This is the seventh of 10 articles about unhappiness in contemporary women.

Q: What are the key findings regarding women's happiness and work?

A: Two books in recent years have addressed the issues of women in business. Alice Eagly and Linda Carli, in "Through the Labyrinth: The Truth About How Women Become Leaders," present the challenges women face in work in America. Although the glass ceiling is no longer totally an obstacle for women, they still must navigate through confusing and intricate pathways to rise above the glass ceiling. Women continue to be discriminated against in promotions at all levels, according to the authors.

Eagly and Carli also report women who leave jobs to raise children usually arre confronted by corporate resistance when they return to work. Finally, the authors found men and women who have major parental responsibilities are met by employers who expect constant availability, socializing after-hours and weekend work activities.

In the second book titled "Off-Ramps and On-Ramps," Sylvia Ann Hewlett presents her research on barriers women face regarding promotion and pay. She documented blocks to career advancement direct pathways. Hewlett found regaining corporate status is either difficult or impossible because of demands such as 10-hour workdays. She proposed the need for a new career development model that allows for women to be valued in the workplace and to be evaluated for promotion and higher pay on criteria that do not impinge on family life.

A woman named Deborah Holmes, a law graduate of Harvard, has developed a career as a consultant creating flexible work schedules at the Ernst and Young Accounting firm so both women and men can balance their lives with work. Her premise is that hours worked and commitment to the job are not the same. She has led the way for the accounting firm to promote employees who work part-time. A survey of that group confirmed 75 percent of the part-time employees would have left the company if they hadn't been able to work less than full-time. These employees were considered valuable to the company and worth retaining.

Two other countries, Great Britain and Germany, have conducted major research on women and careers. Gertrude Nunner-Winkler, sociologist, summarized research in Germany for Max Planck Research. She found there were multiple factors that affect the impact of working mothers on children. First, the influence of the working environment on the mother can increase or reduce stress. A good working environment can make a mother more perceptive and responsive to her children. A stressful work environment can produce a mother's preoccupation with her own problems and thereby make her less responsive to the needs of her children.

Time and money are factors that affect mothers and work. In Germany, working mothers spend less time on housework, their own activities and sleep than full-time housewives. They also do more housework than their husbands.

Childcare needs to be professional for preschool children. Smaller groups, stable caregivers and limited hours in childcare have more positive results for children.

A mother's personal attitudes toward her work, her partner's attitudes towards her role, and how well her role conforms to society's expectations determine her contentment or happiness. The key to contentment for working mothers lies in their abilities to maintain positive, stable marital relationships, stable finances, stable child care, close bonds with their children, and satisfying work roles. Such a balancing act is complex and compelling for women.

However, Nunner-Winkler points out that women in Germany who pursue careers for reasons other than financial necessity are considered bad mothers and might consider themselves to be bad mothers. Such feelings lead to guilt, which negatively affects their relationships with their children. Nunner-Winkler points out that the patriarchal model of men has survived in Germany virtually intact, which is different from the U.S. Women's happiness in the United States is determined primarily by their personal contentment with their work and secondarily by men's and society's expectations.

* Next week's article will discuss British research about the relationship of women and work.

Judy Caprez is associate professor and director of social work at Fort Hays State University. Send your questions in care of the department of sociology and social work,

Rarick Hall, FHSU.