Blog Posts by Mommy Tracked

by Leslie Morgan Steiner (Two Cents on Working Motherhood)

Not sure about you, but one phrase I'd like to mothball for 2011 is "glass ceiling," that invisible barrier preventing women from achieving the pinnacle of career success. Many women have shattered the glass ceiling, making the metaphor moot even for those determined to break through to the echelons of their profession. Millions more don't care to, finding greater value instead in a pragmatic balance of economic security, job satisfaction, and time with family.

This is not to say gender bias and barriers do not exist. They do. These stubborn, pernicious obstacles have derailed many smart, ambitious, well-educated women. However, the more apt term heading into 2011 is "glass labyrinth" - the confusing maze of bias and solutions confounding women at all career levels, ethnicities and ages.

Fortunately, in a recent issue of Forbes, Joan Williams, the founder of the UC Hastings Center for WorkLife Law, and author of

by Leslie Morgan Steiner (Two Cents on Working Motherhood)

Katy Perry's summer smash hit, California Gurls trumpets bikinis, stilettos, sex on the beach and melting your "popsicle."

The song most definitely does not pay tribute to the daily accomplishments, responsibilities and triumphs of California's women over 21.

Perhaps it should.

California is home to 18 million women. Thirty percent of all businesses in California are owned by women. A UC Davis 2005 study of top executives showed that 10% of board seats and top executive positions are held by women.

Women run California - literally. Although only 17 of the 100 US Senators are women, both Senators from California are women - Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein. Boxer's challenger this November is a woman - former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. Another woman who made her fortune in California business, Meg Whitman from eBay, is running for governor of the state and has spent $139 million on her campaign.

by Meredith O'Brien (Moms in Pop Culture & Politics)

*Warning, spoilers ahead from the Mad Men season finale.*

First and foremost let me say this: I'm a huge Mad Men fan. I frequently blog about it and review each episode the day after it airs. Perceived its fourth season, which just concluded this past week, as exquisite, thought-provoking and brilliant. But I've got two problems with my beloved show's most recent season:

I hate that Betty Draper Francis has been turned into an unlikable villain who was afforded no truly relatable moments. Plus I'm supremely annoyed that it appeared as though in the season finale Don Draper impulsively proposed marriage to his 25-year-old, bikini-wearing secretary (in season two Don scolded his ex-wife, saying her bikini made her look "desperate") instead of getting engaged to his girlfriend Dr. Faye -- the professional consumer researcher and someone who's much closer to Don's age -- based on how well each woman handled his kids.

by Leslie Morgan Steiner (Two Cents on Working Motherhood)

My kids play an enthralling game called Quick Pick. It goes like this: take two awful, completely exclusionary choices, and in three seconds pick one. The spark lies in instantaneous evaluation of two nasty and permanent life lines.

Such as:

Would you rather work smelling people's armpits for a deodorant company, or cleaning port-o-potties?

Would you rather kill your best friend or marry your worst enemy?

And the age-old: Would you rather be brilliant and ugly, or utterly stupid but beautiful?

A recent New York Times sidebar by Pamela Paul reminded me of this unpleasantly stimulating game. Research from Cornell University, captured in a new book "The Effect of Relative Income Disparity on Infidelity for Men and Women," indicates that men who are economically dependent on their female partners are more likely to cheat. The study, presented in August at the 105th Annual Meeting of the American

by Risa Green (Tales from the Mommy Track)

I was standing in line at the market this morning when the cover of Newsweek caught my eye. Man Up! was the headline, with an image of a well-built, shirtless man facing away from the camera, holding a little boy in his arms. The subtitle was The Traditional Male Is an Endangered Species. It's Time to Rethink Masculinity. Isn't it though? I thought to myself, and I bought it, hoping it might be interesting, or at least that it might give me some fodder for my post this week.

Let me start by telling you what I was hoping the article would be about. I was hoping it would be about how men, at least the urban men where I live, seem to me in the last few years to have become more and more like women. And by that I mean that they just seem to be not so concerned with doing - or even knowing how to do - things that were, traditionally, done by men. For instance, I don't know a whole lot of guys who mow their own lawns anymore. Which I get,

by Meredith O'Brien (Moms in Pop Culture & Politics)
Twenty years ago, a reporter for the Boston Herald walked into the New England Patriots' locker room and was confronted by a naked player asking her, according to media reports, "Is this what you want? Do you want to take a bite out of this?" A couple of other unclothed players "crowded around her making lewd gestures," People Magazine reported while one shouted, "Give her what she wants!"

The then-Patriots' owner Victor Kiam blamed the 26-year-old reporter, Lisa Olson, saying that the newspaper was "asking for trouble" by sending her into the locker room. Charmingly, the owner added, "I can't disagree with the players' actions" and publicly called Olson a "classic b---- ." While Kiam eventually apologized, other players on the 1990 team, continued to pile on, calling Olson humorless ("If she can't take a joke, she ought not be down here."), perverted ("What kind of a woman wants to be in a locker room?") and asking for it ("You

by Abby Margolis Newman (Saving One Teen at a Time)

"What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" is a familiar phrase. I remember another saying from my childhood, displayed on a poster by my anti-Vietnam-war parents circa 1970: "War is not healthy for children or other living things."

I propose a new hybrid: "What happens in Vegas is not healthy for children or other living things." A few weeks ago, our family traveled to Las Vegas to see the Cirque du Soleil Beatles show, "Love." I've been a Beatles fan my whole life - what child of the 60's or 70's wasn't? - and enjoyed the non-Beatles Cirque du Soleil show I saw years ago while living in New York. The good news: the "Love" show had gotten excellent reviews. The bad news: the show is exclusively playing in Las Vegas.

I've never been attracted to gambling in general, or Las Vegas in particular - in fact, the idea has repelled me. I don't like crowds, bright neon lights, smoking, alcohol, or tacky people. And to my mind, these

by Leslie Morgan Steiner (Two Cents on Working Motherhood)

I have a 13 year old son. His priorities in life are (in this order)

1. 24/7 Communication with Friends
2. Sports
3. M&Ms

I am constantly flummoxed by the technological gadgets and innovations at his fingertips that seduce him away from schoolwork, eating regular meals, feeding the dog, and spending time with his loving family. He texts at movie theaters. He Skypes with friends up the block - and in Brazil. He iChats with his best friend every evening even though he spends eight hours a day with her at school. As I write this, he is watching the US Open with his dad - while iChatting on his computer and texting on his cell. His phone is always within two feet of his hands, even at the dinner table and in bed when he is asleep. I have seen him cry when he couldn't find his cell phone. He would rather give up television and dessert than shut down his laptop.

My 13-year-old son is, for better or worse, a