I had just finished spending time in Frederick County, where a devout Mormon County Commissioner’s comments about the “ideal” role of a mother – in the home caring for her children – sparked and uproar. I was drawn to the story, not so much because of the well worn "War of the Sexes” controversy. But rather, as someone who lives everyday the exquisite agony of working motherhood.
I was indoctrinated early – by some pretty hard-line feminist Catholic nuns of all people – that in an evolved society, women as well as men were free to become their fullest, highest selves. Be all that you can be, we were told. But once I got into the workforce, no one seemed to have a clear vision of how to do that and, at the same time, have a family. Time studies show that mothers, particularly those who work for pay outside the home, are among the most time-starved on the planet. Because, though we’ve evolved, the world and workplace have not. And most of us are trying to live two lives at once. “To be a working mother,” one sociologist told me, “is to live in a state of constant contradiction.”