Motherhood and the Spirit of the New Capitalism‪.‬

A Good Weekend feature in 2002 depicted a woman lawyer conducting a 10 pm international phone conference. (3) An unremarkable event, except that while making 'pithy remarks' in a 'steady voice' she was also on all fours, rocking back and forth in premature labour with her first child and suppressing moans of pain. She had 'promised herself months earlier that having a baby would not compromise her career. During her pregnancy she had worked even longer hours than usual to prove her commitment to the job ... [She] didn't want to be the one who ended [the conference call] ... "you'll look like a wuss"'. (4) How do we 'read' such a story? As an example of women's liberation to lives not dominated by biology but centred on achievement in jobs once reserved for men? Or as an example of a mother whose participation in the corporate world comes at a high price--of 'managing like a man', despite her female embodiment; obeying and internalizing the Stakhanovite work norms of the globalizing new capitalism?