Who wants to be a wife?

Who's left for vital role of `wife'? - 10/03/2007 - MiamiHerald.com

Working women, whether married or single, find themselves yearning for someone dependable -- anyone! -- to get a soccer uniform washed, call the phone company about an incorrect charge or exchange a shirt for a bigger size. With two-income families now the norm and both men and women working long hours, the question has become how to accomplish what used to be a wife's full-time job.

Women also suffer because their work/life balancing act leaves little time for networking. Women often spend their lunch hours running errands instead of making the social contacts that are essential to managers who want to move up. ''Even carpooling is difficult for women because they do chores on the way home,'' says Suzanna Rose, director of the Women's Studies Center at Florida International University.

Working women have noticed, correctly, that their male colleagues often advance further at work with the support of their wives, regardless of whether those wives work or not. Women occupy 50.6 percent of managerial and professional positions, according to the research organization Catalyst, but they make up only 15.6 percent of Fortune 500 corporate officers.

Female politicians are affected, too. Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for the American Woman and Politics at Rutgers University's Eagleton Institute of Politics, says more women are determined to show they can raise a family while serving in office. But while plenty of male lawmakers have small children, the pressures and responsibilities don't seem to weigh on them the way they do on women. ``We hear very often from women who are running or elected that they wish they had a wife, someone to make sure the basics get done -- pick up the kids from school or make sure there's something edible in the refrigerator.''

Shapiro, a specialist in women's studies, thinks the guilt factor weighs heavily on women. ``We want huge jobs; we want to have clean homes. Women beat themselves up because they haven't taken anything off that plate. Women have to realize a bathroom cleaned by a husband is better than one not cleaned at all.''

One mother notices there's another factor working against employed women. With boomers more active, grandmothers are less available to fill in the gaps. ''A lot of women wish their mothers could help them more,'' says Lisa Shaw, a working mother of five. ``Instead, a lot of women in their 60s are doing things they never got to do, like going back to school or traveling.''

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