MOTHERS CAN’T HAVE CAREERS. The NYTimes has a story of women who struggle with their careers after they choose to have children:
Like other career-minded young women, she hoped the law would open doors. But her promising career at a department-store corporate office ended 15 years ago when she had a baby.
She was passed over for promotions after she started leaving work before 6:30 each evening to pick up her daughter from day care. Then, she was pushed into a dead-end clerical job. Finally, she quit.
But this is the story of a Japanese woman named Yukako Kurose. Apparently, Japanese women have just as much trouble balancing the their families with a long work week as American women do. The Japanese passed an equal opportunity employment law in 1985, but they’re finding that it is the work culture itself — not the law — that is preventing women from truly achieving equality. Hm… this sounds familiar.
–Kay Steiger
