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It's hard to imagine the positive. work.

It's hard to imagine the positive pieces of the story when so much of it is about going to work with

clothes that are messed up, your hair undone, worrying about how your boss is going to see you

worrying about how the stay-at-home moms on the playground are going to see you and that

rhetoric makes you feel like you've got to focus on just self-preservation and management.

You're listening to Women at Work from Harvard Business Review.

I'm Nicole Torres.

I'm Amy Burstein.

And I'm Amy Gallo.

This episode we're looking at an aspect of working motherhood that in my

opinion doesn't get nearly enough attention, the positive pieces. There are lots of

reasons women should feel hopeful about having a career and children.

We're talking to two professors who, between their academic research and experience raising three kids each, are experts on working motherhood.

Dana Greenberg of Babson College and Jamie Lage of Northeastern University.

A lot of the women that have been part of our research over the years are older first-time mothers,

so much of their identity is wrapped up in their professional life and pregnancy and impending motherhood throws a real wrench in that identity.

They've organized their insights and advice into a book. It's called maternal optimism.

...