The Wall Street Journal Europe's survey on women's issues, conducted in association with Arthur Andersen, asked 1,114 women about maternity-leave issues. In the opinion of respondents who don't have children at home, missing a promotion is unfair, but that's life. Laurence Degros was among those better off after taking leave for her second child, Lauriane, about a year and a half ago. Just before Lauriane's birth, she changed jobs, from recruitment at Siemens AG in Belgium, to human-resource manager, which involves negotiations with unions and mediating conflicts. The women shared many of the same experiences in their evolution from manager to mother to a merger of the two.
Work is everything.
Then the baby is everything. Returning to work is a shock to the system. Guilt sets in. And it's overcome by Amazonian force of organization. They have two staffs, two sets of clients, two long-term strategies.