What distinguishes these overachievers is their passion for their work. Persaonal business checks extreme work schedules are the catalyst to economic achievement in today’s economy for most high achievers.

There is a personal downside in that for some children, parents' all- consuming careers pose problems. "Kids are very conscious that many of their parents are stressed and tired," says Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute in New York, who interviewed children of working parents for her book "Ask the Children."

When personal as opposed to business family problems do arise, women are much more likely to notice the problems than men are.

"Both men and women see that children are under performing at school, eating junk food, and watching too much TV," Hewlett says. However, it seems that men don't take this personally; women, on the other hand, do take this personally.

"But maternal guilt is alive and well. Women draw a straight line between problems in their own lives and their jobs." That maternal responsibility factor makes women more likely to leave their careers.

Personal business checkups finds ffifty-seven percent of women holding extreme jobs feel the dichotomy and do not want to continue that fast pace for more than a year. Hewelett says, "A business model that requires top people to put in 70-hour workweeks for decades at a time seriously excludes women"

"Extreme Jobs: The Dangerous Allure of the 70-Hour Workweek," is published today in the Harvard Business Review.