As families throughout the country celebrated Mother’s Day on May 13, Stony Brook University professors Julia Bear and Todd Pittinsky shared their views on women, work, family and ambition in the USA Today article, “Letter to working mothers: You can be equally ambitious about your career, family.” The authors ask, “Don’t we want working parents — all parents — to be as ambitious about caring for their children as they are about their careers?”
Bear and Pittinsky point out that while American society is slowly coming to terms with women in the workplace who are ambitious about their careers, little progress has been made in coming to terms with professionally ambitious women who are also ambitious as mothers.
“Being a great mother is time-consuming and hard work,” the article states. “Moreover, for many women, it is an ambition, not just an obligation. We call this caregiving ambition, and we believe that recognizing caregiving as an ambition is long overdue.”
Bear is an assistant professor in the College of Business and Pittinsky is a professor in the Department of Technology and Society within the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
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