By Anne Glusker, The Washington Post
Sunday, December 28, 2008; Page B01
Amid all the recent buzz about Caroline Kennedy's bid for a U.S. Senate seat, there has been a great deal of talk about her connections, her power, her wealth. But the way I see it, if you strip away the glamour, the name and the money, then Caroline is . . . me. And many of my friends. Maybe even you. If, that is, you happen to be a midlife woman raising kids and returning -- or thinking of returning, or hoping one day to return -- to the full-time workforce.
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Clearly, the classic "mother's CV" poses problems, for Kennedy and for those of us in a similar boat. <. . .> They seem a bit tentative, lacking in confidence. As I've tried to help each one fashion a convincing document -- neither hiding the gaps nor trying to cute them up with terms like "household engineer" -- I've realized that although I had a good sense of what each woman's strengths and weaknesses were, they simply weren't represented on the piece of paper I was staring at.
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No wonder these women seem tentative: They know that most employers won't think they merit the jobs they have their eyes on. <. . .>
Even though the job Kennedy is trying to nab is a far cry from the account executive or publicist positions that my friends might go after, the phenomenon at work is the same. The reaction seems to be: If she hasn't followed a straight-and-narrow, logical path, we simply can't imagine her in the role under discussion.<snip>
Caroline Kennedy, of course, doesn't share my concerns about lifetime earnings losses or 401(k) plans. But she does have to worry about being unfairly penalized for her unconventional résumé, about being nastily pigeonholed as a mere "happy housewife."
For her sake, and that of all us in-and-out, stopping, opting, part-time, full-time working mothers, I hope she gets a fair shake.more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/26/AR2008122601118.html...............................
Interesting perspective, isn't it?