It may be 2013, but women continue to face challenges of perception whether at work or at home.

How can it be that women are the majority of our population (52%), the majority of the consumer market (65%), the most educated (more than 55% of all college students) and the majority in the workforce AND still are so completely misunderstood?

A day doesn't go by that I don't hear from a young woman climbing her way to the top of the corporate ladder that her boss wants to know when she is "going to slow down, get married and start a family." I say "REALLY!" Is every woman required to fit into a neanderthal concept of barefoot and pregnant from age 25 to 40+?

This is not to say that many women - and I was one of them - want to get married (I was married at 20) have a family (I wanted 12 children - now that's ambition) and settled down to nest. But many of these women, and I was one of them, choose to go on and create a business of their own (yup, that's me) and or work outside the home.

The fact is no one and I mean NO ONE can pigeonhole today's women. I mentor women in their 20s and 30s with ambition to lead divisions of large corporations or their own small business. I coach women in their 40s and 50s transitioning back into the workforce after taking time off from raising their families and who look to me to help them network their way back to feeling comfortable in the workplace. I coach women entrepreneurs in their 60s who have grown children and plan to keep working for 10 or more years and still have plans to take thebusiness world by storm.

You see, women today see no barriers to making choices... EXCEPT - economics.

No matter how hard women work they still earn less than their male counterpart ($.77 to a man's $1.00). Too often much of a woman's pay goes to childcare and to the expenses of running from one place to the next to keep the family on what has become the familiar treadmill for working families in America.

As the infographic shows women report high rates of burnout and less satisfaction even though they have more choices than ever before in our nation's history.

In my work, I find women are working harder than ever, both at home and at work, and feel less entitled to relax or take time off.

Ask yourself, "Do I eat my lunch at my desk too often?" "Do I take time to take a walk or a break during the day without feeling guilty?" "When I'm at home to I feel guilty that I am not at work and when I am at work do I feel guilty than I am not at home?"

All of these questions should be answered by BOTH women at home and women at work (women in business).

I can speak to these issues because (1) I've been there (2) I have interviewed 1000s of women who have been there (3) I experience every day in my work a life story of a woman living through it.

So, you might ask where do we go from here? What is the answer to the woman's paradox?

(1) You don't owe anyone an explanation for the choices you make. Not your boss, not your spouse or significant other, not your friends, not your family, not the world. If you believe in your decision to be all that you can be - just do it!

Actions speak louder than words. SHOW those around you that you are happy with your choice and when the time comes that you want to make a change - just do it!

(2) Be kind to yourself and give yourself a break. If you don't no one else will! As I get older I realize, and yes my mother told me this too, the only person you need to prove anything to is yourself. No one is paying as much attention to you as you believe they are. You can be the best mother in the world, the best manager, sales representative, employee, entrepreneur, student and/or woman in the world - the real judge of your performance will always be you. It is your choice to do your best and let others know how proud you are of being your best. Yes, mothers too need to share their pride.

(3) Recognize that it is a myth to have it all. Particularly since their is no one definition of all. Having it all is being where you want to be and doing what you want to do when you choose to. Nothing more nothing less. Learn to embrace the joys in your life and the choices you have and not wallow in other people's obsession with their lack of accomplishment. No one can bring you down without your permission.

Finally, a poem from an old friend, Steve Slepian says it best:

Visualize your mind as a rose,

and your thoughts as its fragrance,

NOW, spend a lifetime of blooming.