Darling Hill

A new study finds that MBA moms are more likely than doctors or lawyers to stay home full-time. But lawyers don't trail too far behind on MBA heels. According to the study (undertaken by two Berkeley professors, Catherine Wolfram and Jane Leber Herr), "Opt-Out Patterns Across Careers: Labor Force Participation Rates Among Educated Mothers," which followed the career paths of nearly 1,000 women who graduated from Harvard between 1988 and 1991, 15 years post-college, 28% of Harvard women who earned MBAs were stay-at-home moms (SAHMs), compared to 21% of Harvard women who earned JDs.

One thought (according to the same study) is that women with law degrees are more faithful than MBAs to their profession because of the greater financial investment.

Joan Williams, director of the Center for WorkLife Law at UC Hastings, and an expert on work/life balance issues, takes the view that these stay-at-home women who have opted out of their careers may be "married to men who are just as ambitious as they are." She suggests that the idea that "women choose parenting over building their careers, is more complicated than meets the eye." To illustrate, "men who are in the upper ranks of their profession with stay-at-home-wives earn 30% more than men who are married to women who work. Those men who want to reach the highest rungs of their career and earn the most money often need a stay-at-home wife to take care of all other aspects of their life, including raising a family," says Williams. What this can mean is that ambitious, degreed women who marry ambitious, degreed men, may end up at home, even if it wasn't part of their initial career vision.

Read more about legal career detours here:
Can 'Recovering Attorneys' Go Back to the Law?
Staying at Home, Staying in the Law
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