Sharon Kim Kim is a second-year biology
student. Send your rhyme or reason to skim@media.ucla.edu.
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Karen Hughes is not your average working mom. Her home is in
Texas, but she works alongside President Bush in Washington, D.C.
She traveled with Bush and served as his personal counselor and
right-hand woman even before he was governor of Texas. Earlier this
week, however, Hughes announced she was packing her bags and
leaving her job in the White House to be with her family in
Texas.
Unlike the typical sob story of women who are forced to choose
family over work, Hughes won’t exactly hunt for a part-time
job. She will maintain contact with the president and remain in his
“inner circle” while receiving an annual salary. In
addition, if she decides to join corporate boards ““ which
often seek influential women like Hughes ““ and give public
speeches, she would earn a higher annual income than what she makes
at her current job. As a result, Hughes will enjoy fewer working
hours, more time with family and more pay to boot.
Unfortunately, most women faced with the choice between spending
more time with their family and continuing with their career
don’t get such a good deal.
Women who choose to put their family first will take fewer hours
and less pay or quit their job altogether. Women who put their
careers first end up forcing their children to take the backseat.
This often leads to feelings of guilt for not being there for their
kids. But when women do take time off of work to be with their
family they end up feeling blameworthy for not putting enough hours
into their career.
A possible solution to this dilemma that serious, career-minded
women face is choosing not to have children. Women who find
fulfillment in a demanding job that requires long hours should not
feel obligated to have children. On the other hand, if women feel
that raising a family is most rewarding, they should seek
professions that are not as demanding, leaving the complaints of
inequality at home.
Women may think they must bear children due to societal
pressures from parents, husbands and friends who have kids. But
women who choose to dedicate their life to their career should not
be swayed by this kind of sentiment. And they certainly
shouldn’t feel compelled to have children because of the
occasional twinge of regret from watching Pillsbury
commercials.
Of course, a lot of these problems of working women could be
solved if their husbands helped out with the household chores and
with looking after the children. This evolution of house-dads could
mean less household responsibilities for women and more
opportunities for work. Due to the existence of social pressures,
however, it may be a long time before men do an equal share of the
housework or before enough men are willing to stay at home and
raise the children. As a result, there will always be more burden
on women.
In the workplace, women perpetuate the view that they are
different from their male colleagues and must be given special
considerations for their household duties, yet they want to be
treated and paid equally. Women take maternity leaves. They leave
for emergencies at their kids’ schools. This, in turn,
contributes to the huge annual earnings gap between men and women
““ a difference as high as 27.8 percent in 1999.
Career-minded women need to chew over some things: Do I want to
have children? Am I willing to expect less from my job in order to
have children? Am I willing to take time off to have children
during my 20s and 30s, the peak times of career development?
Of course, this is not a call for all women to have their tubes
tied. Naturally, there will be women who would rather have children
than a career. Likewise, some women may seek professions that are
not quite as demanding, thus allowing them to work and take care of
their children simultaneously. There should be nothing preventing
this latter group of women from having children.
Working women who don’t have children aren’t
failures, and neither are women who have lower-profile jobs and
spend more time with their children. But the woman who refuses to
be practical in realizing she may have to compromise one aspect of
her life for another would be failing herself ““ unless her
name is Karen Hughes.