The #10 book on the New York Times bestseller list for the week of June 21 was one titled “Womenomics.” I haven’t read the book because, well, about the only time I ever get to read is when I’m on a plane by myself and I haven’t had the opportunity to travel in six months.

But, this news article on “Womenomics” has been an open tab in my Firefox browser for nearly a month now, as my own blending of work and life has prevented me from writing about it.

What made that article really jump out at me was that it mentions “a legendary ad sold working women on the idea they could have it all” and I have to believe the writer was thinking of this one that had so much influence on me growing up:

I grew up with images like that, and terms like “supermom” being thrown around, and I know it shaped me. I watched my own mother work part-time, then go back to college and begin working full-time - all the while doing the bulk of raising three kids and pretty much all of the the housework. And that shaped me, too. Reality looked a lot harder than the media messages I saw, and I became convinced that marriage and kids were not in my future.

My how things change as we grow older, huh? Toward the end of college I started to wonder what all that career success I anticipated would be like if I didn’t have someone with which to share it. And later, after several years of happy marriage, I saw another reality where someone I worked with really did seem to be living that supermom-career-woman life of perfume commercials.

So, I ventured into parenthood - and was reminded of my mother’s reality again. And, a few years later I watched that supermom-career-woman mentor leave a successful corporate career path for something this book now says we shouldn’t have it leave it to have - flexibility.

The Wall Street Journal’s Juggle blog says the message of “Womenomics,” by ABC News correspondent Claire Shipman and BBC World News America newswoman Katty Kay, is that skilled female workers have earned far more leverage at work than they’re using, by virtue of their educational credentials, experience and proven value in management.

I know I’m extremly lucky to have a job that affords me much flexibility without my need to push for it. I work online with teams around the globe, so much gets done over e-mail, IM and conference calls - all of which can be done from anywhere. And, I work for a manager that understands that and doesn’t require “face time” in the office as long as what needs to be done gets done. That sort of work schedule is not just something that women want, however.

When Shipman and Kay spent 90 minutes with Families and Work Institute (FWI) staff and Corporate Leadership Council members, they heard of FWI’s latest research that shows men are also making work/family choices. Men are making changes to take family responsibilities. The FWI National Study of the Changing Workforce shows that men and women are both less likely now to embrace traditional gender roles. Only 41 percent of employees in 2008 believe it is better “if the man earns the money and the woman takes care of the home and children,” down from 64 percent in 1977.

You can see it online in the DadLabs motto of “taking back paternity,” in the posts from the fathers that have joined us here on This Mommy Gig, and many of the other fathers who blog at places like Dad-o-Matic.

We’re experiencing it ourselves as my husband has recently made the decision to leave the workforce to stay home with our daughter over the summer. And whenever he re-enters the workforce, he plans to make flexibility a main priority, so he can continue to spend time actively parenting.

I think it is great, and it certainly makes it that much easier for me to not have to worry about the logistics of summer camps. But, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some adjustments we’re having to make as traditional gender roles get a little blurry.

Sure I want to bring home the bacon, but what happens when someone else frys it up in the pan?  I wonder if anything like that is covered in the “Womenomics” book? If you’ve read it, let me know. And, if you’ve got any tips for transitioning from two working parents to one, please share those, too!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Wall Street Journal Womenomics///and Leave Dads Alone! (blogs.abcnews.com)
• Couric, Gibson, More Celebrate “Womenomics” Release (mediabistro.com)
• Womenomics, SHRM, and Claire Shipman (punkrockhr.com)

It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to sit down and write a post for this blog.  Needless to say, life with twins (who are now 15 months old) is definitely a non-stop adventure!  Let’s see… there’s double the feeding, double the diapering, double the playing (okay — that’s a good thing), double the temper tantrums, and — almost always — double the sniffles, coughing, ear infections, vomitting, and fevers.

And now our little girl has learned a new word that she can say more clearly than any of the other words she tries to say.  Her new word?  It’s “no!” — and yes, she says it with an exclamation point behind it!

The little man, of course, thinks that everything is a ball and therefore must be thrown as hard as he can throw it.

Oh — did I mention that nearly everyone gave them loud toys for Christmas and their birthdays?  Yeah…

And yet, there is absolutely nothing in the world as beautiful as their smiles, their laughs, and how they feel in my arms at the end of a long day.  I really have forgotten what life was like before they were here.  Before they were born I wondered what life would feel like as a mother.  Immediately after they were born I wondered “do ALL mothers feel like this?!”  Today I struggle to remember what it felt like to not be a mother — to not have this much love, this much joy, this much fun.

So now that they are 15 months old and developing so amazingly fast, I’ll be trying to share some of our adventures here (and some of the lessons we are learning along the way) on a more regular basis.  As for trying to juggle “this mommy gig” — yes, I am still working full time (and more — see below) while trying to be the best mother I can be, so I still wonder/worry about the whole balance thing… maybe I’ll figure that out someday.  If I do, you will be the first to know.  Enjoy the rest of your April and I’ll be back in May.

(So about the whole “work” deal which includes my regular 40-hour a week “day job” — Did I mention that in the past several months I also started teaching online part-time, have written a book, and I am now in the middle of having a new house built?  Yes, I think I must be totally insane!)