One of the things I like best about weekends is more time to enjoy the New York Times. Lots of interesting items this weekend:

1. Paul Brown (What’s Offline) reports that Paula Spencer (writing in Women’s Day) opines that there is no way for one to actually achieve work life balance. Her advice is to accept it and move on. I agree - especially since the guilt many women feel about not being able to do it all, all at the same time takes time we just don’t have.

2. M. P. Dunleavey writes that new research by Tahira K. Hira and Cazilla Loibl shows that women often abdicate responsibly for financial planning. It seems that the majority of women they studied find making decisions about saving and investing stressful. If you didn’t find yourself in the minority of women who stay engaged in making decisions about money before now, hopefully, the sorry sordid mess that Eliot Spitzer made will remind that no matter how theoretically able your partner is to take the reigns, you still need to pay attention.
3. In much more encouraging news, Norway’s law requiring companies to fill 40 percent of corporate board seats with women by 2008 worked. In 1993, women held only 3% of board seats, in 2002, the number was 6%. Now, the goal’s been met and the value of board diversity is spreading to other parts of Europe. While chances are we won’t benefit from a law requiring more women on boards of US companies, we can choose to exert our economic power by keeping an eye on how well the companies in which we invest accept women. Read more about how you can take action

TAGS: corporate boards, economic power, New York Times, where are the women?, work life balance