FAMILIES Stressed moms may decide to leave workplace and go home

Some employers are trying to devise more family-friendly policies.
SCRIPPS HOWARD
In honor of Mother's Day, it is time to note the growing chic factor of all things maternal.
Babies are hip. You see them dangling from the most fashionable arms these days. Stylish new maternity lines and baby accessories have sprung up, as well as books on how to hang onto glamour in the face of motherhood.
While all this celebration is fun, Sherry Shapiro, director of women's studies at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C., says more women are wholeheartedly embracing, and proclaiming, motherhood these days because the workplace leaves them few choices.
"It's really not a backlash to feminism. It's a backlash to the corporate world," Shapiro says.
Forty-plus hours a week at the office and a child at home are taking their toll. Add to this the anxiety that devotion to family will be held against you in a work environment that demands it be top priority.
"They're feeling the real stress of the two jobs," Shapiro says. "They really feel like they have to make a choice between family and career."
It's gotten to the point, Shapiro says, where more women with the financial means are opting out of work to be full-time moms.
While some workplaces are trying to devise more family-friendly policies, American companies still have a long way to go, according to Shapiro.
"The European countries certainly do provide better models," she says.