Trying to stay off the "mommy track" at work

As mentioned in the past, I work for a great company with a great group of people. There are a lot of women on my team, and there are a lot of mothers. We understand what it means to be a working parent: We watch one another's backs and fill in when family emergencies arise.

But I realize this is a rarity. There are plenty of companies that aren't as understanding and just as many teams that are not as supportive.

And that lack of support can land working women on the "mommy track." This past week, The Harvard Business Review released a comprehensive study covering what happens to women when they try to mix careers and families. And it's not good news.

You see, once upon a time, it was believed that women were leaving prosperous careers to focus on raising families, but deeper research has concluded that women are really jumping ship from one company for another because they were being passed over for promotions or were unsatisfied with the path the company put them on (often referred to as the mommy track).

(Shame on those companies - maybe they need to realize that more kids equals more productivity.)

Additional information in the study revealed that career balance is still a struggle at home, too. At the beginning of their relationships, women believed their careers would be just as important as their partners, but the reality is that nearly 75% of men's careers had taken precedence over women's.

Clearly more work needs to be done to create a more level playing field.

Have you been mommy tracked in your career? Or has your career taken a back seat for your family? Share your story in the comments.