Poll: Many Women Struggle To Find Satisfying Balance Between Careers, Families
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- When Leslie Khafif isn't taking care of her four children, she's running a nanny placement business from her kitchen, striving to have it all.
"You sometimes forget about yourself in the mix because it's all about everybody else and everything else, and that's the sacrifice that I'm willing to take," Khafif said.
Playing supermom isn't easy for Lisa Valente, a paralegal, either.
"We live in a world where single income doesn't work anymore, so Mom's got to work," she said.
The age-old dilemma of balancing life and work may be taking a greater toll than women realize, CBS 2's Caroly Gusoff reported.
Business strategist and author Megan Dalla-Camina surveyed 1,000 professional women and found:
• 70 percent said they struggle with their well-being
• Nearly half said they are "hanging by a thread"
• 10 percent reported they can barely get out of bed in the morning
• Half said they need more time to themselves, with the desire for exercise and sleep outranking sex
• Only 16 percent said they were very satisfied with their lives
"I think this is really concerning for women, and it's also concerning for employers who want to have these women in their workplaces," said Dalla-Camina, author of "Getting Real About Having It All."
She said greater workplace flexibility is needed.
"You can really flourish instead of just this striving and surviving that so many women are stuck in," Dalla-Camina said.
Allison Rockmore, an attorney with three children, said she knows there's a price for having it all.
"I don't get much sleep," she said.
But there's also a payoff.
"A sense of self-worth," Rockmore said. "And that's why we're here -- to make ourselves better people and the world better people."
The survey, which polled women ages 18 to 55, found women without children had an even greater dissatisfaction managing work and life, suggesting the balancing act is not simple for anyone.
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