Mothers on the Fast Track: How a New Generation Can Balance Family and Careers

In the past few decades the number of women entering graduate and professional schools has been going up and up, while the number of women reaching the top rung of the corporate and academic worlds has remained relatively stagnant. Why are so many women falling off the fast track? In this timely book, Mary Ann Mason traces the career paths of the first generation of ambitious women who started careers in academia, law, medicine, business, and the media in large numbers in the 1970s and '80s. Many women who had started families but continued working had ended up veering off the path to upper management at a point she calls "the second glass ceiling." Rather than sticking to their original career goals, they allowed themselves to slide into a second tier of management that offers fewer hours, less pay, lower prestige, and limited upward mobility. Men who did likewise--entered the career world with high aspirations and then started families while working--not only did not show the same trend, they reached even higher levels of professional success than men who had no families at all. Along with her daughter, an aspiring journalist, Mason has written a guide for young women who are facing the tough decision of when--and if--to start a family. It is also a guide for older women seeking a second chance to break through to the next level, as Mason herself did in academia. The book features anecdotes and strategies from the dozens of women they interviewed. Advice ranges from the personal (know when to say "no," the importance of time management) to the institutional, with suggestions for how the workplace itself can be changed to make it easier for ambitious working mothers to reach the top levels. The result is a roadmap of new choices for women facing the sobering question of how to balance a successful career with family.

Politics & Social Sciences

Mason, Mary Ann

Ekman, Eve Mason

Sociology

Oxford University Press

Business & Money

Job Hunting & Careers

The recent exponential increase in the number of custody disputes due to divorce, adoption, surrogate motherhood, and artificial insemination makes child custody one of the most hotly debated issues in America today. From Fathers' Property to Children's Rights seeks to clarify fundamental questions about the rights of children and parents in our society through a unique and provocative analysis of child custody in the United States from colonial times to the present.The book gracefully combines historical and legal scholarship in an unusually rich perspective on the history of children and their parents. Mason consistently draws on this history to illuminate contemporary issues - the current emphasis on biological parenthood, the proliferation of reproductive technologies, and the growing use and misuse of the social sciences.The author presents crucial periods of change in social attitudes and the law regarding child custody: the adaptation of English common law in the colonial period, the move toward maternal preference and child welfare in the early twentieth century, the advent in the 1970s of no-fault divorce and joint custody, and the growing influence of the social sciences, especially psychology, in contemporary custody disputes.Mason connects these transformations to the changing status of women with respect to culture, law, and politics. In the nineteenth century the political crusade for women's property rights and the cult of motherhood favored the woman in custody battles. In our time Mason shows that the move away from maternal preference toward equal custodial rights was promoted by feminists' struggle for equal political rights and a new theory of equal parenting supported by social scientists.Based on extensive research in case law, legislation, and social history, Mason's timely analysis of current child custody issues is a must for professionals as well as for those interested in family and social history, legal and women's studies, and child welfare in America.

From Father's Property to Children's Rights: The History of Child Custody in the United States

History

Americas

Columbia University Press

From Father's Property to Children's Rights

Millions of children have been born in the United States with the help of cutting-edge reproductive technologies, much to the delight of their parents. But alarmingly, scarce attention has been paid to the lax regulations that have made the U.S. a major fertility tourism destination. And without clear protections, the unique rights and needs of the children of assisted reproduction are often ignored. This book is the first to consider the voice of the child in discussions about regulating the fertility industry. The controversies are many. Donor anonymity is preventing millions of children from knowing their genetic origins. Fertility clinics are marketing genetically enhanced babies. Career women are saving their eggs for later in life. And Third World women are renting their wombs to the rich. Meanwhile, the unregulated fertility market charges forward as a multi-billion-dollar industry. This deeply-considered book offers answers to the urgent question: Who will protect our babies of technology?

Babies of Technology: Assisted Reproduction and the Rights of the Child

Ekman, Tom

Legal Theory & Systems

Yale University Press

Provides a clear discussion of the ways in which computers can be maximized as tools in the legal office. Intended both for the novice user of computers in legal practice and those who have a computer or computers in use already and would like to increase its usefulness and efficiency. Explains the diverse things computers do; how to set up systems; legal research; and backing up, archiving, and restoring data. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Using Computers in the Law: Law Office Without Walls (American Casebooks)

HARRIS,ROBERT

West Group

Using Computers in the Law: An Introduction and Practical Guide

An introduction to using computers in the law

West Pub. Co.

How should the courts decide custody cases that involve adoption, divorce, and single parenting? Should an abusive husband be given custody of his child? What about unwed fathers? Gay parents? How much say should young children have in court? In this text, family lawyer and historian, Mary Ann Mason, casts a harsh spotlight on these and other aspects of child custody. She argues that the legal shift to equal treatment of men and women has translated into parents' rights taking precedence over children's needs. Mason insists that fairness to parents must not come at the expense of children. Drawing on a wealth of legal cases and research, Mason presents a bold programme for reform that aims to change the terms of debate about child custody cases.

The Custody Wars: Why Children Are Losing The Legal Battle, And What We Can Do About It

Teen & Young Adult

Basic Books

How should the courts decide custody cases that involve adoption, divorce, and single parenting? Should an abusive husband be given custody of his child? What about unwed fathers? Gay parents? Full-time working mothers? How much say should young children have in court? Family lawyer and historian Mary Ann Mason here casts a harsh spotlight on these and other thorny aspects of contemporary child custody. She argues that the legal shift to equal treatment” of men and women has translated into parents' rights taking precedence over children's needs. Fairness to parents must not come at the expense of children, Mason insists. Drawing on a wealth of legal cases and researchas well as the stories of families caught in these disputesshe presents a bold program for reform that is certain to change the terms of debate on one of the most highly charged topics on the national agenda.

The Custody Wars: Why Children Are Losing The Legal Battle--and What We Can Do About It

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