momgoesback.com

Photo credit:  Ben Blankenburg

Just how hard is it do re-enter the work force? In the past few years there have been articles and research saying it has gotten easier and there have been articles and research that said it is hard or just not feasible for women to successfully return to their professional careers after taking long breaks to raise children.

Leslie Morgan Steiner, author of The Mommy Wars, posted an interesting piece to the Huffington Post blog about this issue. Ms. Steiner questioned just how difficult it was for college-educated moms to go back to work interviewing several moms who had left work for 3 to 10 years as well as headhunters and hiring managers.

From her research she concludes:

I was not able to find a single college-educated stay-at-home mother who couldn’t find full-time work within twelve months. A survey by the Center for Work LIfe Policy in New York shows 74% of stay-at-home moms who want to go back are able to. Most who don’t get jobs are looking for part-time of flexible jobs, which are notoriously difficult to find.

Hard to know what to believe. Common sense tells me the difficulty with finding work after being home differs for each women. Time will tell just how difficult it will be for me on the job front. As far as going back to school, I have received great encouragement and validation from faculty and classmates who openly appreciate both my life and work experiences.

Quite honestly, I would not be investing the time, hard work and money into an advanced degree if I did not believe I could go back to work. Obviously, I am a believer. (And I always liked Mickey Dolenz.)