In a particularly honest and salient piece in The Atlantic about the complexities of being a mom in the news industry, the author, Julianna Goldman, describes a dilemma many working mothers face. Despite being a team player, taking assignment after assignment as an on-air news correspondent, Goldman decided to decline a contract at her workplace because it simply didn’t allow her to be the hands-on mother and correspondent she wanted to be.
“I had worked so hard to get to where I was professionally, but I had also worked so hard to have a baby. I wondered whether I was really made for TV news or whether institutional biases were forcing me out,” she writes. Goldman didn’t feel her employer valued her contribution to the news industry in what is a particularly demanding, busy, unpredictable role. At the same time, Goldman wrestled with valuing time with her child in addition to work.
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The dilemma Goldman describes is a growing one, particularly for the second wave of feminism that beckoned women from the home to the workplace, and now the third wave, which has encouraged women to infiltrate industries they have not previously — sometimes due to actual interest and merit, other times on the basis of equality alone.
Still, many working mothers (from a server at a restaurant to a high-powered attorney) feel this pull. Given the maternal nature of women toward their children and an increasing ability to actually work and parent, it’s doubtful this angst will ever disappear entirely. However, it is easier to balance in some industries than others.
In my late teens and early 20s, I worked at a law firm with the intention to attend law school and practice law. After I took the LSAT and got into school, I asked all the female attorneys I knew at the firm if they would recommend being an attorney if I wanted to also be a mother (someday). They said no. That, coupled with the fact that I didn’t get into my first choice, I bailed on law school. Law, as a general profession, is quite a bit more accommodating to mothers than it was even then.
But as Goldman describes, some jobs, like being an on-air correspondent, may not be one of those careers. Burnout rate is high for women due to the job’s inflexibility. Goldman writes:
Rather than give up on the field entirely, Goldman proposes some ideas to fix it. Particularly, she suggests: “More women in the top ranks at broadcast and cable networks would be a good starting point. Moms need people at the highest leadership levels of TV news who can help promote a culture in which working moms are not expected to work as if they don’t have children.” While this might definitely help, I’m not sure how those women get there if they’re facing the uphill climb Goldman describes.
While I relate to Goldman’s angst and have experienced some of that myself (on a much smaller scale), at some point, women who want to both work and be mothers need to figure out themselves how to balance the two. While I think women can and should petition their employers for all kinds of things (from bonuses to flexible work hours), there comes a point where, if a specific aspect of an industry isn’t working for her, she must ask herself why she feels compelled to remain working for it: You’re not making history and kicking out a glass ceiling if, after making sacrifices and putting your career ahead of your family, you’re still there, at the end of the day, kicking, screaming, and sacrificing time with your kids all the while wondering why your employer won’t honor your desire to balance career and kids.
Because of the nature of certain industries, they’re just simply not going to be compatible with working mothers. I fully understand the pull of the news industry. I’ve enjoyed working in some capacity for several years. If the desire to be an on-air correspondent is a dream, by all means, pursue it. But the nature of that kind of work (24/7 breaking stories, all over the country at a moment’s notice, and requiring a certain standard of appearance) may not be compatible with motherhood. So, working mothers can either try to continue to make it so, or they can try to carve out their own niche.
This might mean pursuing work in the news industry in a different way. Goldman herself mentions the juggling act is reduced significantly with anchors or producers, just due to the hours and work location. I would wholeheartedly agree and point to the news stories from earlier this year, where it looked like nearly the entire roster of female co-hosts or reporters at Fox News had given birth in the last six months. The place was a veritable nursery of tiny babies and tired, but happy moms. I loved it.
Some might argue compromising in this way is “giving up” the desire for a formidable career and mom-of-the-year recognition. It’s not giving up. (Not to mention, giving up on what? Feminism?)
Compromising, or choosing specific industries that are compatible with motherhood, is smart. Monster says the top jobs for working mothers, which provide good pay, flexibility, and family-friendly benefits are dental hygienist, sonographer, or web developer.
Again, I’m not saying give up what you love or choose a job you’ll hate so you can be flexible. But parenting and work are both about trade-offs, and neither are going to be perfect.
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. She is a journalist who previously worked in Republican politics in Minnesota.
