Earlier this week The New York Times featured an article called "Working Mothers Find Some Peace on The Road."

Hers is the guilty pleasure of the traveling working mom. After slogging through airports, sitting through PowerPoints and networking through lunches, there is, at the end of the day, a small taste of freedom. And as hard as it can be to balance the demands of business trips and family life, for the relatively small group of employed mothers who travel, it can be delicious.

The line that caught my eye was not the guilty pleasure part(been there, done that)..what caught my eye was this: " for the relatively small group of employed mothers who travel".

Huh? Since when is 40% a relatively small amount.

According to a post at Consumer Lab

Experts say that mothers travel on business less often than fathers, but more mothers are in the workforce than ever before, and a recent study by the Travel Industry Association in Washington found that 43 percent of business travelers in 2004 were women, up from 39 percent in 2000.

Three years ago NYU conducted its second study on Stereotypes and the Women Business Traveler.
This is what that study found:

Before we examined the behaviors and challenges women face while on the road, we determined who the women business traveler is - she takes one to four trips annually, is married and she is a baby boomer," said Dr. Lalia Rach, associate dean at NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies and head of the NYU Tisch Center. "Additionally, she has a bachelor's degree, earns up to $75,000, is a member of one frequent flier program and one to two frequent hotel guest programs and expected to take the same number of trips this year as last year." According to the new study, female business travelers - now estimated by the survey's author to be 40 percent of all business travelers - primarily use the Internet to research and book travel plans, overwhelmingly use their own cell phones to make calls while staying at a hotel and see travel as positive and necessary to career advancement.

Meanwhile before The New York Times was talking about the guilty pleasures of women business travelers,Melissa Petri who blogs at RoadGladiator has written quite about about the myths of business travel.

"...to a spouse stuck at home, business trip is just a vacation of a different sort -- one poorly disguised by a briefcase."
[edit]
I am also a mother. And I can understand how the definition of business trip and vacation can become hazy if you have kids in the equation.

What do YOU think?! I mean, it really isn't a vacation per-sé but you have to admit, we do get more downtime compared to our spouses who have to work double shifts during our absence.

While Petri often blogs about the woes of traveling on business, she like many business women do find plenty to like about a couple of days in a luxury hotel.

Much as I love my family and hate being away from them, I sometimes do welcome an evening or a morning alone. I do revel in taking my sweet time in the morning without having to worry if my son is already dressed for kindergarten or if he has brushed his teeth.

I do revel in meeting people from different cultures. Yes, I may find some of them strange but I do appreciate the differences and it even teaches me more about international business etiquette.
Despite the inconvenience of long flights, I know that the mileage I have accrued would be used by ME for leisure travel or to get my family to join me for an extended vacation.

There was another point in the New York Times that made my head turn:

Then there is a different sort of guilt that arises not from whiny children so much as the half-concealed judgments of colleagues and clients.

“You meet all these investors, and they’re all men,” said Ms. Skwarek, who has 6-year-old twins and an 11-year-old. “They all look at me, and they always ask, ‘Oh, and how often do you travel?’ It’s such a loaded question. I’m now going to look like a bad mom or a bad portfolio manager.”

And, that says it all.

Image Credit: Flickr membernice cup of tea.

Elana blogs about business culture atFunnyBusiness. She is currently typing away in a luxury bed at a Hyatt Hotel in Reston, Virginia.