So you’re working your tail off as a hospital executive, in addition to serving on a couple of corporate board and raising daughters, ages 5 and 8, with your spouse. Then your husband decides to run for president. You then opt to cut back to 20 percent time at the hospital so you can help your candidate. And your decision makes national news. more

"Alpha Moms" were highlighted this past week on the CBS "Early Show" as an influential, cutting-edge marketer’s dream collection of women. Meanwhile, in Advertising Age, the concept of extolling an "Alpha Moms" group was criticized as a divisive and incendiary wedge driven between moms. more

Author Regan McMahon wrote a funny, spot-on piece in the San Francisco Chronicle  about the pressures placed on today’s moms of school-aged kids to appear as though they’ve got it all together when it comes to motherhood . . . and to bringing "homemade" cupcakes for the end-of-the-year class party while not forgetting to stop at Sports Authority to buy new soccer cleats on the way home from work. (May 2007) more

Newsweek touched base with the authors of various books on mothers and their careers, trying to ascertain how difficult or easy it is for mothers to opt back in to the paid workforce after having been an at-home parent. Among those quoted included Leslie Bennetts, Linda Hirshman, Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Leslie Morgan Steiner and Pamela Stone. (May 2007) more

Michelle Obama is continuing to take heat for reducing her hours as a hospital executive (to 20 hours/week), in order to help her husband Barack run for president. "Damn it all, Michelle Obama has quit her $215,000 dream job and demoted herself to queen," wrote Debra Dickerson in Salon. ". . . She’s traded in her solid gold resume, high-octane talent . . . more

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued some federal guidelines regarding job discrimination last month saying that while women cannot be singled out for discrimination because they’re pregnant or because they’re mothers or caregivers, "it could be permissible under federal law for example, for a company to refuse to hire parents – as long as the rule is sex-blind affecting fathers and mothers equally," according to Sue Shellenbarger writing in the Wall more

Citing numerous recent studies, the New York Times ran a piece arguing that while moms and dads may parent differently, they’re looking for similar things when it comes to family and work. "The evidence overwhelmingly shows an ongoing shift toward what we call ‘gender convergence,’ an ever-increasing similarity in how men and women live and what they want from their lives," the Times quoted two scholars who conducted an in-depth study on families and work as saying. more

Noting the flurry of moms-and-work books that have been released recently, Business Week reviewed four of them saying, "All are provocative, superbly researched, and required reading for anybody trying to pull off a guilt-inducing trapeze act." The books reviewed are: "Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success," by Sylvia Ann Hewlett. more

As the number of sitcoms that dot primetime TV lineups has declined, so has the number of women at the helm of a half-hour comedy, says Variety. While female-led hour-long dramedies, such as "Desperate Housewives," "Ugly Betty" and "Grey’s Anatomy" have thrived, the same cannot be said of sitcoms. more

The Kansas City Star spotlighted mothers in their area who coped with unexpected disruptions in their daycare arrangements and addressed the challenges facing working parents when such disruptions occur. "Businesses are starting to see failing child care as not only a drag on their current employees, but also a potentially huge long-term liability," the paper said. "And they’re starting to push lawmakers and policymakers to make changes." (June 2007) more