[.ca] Mothers on the Fast Track: How a New Generation Can ... (ISBN 0195182677)

This is an important book and should be mandatory reading for every woman in higher education:
If people think that all the glass ceilings in society have been removed, this book will set them straight! As someone who spent most of her twenties in higher education, I know full well the difficulties of working in "the fast track" and how one will choose to delay having children in order to succeed in one's career. The authors do a superb job of presenting all the research to explain to professional women (lawyers, doctors, professors, etc.) that it's not their imagination that their make-of-break years in their thirties are forcing them to decide between their career and motherhood! It's not just you; it is every other professional woman out there who is in the same position. The years required to become partner, or get tenure, or finish one's internship happen to coincide with the last few good years we have left to have healthy children and so many of us are having to settle for adjunct or part-time work, sacrificing our career to have babies unlike all of our male colleagues. The authors also make suggestions that will surprise you on how you can succeed without letting that new glass ceiling get you. For example, suggesting that you actually have children while still a student, which contravenes everything that the establishment tells us. The authors make a persuasive argument by showing that subsidized childcare, subsidized housing, and the flexible work schedule of student life is far more conducive to being a parent than the make-or-break years trying to achieve partnership or tenure. And then there are some suggestions that seem commonsense, like "don't marry a jerk." If I could, I would make this required reading for every woman in graduate school, law school, and medical school so that they can make the important choices to ensure that they never have to decide between motherhood and their career. And, hopefully, by knowing that that glass ceiling is there, work towards removing it for the next generation. To all you professional woman out there -- There is a new glass ceiling and you need to know that it's there before you hit it! So, read this book!