Women Lawyers and Work-Life Balance – Does it Exist?

Earlier this week, Carolyn Elefant posted an interesting piece on the Law.Com Blog Network entitled, A Tale of Two Lawyer Moms. Her post discussed the ever-present issue of work-life balance for women lawyers and contrasted the decisions of two attorneys: Michelle Obama, who has decided to forego her law practice (at least in the short term) in favor of helping her husband with his campaign and spending more time with her children, and the decision of attorney Wendy Hufford, who moved her family (including eight children) to another state to allow her to accept her ‘dream’ in-house counsel job.

Elefant says that she feels more like Obama than Hufford, and that she feels a constant struggle to make it all work.

At one of my monthly group meetings this week, the subject of the book, The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much? by Leslie Bennetts, spawned some interesting discussion about women and the choices they make about staying at home to raise children or continuing in the work force and having a family at the same time.

While this may not seem to be an issue of ‘balance’ to some, in fact, the choice to stay home and NOT continue a career in law (or any other career, for that matter) is an issue of balance – not only for the woman, but for her family as well. How does a lawyer balance her need for intellectual stimulation or professional fulfillment with her desire to provide for her family in other ways?

Whether you’re married or single and whether you have children or not, the ways that lawyers manage and juggle their personal and professional lives are changing. How are you dealing with the challenge?