Career Counseling, Parenting: the number of college – educated moms in the US choosing to stay home to raise their children has stayed unchanged since the 90’s at 15-18%, even though only 2% of female high school seniors planned to become homemakers. The working family juggle in the US is so much harder than in countries with more generous and family-friendly policies – https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/17/upshot/motherhood-rising-costs-surprise.html
“College-educated women in particular underestimate the demands of parenthood and the difficulties of combining working and parenting, new research shows.”
“For many women, the researchers show, stopping work was unplanned. Since about 1985, no more than 2 percent of female high school seniors said they planned to be ‘homemakers’ at age 30, even though most planned to be mothers. The surveys also found no decline in overall job satisfaction post-baby. Yet consistently, between 15 percent and 18 percent of women have stayed home.”
“One key to understanding why women have diverged from their plans, the economists found, is that their beliefs about gender roles change after their first baby. The surveys ask questions like whether work inhibits a woman’s ability to be a good mother and whether both parents should contribute financially to a family. Women tend to give more traditional answers after becoming mothers.”
“The people most surprised by the demands of motherhood were those the researchers least expected: women with college degrees, or those who had babies later, those who had working mothers and those who had assumed they would have careers. Even though highly educated mothers were less likely to quit working than less educated mothers, they were more likely to express anti-work beliefs, and to say that being a parent was harder than they expected.”
Career Counseling with Elaine Korngold
While issues involving your work will likely come up during personal counseling, personal and career counseling are really two different types of counseling. Personal counseling is designed to treat a specific issue (e.g., anxiety, loneliness, relationship troubles), whereas career counseling is designed specifically to focus on work and career development. We can work together to determine which type of counseling would be most helpful for you at this point. I have extensive training and professional experience in helping educated women evaluate and consider their future options. We can also address parenting concerns as they relate to decisions that educated moms struggle with: to stay home or go to work.
In my private practice, I work with clients on issues such as:
- Choosing a career path
- Changing careers
- Deciding whether to leave a company
- Managing office politics
- Dealing with layoffs and finding a new job
- Creating work and life balance
- Interacting with difficult colleagues
- Dealing with stress and emotions at work
Contact me to learn more.