Along with her daughter, Mason has written a guide for young women who are facing the tough decision of when--and if--to start a family. The result is a roadmap of new choices for women facing the sobering question of how to balance a successful career with family.

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.

This title 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. It is a guide for young women who are facing the tough decision of when - and if - to start a family, also a guide for older women seeking a second chance to break through to the next level.

A compassionate guide to child-rearing, Children Of Fast-Track Parents is also a fascinating portrait of what is influencing the behavior and personality development of today's children and tomorrow's leaders.

Most couples in the U.S. have to wait up to seven years to adopt an infant domestically--and all the expense and waiting doesn't always result in a successful adoption. Now, rather than relying on slow-paced and expensive adoption agencies, many couples are choosing to privately adopt a child. By eliminating the adoption agency, couples can customize and control their own adoption plan. Inside this book, couples will learn how becoming proactive in the adoption process may significantly speed up the adoption. Following the Fast Track method, readers will learn how to: - Establish a budget - Assemble a professional team - Obtain an approved home study - Prepare an effective family profile - Advertise for and talk to potential birth mothers - Detect warning signs for frauds and scams - Be prepared at the hospital With this book as their guide, potential parents can actively pick their own birth mother. By doing so, couples will save time and money, reduce stress, and, most importantly, find a baby to adopt.

Can women - or men - in fast-track jobs have it all? Or are they being forced into delayed parenthood - or even denied parenthood? Do fast track workers who reduce their hours to accommodate family obligations stay on track, or do they become ineligible for top level promotions? Is the "mommy track" a temporary way station or total derailment? Are organizations and professions foregoing their most talented employees due to these high time demands and scheduling inflexibility? With the increase of women in these fast-track fields, these questions affect more workers, drawing new attention. Recently, scholars from a variety of disciplines have been analyzing how organizational structures affect the career success rates of women or men in fast track jobs who devote more time to their families for a period and also the ability of successful women and men in these jobs to have families. The Alice Paul Center for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Pennsylvania hosted a conference dealing with the new research on families and fast track workers. This special volume of The Annals includes the research papers from that conference. The papers include studies of the professions of academe, law, finance, and medicine. Also included are a study of the history of how college educated women have combined work and family over the last hundred years, and analysis of the forces that have led to inefficiently long hours for fast track workers, a study of fast track women who have dropped out, and discussions of policies and gender-based expectations that could change the capacity of workers to balance work and family obligations.