I literally love to work. I really like what I do. To me work is self-esteem, it's who I am, and it's largely how I spend my time. It's a lot of my identity.
--Amy Gage

I talk to my mother every Saturday, and every Saturday for the past twenty years my mother tells me how sorry she is that I have to work. I've stopped trying to explain it to her. She is never going to understand that I like my job and I like working. She was a teacher and quit as soon as she got married.
--Beth Jones

One of our senior partners slipped at the new partners party and welcomed all the new partners and their wives. So I dragged my husband around the rest of the evening introducing him to everyone as my wife.
--Linda Sybrandt

The stay at home wife was a brief cultural blip accomplished by the middle class after WW II in imitation of the upper class where neither spouse worked but the man's property holdings supported them and he had to look after them. So this traditional non-working wife was not so much traditional as it was a wonderful accomplishment for the husband to be proud of, and for the whole culture to rejoice in as a symbol of its success. The fifties positively celebrated this accomplishment. Blecchh!

None of that has anything to do with the human dignity of the women involved -- it was not really for their/our benefit. We are fighting on two fronts here -- st for our own dignity as something separate from a badge of success for our spouses and nd for our own rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Nobody who recognizes a woman as a human being should have any problem coping with working women.

That said, what about those who haven't got it yet? Humor is your best weapon. I have given up on people who are sympathetic about my having to work. I tell them it's just as well, I'm a terrible mother and a nasty bitch and not fit to be a housewife. It turns their value system nicely upside down. Have fun with it!
--Suford Lewis

I never had a problem with this until I had a baby earlier this year. Now people assume that I would like to stay home with him fulltime if I could. I do admit to some ambivalence regarding spending more time with my son, but I am lucky enough to have found a loving and developmental childcare situation for him, so I know he is in good hands. I also know that being home with him fulltime during my maternity leave was exhausting and emotionally unfulfilling.

Since I have been back at work, I am a better mother, a better spouse and a better worker. I appreciate my career a lot more, and I also respect those who choose to stay at home with children -- I could never do it well. At the end of each day I look forward to shifting gears as I drive to pick up my son and I am always greeted by a smile that thrills me to my toes. On the other hand, I look forward equally to shifting gears after dropping him off in the morning and I arrive at work enthusiastic about starting my day. I am blessed to have the opportunity to be both a fulltime mother and a fulltime worker!
--Kim P.

I love to work. I love to go home and be with my family. I'd love it more if there were more executive level women with families in the high-tech industry so a) I'd have more women to network with and b) a sense of balance and sanity can creep into the industry.

I feel my experience as a parent is truly applicable to the chaotic world of the Internet and that some of the skills attibuted to the feminine style of leadership lend themselves to this crazy world where we must constantly form new alliances, relationships and partnerships. Gone are the rules where it is us against them. You never know from one minute to the next who is your ally. It's just like junior high!