I have met and talked with so many of that 60% group of women who want to work and have a family who, after struggling to get balance, unilaterally make a decision to leave their jobs. This decision is often made on the spur of the moment in response to a crisis. For example, one of their children gets sick at school and needs to go home. They can't leave work. They phone their partner who also can't leave work. They can't get their mother, sister, auntie, cousin or the next door neighbour. They resign on the spot. Or the woman I met the other day, whose boss phoned her wanting her to come into work at short notice. Even while she explained that she had no child care organised, he continued to place pressure on her by stressing the urgency of his request. In order to extricate herself from that pressure and the competing demands, she resigned on the phone, on the spot. Obviously what she was experiencing in that moment was not a new feeling. She'd experienced it many times before. This situation was the one too many.

It's not just children's needs that make considerable demands on women. It's also the needs of ageing parents because it is women who are their major carers. It's also all those areas of life for which women are ultimately responsible - housework, making sure appointments are made and kept, taking and collecting dry-cleaning, organising tradesmen, doctor's appointments for the children, birthday parties, present buying, being the social secretary, writing the Christmas cards, keeping up with family birthdays, and the list goes on and on.

Many of these areas for which women are seen to be responsible are quite mundane and practical, but others relate to what gives life real and lasting meaning. If they are not attended to, then something is lost.

So what can women do about this? How can they get balance, having a fulfilling career as well as a life outside of work that is rewarding and meaningful?

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