Readers Respond: More Help for Working Moms

American companies generally do a good job supporting employees who juggle career and child-rearing, according to a survey of Monitor readers this week on the e-Monitor Web site.

But a majority - 58 percent of 45 respondents - said more should be done to help Americans balance work and family.

About one-third said a work-family balance is attainable. Of these, 9 percent said companies have become more helpful; 22 percent put the responsibility for balancing work-family on parents, not employers.

Only 11 percent said their own employer should do more; 69 percent approved of their employer's policies; 20 percent said when workers use such policies, the boss "frowns."

Some poll responses were echoed, separately, in the e-Monitor's chat Forum.

"I'm sure there are many who could benefit from hearing the stories of those of us who left the money behind [to raise kids], and don't regret it," one reader wrote.

The article, about difficulties facing working mothers (May 9, Page 1), that prompted the survey also drew criticism from the other side. One reader said many women work for reasons other than being "driven" by the need for an extra paycheck.

Curiously, all the Forum responses seemed to assume that working mothers were married to working fathers.