The 'truth' about life as a working mother

[phdlife]

Just wondered what others made of the Equalities Review findings (and especially Madeleine Bunting's G2 feature) published yesterday?
Am I the only woman who finds it hugely depressing to be told (yet again!) that having kids "marks, at best, a plateau in their career - treading water - at worst, its abrupt end"? That "working mothers are left with the worst of both worlds"?
Certainly I was pushed by circumstances into a rather more acute choice than most ppl have to make, but I've coped by hoping that something, somewhere down the line, will work out. Otherwise I can only pray that all my ambition will get squeezed out along with the placenta - a thought that makes me unbearably sad given all the effort I've put in so far. I want the baby and I accept it's going to change things, but I can't envisage being happy to drop out or 'tread water'.
Sorry to be gloomy - this has just raised hairy issues I've been trying to ignore as I don't know any career-oriented women with kids, and frankly I could use a little inspiration rather than yet another reminder of "the brutal truth" [hopeful].

What is your field? Could you do some freelancing as anything other than an academic? Is your field purely academic or more vocational?

I've worked full time since having children, and think at the beginning my boss viewed it pretty negatively - she constantly questioned my commitment to the job and put stuff in my appraisal, like "Mrs S has a young family and does not want to entertain clients in the evening which affects her relationship with them and her ability to do the job." (Which was untrue.) I had expected to leave that job on promotion, but didn't, and moved to another job (working for another horrible woman) at the same grade. After just over two years in that job, I got my promotion, and jumped a grade, which is pretty rare. I now have a job that I really enjoy, which is flexible re hours and working from home and have a nice boss (female).

So it did all work out in the end, but was fairly stressful and traumatic in the lead up to it.

phdlife, you're not in the medical/biological fields are you? The Wellcome Trust do a come-back-to-work-after-children fellowship scheme that seems to work well- there are people who have been out for 5 years or more who have got back in to academia with one. It's a shame they're not more widely available.

Phdlife, EPSRC runs a scheme called First Grant which is popular with women who have taken a career break or you are looking for way to kickstart their academic career. If this scheme is not applicable to you, maybe BBSRC or MRC have equivalent schemes.

Libra, Tamum, Speedymama - thanks for hints. I'm a humanities bug so not so much on the grants front and no, there's no freelance work for us cultural theorists

It's all complicated by fact that we want to move home (abroad) in 15-18mos so I'm not really looking at UK grant schemes, just the general "women in academia" scenario, which doesn't seem particularly rosy anywhere.

Think I'm going to try and write a trade (rather than academic) book from my dissertation - I mean so long as I'm going to be unpaid I might as well write something fun, and crossover work is highly valued in my field. Thanks so much for advice. At least I'm not feeling so much in a hole now.