Playing the Clock Game

My grandmother, in an inverse situation from many  women today who have no choice but to work, had little  choice but to stay at home and raise her children. Her  daughters, flush with the feminist revolution, became  doctors, marched pretty and proud into boys-club medical  schools, and went on to have thriving careers, and  children. Ran themselves down, on call at nights, seeing  patients all day, juggling schedules, trying to do it all.  Some women of my generation are trying to play the  clock game. Have a career first, take a break in their mid-  30s to start a family (and write a novel), and jump back  on the wagon when the kids are in school. Good luck. Or  they passionately embrace the one or the other – mother  or professional – standing stoically by their decision,  and peeking over their shoulders only in the dark, when  no one is looking. Or, like me, they play the part-time  game, part-time mom, part-time professional, a little of  this, a little of that, and not too much of anything.

Maya Bernstein, on the Lilith blog