ABSTRACT
Sheila Kitzinger describes the relationship between a mother and child as, ‘Perhaps the closest you can get to feeling intensely the hurt, fear and pain of another and the hope and joy too’. Yet career commitment may be an equally powerful force which women are reluctant to resist. Instead they frequently wish to combine these two rewarding and demanding roles. If part-time work for men and women were universally available then the difference in career outcomes of men and women and in their career patterns would disappear. A new distinction may then emerge – between people with children and without. At present men attain much higher positions in the professions than women entirely because they do not have to interrupt their work or engage in part-time work. It is clear that careers advisers in schools and elsewhere persist in directing girls and young women towards traditionally female occupations although there are encouraging signs of change in the recent past.
