Power Moms: How Executive Mothers Navigate Work and Life

A record number of American women are reaching the executive suite, and a significant proportion of women now running major U.S. corporations have children. Yet despite this tremendous progress, working mothers still face numerous challenges at work and home—struggles that the Covid-19 pandemic aggravated.

In her latest book, Power Moms: How Executive Mothers Navigate Work and Life, longtime Wall Street Journal career columnist Joann S. Lublin compares two generations of women—boomers and GenXers—to examine how each navigates the emotional and professional challenges involved in juggling their managerial careers and families.

Ms. Lublin is a Power Mom herself. She raised two children while rising to management news editor of the Journal, sharing its Pulitzer Prize in 2003, and inaugurating its career advice column. She also blazed trails—as one of its first female journalists and among the first to take maternity leave and resume work. In 2018, she won the highest accolade in business journalism, the Gerald Loeb Lifetime Achievement Award.

In Power Moms, Ms. Lublin shares her own experiences combining work and motherhood alongside those of 86 executive mothers from the first trailblazing generation—typically in their sixties—and their younger counterparts, who are under forty-five. The first generation bravely paved the path for the second as they radically reshaped the U.S. business landscape. But they often were lone rangers – without female role models, involved husbands, or supportive employers. Thanks to greater societal acceptance and other factors, second-wave mothers pursue ambitious career goals that were uncommon only a few decades ago. They also manage conflicts between work and life with far more aplomb than the previous generation, such as by embracing work-life sway over the elusive work-life balance. But, like their forebears, GenXers still lead stressful lives filled with working mother guilt—a strong sign of how far American society still must go.

Ms. Lublin will be interviewed by Suzanne Muchin, co-founder of Bonfire, a new talent development accelerator for the rising generation of women in the workplace. She is a leader in Chicago’s entrepreneurship community, having been part of building the brands and impact strategies for some of the city’s most well-known organizations, companies—including 1871, MATTER, mHUB, and mentoring teams at TechStars, Zell Fellows and Impact Engine. Ms. Muchin is a Clinical Associate Professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and is best known for teaching the course she co-designed called “Selling Yourself and Your Ideas.” With her long-time business partner, she is the co-host of the popular podcast on getting better at work, “The Big Payoff.”

This event suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded and available later on our website and YouTube channel.

REGISTER HERE!

BONUS AFTER-HOURS EVENT: Attendees who purchase a copy of Power Moms from FAN’s partner bookseller The Book Stall are invited to attend an AFTER-HOURS event hosted by Ms. Lublin and Ms. Muchin that will start immediately after the webinar. Details on the webinar registration page.