Answers to the Mommy Track: How Wives & Mothers in Business Reach the Top and Balance Their Lives

Stating that ``the notion that women have to make a choice between work and family . . . is insidious and distressing,'' the authors attack the concept of the ``Mommy Track,'' a career path accommodating working mothers who have not chosen their jobs over their families. Ferguson, a behavioral scientist at the University of Southern California, and Dunphy, author of Save Our Schools, Save Our Children , here interview women who believe they have combined their roles as mothers and careerists without compromising their commitment to either: chief justice Sandra Day O'Connor, New York Times Book Review editor Rebecca Sinkler, former Doubleday publisher Nancy Evans et al. Other chapters directed toward employees and employers suggest strategies by which both parties can optimize their partnership. The helpful example of these paragons does not adequately address, however, the problems met by less privileged women in their struggles to handle harmoniously the demands of workplace and home. (Jan.)