More options for mums

Sarah Trotman says balance is the key for working mothers. Photo / Supplied

Leading local businesswoman Sarah Trotman has weighed in on the latest controversy over working mothers, backing an Australian columnist who says working mums have never had it so good.

The founder and managing director of the Bizzone small business services expo agrees with Sydney Daily Telegraph writer Jenny Dillon that mothers today have it much easier than previous generations.

Dillon argues women are trivialising their role in the workforce by clinging to the "working mother" tag.

"The reality is that for the past 40 years many of these working women have been perpetuating a hoax, pretending that running a household is still as hard as it was 40 years ago," she writes.

"In fact, in an age of the weekly cleaner, the weekly gardener, the weekly shop, the microwave, the deep freeze, the takeaway food options and the pressure on men to perform in the kitchen, any woman with school-age children who isn't in the workforce is either playing tennis or organising poker afternoons."

The column provoked much criticism and Trotman said the backlash had motivated her to speak out.

As long as they balanced things well women today had so much more opportunity, she said. "It's great to be a woman living in these times."

She never held strong views about staying at home or working but when her first child was born "I got completely bored".

She shared the care of her 12-year-old daughter and 10-year old son equally with her former partner and had set it up so that their homes, her office and the children's school were within a 2km radius.

She conceded things would be more difficult if she were tied to a 40-hour week at a large organisation but having her own business meant flexibility. Even her daughter's dog came to the office.

"Little things like that make life so much easier."

She also spent "probably close to the average wage" on household help, she joked.

The Sir Peter Blake Trust emerging leader got a great deal of mental stimulation from her work and believed she was a better mum because of it. "I wouldn't know what else I would do other than work."

Cathy Quinn, chair of legal firm Minter Ellison Rudd Watts and the current holder of the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman award, said even with support juggling a family and career was challenging.

Sometimes her kids "just want Mum to do it", she said.

"If you want something in life, whether it's to succeed in business, balance family life with a career, you just need to make it work don't you."

But there was definitely extra pressure on both men and women who had children, she said.

Former cabinet minister Margaret Shields, a veteran of 40 years in the women's movement, said a lot of women were now in the position of having to work for financial reasons and could not afford home help.

The idea that life had never been better for working mothers was based on "a fairly narrow band of professional women", she said.