When women professionals step down

ST. LOUIS, May 2 (UPI) -- It's an interesting conundrum in our society -- when a woman steps down from power, it's a reflection on the entire gender, but it's a personal choice when a man decides to scale back in order to balance work and family.

After a year and a half as counselor to President Bush, Karen Hughes announced last week she's stepping down from the power of her prestigious position at the White House and moving back to Texas to spend more time with her family.

Hughes, known as one of the president's most trusted advisers and one of the most powerful women in the administration, surprised many with her decision, and spawned immediate speculation about the "real" reason for her departure. Was there a rift between Hughes and another White House staffer? Had the president lost confidence in her? Discovering no scandal or hidden agenda, the media focused instead on her gender. Hughes' personal decision seemed to illustrate that women can't handle a high-powered job and family.

Hughes isn't the only highly visible female to step out of the rat race to focus on family. Massachusetts's first female governor, Jane Swift, announced this spring that she would not run for re-election. The mother of a 3-year-old daughter and infant twins, Swift said at a March 19 news conference, "The reality is -- and I'm sure there isn't a working parent in America that hasn't faced it -- when the demands of the two tasks that you take on both increase substantially, something has to give."

While Hughes and Swift happen to be highly visible females who have decided to say goodbye to the 24/7 demands of their high-pressured jobs, their decisions are a choice faced by many businesswomen everyday.

There's no denying the fact that women are often the ones who choose to reduce their work schedules because of family conflicts for a couple of reasons. The first has to do with economics. Because women typically earn less than men, when it comes down to a decision of which partner should leave the workforce either part-time or full-time, it's common sense for the lower paid individual to do so. Secondly, 75 percent of domestic responsibilities fall on women in dual income homes. Therefore, women have greater difficulty balancing the demands of work and family.

However, in today's fast-paced business environment, there is a groundswell of men and women who have decided to re-evaluate and re-prioritize their lives. Both men and women want to be able to successfully blend their work life and family life and they are no longer willing to "kill themselves" for the sake of their careers.

"We are seeing a lot of people, both men and women, who are making career decisions based on needs in their personal life. People are trading off. They are looking for a kind of environment where they can be home with their families. And these are people who are young, not just people who are winding down their careers. In the past you wouldn't have seen this," explains Beverly Kahn, president and chief executive officer of New Dimensions in Technology, Inc., a high-tech placement company in Marblehead, Mass.

Mitch Axelrod, founder of Axelrod Learning in New Jersey, is a single father who made the decision to scale back his career in order to spend more time with his son. Axelrod was on the road 80 days a year as a highly paid speaker and consultant. He and his wife divorced when his son Adam was 3 1/2 years old. They agreed on joint custody, so Axelrod knew he needed to adjust his lifestyle so he could take care of his son.

"I put my son first and my career second. I took a big hit financially, but I didn't want to be away from him," says Axelrod. "My son is 13 now, and today I'm leaving early to go watch him play baseball."

The emotions resulting from the Sept. 11 attacks caused a lot of people to re-prioritize their values. Sara and John Murphy, a young couple in Portland, Ore., are the proud parents of a 7-month old son, Jackson. Sara had been a public relations guru in the high-tech industry where she logged thousands of frequent flyer miles and worked countless hours. Nonetheless, Sara planned on returning to work after the birth of her son because John had recently started his own business and her paycheck and healthcare coverage seemed necessary. Influenced by Sept. 11, Sara decided to become a stay-at-home mom.

"It was a little scary for us at first, and it's been a big change in life style. We talked about John going back into the corporate world, but we thought it was important for him to have a flexible schedule. I think we are really happy because we are at a point where we wanted to simplify our life," she explains.

Women like Karen Hughes and Jane Swift are getting a lot of press because of their visibility. But it is an oversimplification to explain their individual choices in terms of their gender. Career decisions are life-style choices and more and more individuals are choosing quality of life over high-paying, high-powered jobs. As American writer Christopher Morley said, "There is only one success -- to be able to spend your life in your own way." No one has ever looked back and regretted the hours they worked or the money they made, but they have regretted the memories and relationships they missed.

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(Susan Solovic is the author of "The Girls' Guide to Power and Success" and is president of Susan-Says, a consulting firm specializing in women in business issues.)