The wrenching decision facing successful women choosing between demanding careers and intensive family lives
has been the subject of many articles and books, most of which propose strategies for resolving the dilemma. "Competing
Devotions focuses on broader social and cultural forces that create women's identities and shape their understanding
of what makes life worth living.
Mary Blair-Loy examines the career paths of women financial executives who have tried various approaches to balancing
career and family. The professional level these women have attained requires a huge commitment of time, energy,
and emotion that seems natural to employers and clients, who assume that a career deserves single-minded allegiance.
Meanwhile, these women must confront the cultural model of family that defines marriage and motherhood as a woman's
primary vocation. This ideal promises women creativity, intimacy, and financial stability in caring for a family.
It defines children as fragile and assumes that men lack the selflessness and patience that children's primary
caregivers need. This ideal is taken for granted in much of contemporary society.
The power of these assumptions is enormous but not absolute. "Competing Devotions identifies women executives
who try to reshape these ideas. These mavericks, who face great resistance but are aided by new ideological and
material resources that come with historical change, may eventually redefine both the nuclear family and the capitalist
firm in ways that reduce work-family conflict.