Overview

"In the past few decades the number of women entering graduate and professional schools has been going up and up, while the number of women reaching the top rung of the corporate and academic worlds has remained relatively stagnant. Why are so many women falling off the fast track? In this timely book, Mary Ann Mason traces the career paths of the first generation of ambitious women who started careers in academia, law, medicine, business, and the media in large numbers in the 1970s and '80s. Many women who had started families but continued working had ended up veering off the path to upper management at a point she calls ""the second glass ceiling."" Rather than sticking to their original career goals, they allowed themselves to slide into a second tier of management that offers fewer hours, less pay, lower prestige, and limited upward mobility. Men who did likewise--entered the career world with high aspirations and then started families while working--not only did not show the same trend, they reached even higher levels of professional success than men who had no families at all. Along with her daughter, an aspiring journalist, Mason has written a guide for young women who are facing the tough decision of when--and if--to start a family. It is also a guide for older women seeking a second chance to break through to the next level, as Mason herself did in academia. The book features anecdotes and strategies from the dozens of women they interviewed. Advice ranges from the personal (know when to say ""no,"" the importance of time management) to the institutional, with suggestions for how the workplace itself can be changed to make it easier for ambitious working mothers to reach the top levels. The result is a roadmap of new choices for women facing the sobering question of how to balance a successful career with family."

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9780195373691

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Reviews

Why can't privileged women on the fast track crack the glass ceiling? This mother-daughter team offers a compelling and provocative explanation, helping us understand why all women face gender inequality once they enter the labor force, and even more - what we can do about it. --Ruth Rosen, author of The World Split Open<br> Compared to her sisters of the l960s, the fast track mom of today has it made -- the new man at home, big opportunities at work, wider supports in place. True? Or, as Mason and Ekman warn us, false. Standards of motherhood have risen, they point out, and moral support declined. But, we can beat --and improve --the new odds, and this useful, timely and wonderfully warm book shows how. --Arlie Hochschild, author of The Second Shift and The Time Bind<br> What an excellent book! What makes the book so powerful is the personal stories, gleaned from what must have been hundreds of interviews with women in American society. Mothers on the Fast Track made me think; and, most often, find validation of what I have seen in the lives of my wife, five sisters, and ten nieces. --Tom Campbell, Dean, Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley<br> Finally a book that makes crystal clear the road ahead for women. Mothers on the Fast Track beautifully lays out the next steps for the smartest female brains to lead the nation. -- Louann Brizendine, M.D., author of The Female Brain<br>

Author Information

Mary Ann Mason is the first woman to be appointed Graduate Dean at University of California, Berkeley. A former lawyer, she can speak from personal experience about the struggle to balance family responsibilities and a fast-track career. A national expert on child custody issues, Mason is author of From Father's Property to Children's Rights, The Custody Wars, and The Equality Trap. Eve Mason Ekman is a medical social worker in the San Francisco County General Hospital Emergency room and also curates art exhibits locally and nationally. She has a Masters in Social Work from the University of California where she was the editor, founder and art director of an interdisciplinary publication between the schools of Journalism and Social Welfare.

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