In answer to Leslie Bennetts claim (called 'Fear Mongering' here) that women leaving the workforce to raise children is career suicide and places women and their children in financial peril. I think she also said something about it making you fat. Or giving you acne....or something. But not so say Carol Fishman Cohen and Vivian Steir Rabin in this Op/Ed piece from the Christian Science Monitor. They say they've never felt so optimistic about the opportunities at-home mothers will find when they decide the time is right to restart a career.
The authors, who also have a book called, "Back On The Career Track: "A Guide for Stay-at-Home Moms who Want to Return to Work", claim there are more options for mothers than the two (dismal ones) Bennetts lays out. According to Bennetts women can either, juggle a full time career while raising a family or choose a lifetime of financial dependency on a spouse who might leave, die or be really annoying about taking out the trash.
The third option is what they call a career "Relaunching", women taking a break from their career and resuming it later. Employers are, according to Cohen and Rabin, more open to alternative employment arrangements (remote work, flex time, non traditional career paths) as they face the Baby Boomers starting to retire.
It's an interesting look at the issue which, unlike Bennetts book, won't require a Xanax and a brown paper bag to breath into after reading.
