot spend the same quality or quantity of time they used to at work.
One of my friends recently went back to work after having her second child. She was promoted to Mgr before she left and the company were happy for her to resume her role when she returned. But she wasnt able to stay late in the evenings like she used to, she wasnt able to concentrate 100% on work with a sick kid at the creche, she wasnt able to volunteer to come in on the weekend because she was surviving on about 5 hours sleep a night and had no time for herself or her husband - and he was almost in the same boat. So she had a chat with her boss and he admitted that she wasnt fulfilling the role of mgr properly, even though she was there for her allotted 40 hours a week - it was the extra stuff that was expected of her that she couldnt do. She wasnt doing a good job in work or at home so she left.