ABSTRACT
A recent article (Schwartz 1989) examines the issue of professional women and men and their differences regarding commitment, turnover, promotability, and career interruptions. The conclusion is that because many of the gender differences relate to maternity rather than socialization issues, two separate (and unequal) tracks should be created within organizations. These tracks, labeled "career-primary" and "career-and-family," are designed to give women with families the opportunity to maintain their career positions but on a less-than-equal footing with positions of men. The career-and-family track, labeled the "mommy track," is suggested to be part time, possibly job-shared, and with fewer benefits and financial and promotional opportunities. Schwartz maintains that these two tracks are essential because the "career-primary" woman needs opportunities to perform like men without the stigma attached of being associated with other, potentially mothering, women who cast negative aspersions on all women within the corporate environment. The "career-and-family" women need to acknowledge the strength of the family commitment and this can best be accomplished with organizational accommodations made for her. The organization will ultimately benefit by keeping the "mommy track" woman who otherwise may have opted out of the workforce for a period of years to devote herself full-time to parenting.
