For Anchorwomen, Family Is Part of the Job

Ms. Kelly — now a Fox News anchor, ex-Jones Day lawyer and blond GQ pinup with the alabaster good looks of Katherine Heigl and the can-do-ism of a former aerobics instructor — decided to ignore her. “It was terrible advice,” she said, recently speaking from her studio.

Ms. Kelly, 41, is part of a new generation of TV anchors — Erica Hill of “The Early Show” on CBS, Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and Soledad O’Brien, formerly of “American Morning” on CNN — who have juggled their careers and family life full-throttle in front of millions of viewers in a way that Barbara Walters and Diane Sawyer notably did not. Rather than hide their pregnancies, they flaunt them; rather than cover up their off-hours role as mothers, they turn it into part of their on-air persona.

In the 1960s, when Ms. Walters was on the “Today” show, she had several miscarriages, returning quietly to work within days in each case. Heradoption of a baby girl went unannounced, and in keeping with the times, she took no time off.

“There was no having it all,” Ms. Walters said in an interview with Jane Pauley in 2003. “I never thought about it. I didn’t think, ‘Can I juggle both?’ I probably should have.”

Ms. Kelly, who returned from maternity leave in August after the birth of her second child, had no such qualms. Widely viewed as the most golden of Roger Ailes’s protégées, she moderated her first presidential primary debate in September to positive reviews, and was chosen to be a moderator at the Republican debate in Iowa this Thursday.

Soon after her return, however, Ms. Kelly broke out of anchor mode when she asked Mike Gallagher, a conservative radio talk-show host, onto her afternoon show, “America Live,” for a faceoff over comments he had made disparaging her three-month absence. (“What a racket that is!” Mr. Gallagher had told Chris Wallace, a Fox anchor, in an interview.)

She chastised Mr. Gallagher on air.

“The United States is the only country that doesn’t require paid maternity leave,” she said, citing the Family and Medical Leave Act, which, while it mandates time off, does not require employers to pay parents during their leave.

A Fox news journalist promoting federal social programs? “We’re populating the human race,” she said later of women on maternity leave. “It’s not a vacation. It’s hard, important work.