Renee Blasko, 33, is at loose ends. "I have been having an extremely difficult time finding a job after being at home with my children the past six years. My particular dilemma is that I hold a college degree and have years of managerial experience." She e-mailed her concerns to Leslie Morgan Steiner, who on her Washington Post parenting blog had asked moms to e-mail her their stories about getting back to work. "I think I am in some sort of 'job limbo'—too qualified for an entry-level position, but not able to work full time at a management-level position either," Blasko added. With two kids, ages 5 and 3, Blaskois is trying for a part-time job—and failing. Another mother, Ann Brandewiede of Cincinnati, took 12 years off. She's now divorced and hitting the pavement: "I am having the worst time finding a job that is more than answering the phone or data entry. And they don't pay well enough to live on."
It has been one of the most contested questions of the feminist movement of the 1970s and '80s—should mothers work? But now, on blogs, in op-eds and a host of new books out this spring, women are arguing about the next question—can mothers get back to work if they want to? The debate has shifted from opting out to opting back in. Leslie Bennetts's "The Feminine Mistake," out last month, describes the long-term economic cost of leaving work and the uphill struggle to get back in. It also explores how new divorce laws make it harder for stay-at-homes to get alimony after divorce.
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