Getting It Right

Book excerpt: Career or motherhood? Do you have to sacrifice one to be truly successful in the other? And if you're trying to do both, will you have to compromise your career path or your child's needs? With professional demands increasingly impinging on personal time, is "having it all" even realistic, or is it just plain fantasy? Now leading Stanford University psychologist Dr. Laraine Zappert, who specializes in the issues of women and work, draws upon her twenty years of clinical and research experience and a landmark study to answer these questions and create a road map of innovative solutions. Dr. Zappert surveyed more than three hundred women who have graduated from Stanford's Graduate School of Business, and has incorporated case studies from hundreds of women professionals in each chapter. Her findings address such common concerns as: Do I really have to choose between career and family? How do I handle the stresses of my job and the demands of parenting? How do children affect my career, and when is the best time to have them? How do I keep my relationships healthy? Who will care for my children when I'm not available? Coming from many different occupational backgrounds, the subjects of Dr. Zappert's study show us that although we so often think that everyone else is doing it better and having an easier time of it, that is hardly ever the case. Sometimes "good enough" has to do. And whereas the stresses may be the same for all working women, the solutions rarely are. Let the insights, advice, and strategies found in Getting It Right help you make smarter, more informed decisions for creating a satisfying and fulfilling lifestyle on every level.