Career choices – atlantablackstar.com
Happy Tuesday!
A former colleague of mine once told that she deliberately picked the “mommy track” in her career after having children. After over 20 years at the same company, she was still holding the same position in the same department, with no more prospects of advancement as when she first started. She had accepted that because she was a mother, she would forego career advancement in favor of flexibility and time to raise her children.
As a young mom myself, our conversation that day made me think hard and long about where the priorities in our lives as corporate sisters really lie. Yes, motherhood is a priority, yet does it mean that as mothers we are presented with different career tracks, one of which being the “mommy track”? Does it mean that there is indeed a choice between career ambition and lack thereof for the sake of our families? Obviously, there was for my former colleague, and there still is very much of a choice imposition going on for very many mothers in the workforce…
This silent pact between companies and professional moms is a tacit, underhanded one that actually comes at a high cost for both companies and women. As companies mistakenly assume that they are saving the salary and perquisite cost of higher-paid employees (along with preserving some antiquated hierarchical, gender-based and ineffective system), otherwise professionally brilliant, resourceful and ambitious women are erroneously made to believe that the sacrifice is worth it, even as we go against what we truly desire. Sacrifice for sacrifice, wouldn’t it then make more sense for women to forego it all career wise than to only get a sorry, unsastifying, less-than-par piece of the pie?
At the end of the day, is the Mommy Track worth it?
