There’s kind of either-or here. There’s an either you become a respected journalist by working your head off, or you go and start a family, and what I’m saying is we have to start thinking about combining those two, because I found myself in a situation where I worried that my advanced maternal age was endangering my children and even threatening my chances of having any, which is what drove me to the fertility doctor. … If [having children younger] had been something other people were doing, I might have started to think about it and if it had been something that my bosses would have thought was fine, then I might have started to think about it. I mean my bosses — who are part of the same system — would have looked askance. They would have said, ‘Well, she’s not serious.’
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All of my colleagues in journalism have expressed their deep concern over the inability of doing their jobs in a way that will advance their careers and also living what everyone else sees as a healthy life. I’ve often wondered why there isn’t more thought given to the arc of a career or to how journalists could go in and out of full time and part time situations.
