I recently decided that I was going to consider every single career opportunity that came my way. Even the ones that I knew I couldn’t manage would get a closer look, just in case it turned out that there was some way for me to glean some good out of it.

I don’t know if it’s a case of The Law of Attraction or what, but now that my eyes are open, the opportunities are everywhere.
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My husband regularly works long hours and even pulls all-nighters in order to clear his plate at the office. I used to, too — before a pay cut made me take a second look at how much my time was worth.

Sure, hard work always pays off, as the saying goes. It just seems like sometimes it pays a lot less than it used to. When the work piles up and I can’t get it done during the work day, instead of automatically bringing it home with me I find myself calculating the dwindling dollars and cents of my hourly wage and deciding that I’m more than willing to do it on company time, for pay, but not at home, for free.
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The Huffington Post reported last week that former vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin has posted her resume on LinkedIn.

I have to admit, I don’t really see the point in the snark about this. For all I disagree with her politics, the former governor is super savvy when it comes to social networking. And smart women know the importance of social networking.
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Just days before their fourth child was born earlier this month, supermodel and Project Runway star Heidi Klum filed a petition to take the name of her husband, Seal (whose full name is Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel).

Their sons, Henry Gunther Ademola Dashtu Samuel, 3, and Johan Riley Fyodor Taiwo Samuel, 2, already have Seal’s last name, as does their baby daughter, Lou Sulola Samuel. (No word on whether their oldest child, 5-year-old Helene “Leni” Klum — who is the biological daughter of Klum’s ex, Flavio Briatore, but was legally adopted at birth by Seal – will change her name as well.)

Like many working women, I kept my name when I got married. Which means that I have a different last name than my children. But, unlike Heidi, I’m not changing my name to match theirs.
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If you’re not happy right now, take heart: You’re not alone.

According to the newest data from the United States General Social Survey, women today are less happy then they were back in 1972. Moreover, the survey found, women today become increasingly unhappy as they age compared to men, whose happiness levels trended upward as they got older.

It would be easy to dismiss it as another All-Is-Crap-With-The-Economy statistic if not for the fact that the General Social Survey has been asking the same question — “How happy are you, on a scale of 1 to 3, with 3 being very happy, and 1 being not too happy?”– to 1,500 men and women, of all ages, income levels, educational backgrounds, and marital statuses since 1972. And that the survey’s findings jibe with the results of six other major, long-term happiness studies around the world — more than 1.3 million men and women surveyed over the last 40 years, and in every study, the greater the opportunities women have the less happy they are over time, as compared to men.

But you know what? I think you have to choose to be happy. And that being able to consider personal happiness is a privilege afforded to those for whom the basic necessities — food, clothing, shelter — aren’t an issue. And that surveys, even ones as broad and as far-reaching as these, are still full of holes.
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West Indian Girl singer Mariqueen Maandig is giving up her gig to marry Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor, her bandmates declared in August. WWE announcer Lilian Garcia announced her retirement Monday after 10 years with the WWE Divas, trading the wrestling ring for a wedding ring. And over at the StarTribune.com, a reader tells columnist Carolyn Hax to put marriage before career because “it really wasn’t worth all the sacrifices.”

Which made me wonder: If you couldn’t have both — and if finances weren’t an issue — which one would you choose?

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I picked my youngest kids up from preschool the other day and decided to stop by the local farmers’ market on the way home. My kids love the farmers’ market — it’s bright and noisy and colorful, and they always get some treat to munch on while I search for the perfect tomatoes.

My daughter loves it for another reason: She seems to know everyone there.

We run into a few of her classmates, of course. But she also knows their parents, their siblings, and their pets — and greets each and every one of them by name.
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The speculation has been rampant since Sarah Palin announced Friday that she will be stepping down as governor of Alaska.

After her time in the national spotlight with Senator John McCain, she didn’t seem interested in running a state, The Asssociated Press suggested. Being governor during a recession — and when there are 15 ethics charges and budgeting squabbles hanging over your head — is a chore, Slate.com quipped. She says she doesn’t want to “embrace Lame Duck status,” even though the next election is 16 months away, Ed Morrissey points out at Hot Air.

But it’s probably best to consider what Palin herself said about her decision: “Life is too short to compromise time and resources. It may be tempting and more comfortable to just keep your head down, plod along… but that’s the worthless, easy path; that’s a quitter’s way out.”

As a working mom who compromises her time and resources daily, I beg to differ.
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When it comes to earning a salary, the gender gap is old news. An article in Business Week says that, according to a recent study, the new inequality is the difference in pay between working women who are mothers and those who aren’t.

It’s easy to focus on the paycheck — mothers were offered an average of $11,000 less in starting salary than non-mothers, the study found — but working moms often aren’t only struggling for equal pay, they’re often struggling for equal respect as well. And that may be even more difficult to come by.
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I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately, mostly about my career. I started working as a journalist when I was 16 — I mean working for pay, as opposed to on the school paper or something — and I pursued my career goals with a single-mindedness that surprises me today, in retrospect.

I didn’t really have a mentor, 15 or 20 years ago. I could have used one — as a  young woman, as a woman of color, as a journalist, as a professional. I could have used a primer on office politics (who couldn’t?), some guidance on setting goals, a reminder that work-life balance is important even when the only think on the “life” side of the equation is yourself.
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