Working women risk burnout.

Professional women of the 1990s face a particular challenge - burnout - as they attempt to balance career and personal interests, notes Victoria L. Rayner, author of The Survival Guide for Todays Career Women. "Today, working women are particularly prone to burnout because of all the demands that are placed on them. The popular belief is that women can sustain a successful career and private life without sacrifice." Rayner believes that this constant demand on women to be successful both on the job and at home creates an additional demand not necessarily made on their male counterparts. "Rewarded for their dedication to hearth and home and often punished for separating from it, many professional women feel that they must constantly prove that they can maintain control over both their family life and their professional life."

Women who are seriously over-stressed and facing burnout often deny their exhaustion. They have the characteristic of overdoing it. Determined to succeed professionally, they easily become over-involved and overextended. For a career woman to get ahead, she must exert an almost superhuman effort just to achieve parity with her male colleagues."

Those who reach the burnout stage feel a depletion of energy. "Their inner resources and ability to cope with the emotional strains of life...