Hope

Reading the article ME2 mentioned here, made me think that with more women in the workplace, and in particular more women in the legal profession, we may be able to gradually shape employment in this country to be more family friendly. This would benefit both male and female employees. You can see that it has been happening over time. FMLA is a good example. But we can force employers to start seriously considering things like reduced or flexible schedules, working from home, job sharing, and longer maternity/paternity leaves.

I was just talking to a fellow lawyer mommy today about the difficulties of going to work and leaving our children at home--though we both consider our families lucky in that we leave our daughters in the loving care of their daddies. We agreed that a ten-month maternity leave made much more sense from a mommy point of view. We'd even accept a six-month leave given that pediatricians don't generally recommend solid food before a baby is six months old (yes I know a few babies who started early based on their advanced growth rate, but the six month limit is considered the average and is intended to reduce the likelihood of food allergies). This change certainly won't happen in time for me during any future pregnancies I may have, but I can advocate for it so that my daughter can have more options when she tries to manage her career and family.