~ledgments<br >e changed<br >I life.<br >helped us<br >She Works.<br >hat we are<br >n our side.<br >:ler， a book<br >When I was growing up， my mother woke up early each morning， put on<br >a dress， hose， pumps， and an apron and got ready for the day. Her work<br >revolved around taking care of family and home. Period. She went about<br >her routine of cooking， shopping， cleaning， and ironing as if this were the<br >natural order of things for a wife and mother. Very often she would won-<br >der aloud if that was all there was to life. Eventually， when my younger<br >brother was in high school and she thought he could fend for himself，<br >she accepted a job in a social service agency. My mother never reached<br >her potential and felt an emptiness because of it.<br > I started my married life by supporting my husband as he attended<br >graduate school and then becoming a mother to three children. That was<br >also the natural order of things. Although very happy with marriage and<br >my three beautiful children， I felt that something was missing. I was sure<br >something must be wrong with me because I was not content with my<br >life as it was. I too felt an emptiness.<br > During that time of longing， Betty Friedan s The Feminine Mystique<br >was published. Reading it changed my life. I realized that what I needed<br >was a life for me. Being supportive to my family and keeping house was<br >important but simply not enough. Many of my peers felt the same way I<br >did. So， we began the struggle to enter the work world， attempting to<br >balance work and family. We did this without any direction or guidance<br >and with very few role models. We were trailblazers， continually faced<br >with conflict and uncertainty. Neither husbands nor wives knew how to<br >handle the demands created when both partners worked.<br > Several years later， when I was responsible for developing education<br >programs for executives， I had the very good fortune to meet Drs. Jaine<br >and Jim Carter. Because so many people were struggling to achieve<br >balance in their lives and asking questions about how to manage a dual-<br >career relationship， I asked，the Carters to develop a workshop for dual-<br >career men and women designed to teach them how to balance their per-<br ><br >