Underemployed

For seven years I worked a string of editorial positions -- reporter, managing producer, editor, and as production assistant at a local television show in San Francisco.

Since I have been an at-home mom, I have met amazing women who also had impressive and fulfilling jobs before they became parents. We did not quit our careers. They quit us. Companies could not merge parent and paycheck.

Instead of heading back into those high-paying, highly respected jobs, we lower our expectations. One friend has given up on her legal career for now as she turns a hobby into a flexible job. She is taking the work-from-home road as a scrapbooking consultant. It is transforming her into the host of the modern day equivalent to the Tupperware party.

In essence, we are underemployed. We are not under-ambitious. It is hard work to raise a baby! But mention the “B” word at work and get ready to be written off. How many times have you heard a friend dread telling her employer that she is pregnant? How many women do you know who were put on the “mommy track?” There are woman who get to scale back their responsibilities to work part-time, but it is not the norm. Moms do not fit into the corporate culture. As a result companies are missing out on the talents of driven and dedicated women.

And instead of being journalists, attorneys, accountants, early childhood specialists, paramedics, software engineers, and public relations experts, we are at home missing a part of ourselves.