Vargas returns with a story she knows well

For a brief time last spring, Elizabeth Vargas, pregnant and under pressure from her bosses, became a rallying point for feminists when she stepped down as co-anchor of ABC’s “World News Tonight.”

Two and a half months after giving birth to her second child, Vargas returns to full-time duty at “20/20” tonight with a segment on the plight of working mothers, beginning with herself.

“A lot of us -- me, most of all -- were surprised by the amount of press in the aftermath” of her job change, Vargas says in an interview that had to be moved up because of her breast-feeding schedule. And she is training the spotlight on a difficult period in her life. “It’s inherently uncomfortable for me to be the subject of the story,” Vargas says.

Women’s organizations sent protest letters to ABC after Vargas was eased out in favor of Charles Gibson. Now, says Vargas, who also has a 3-year-old with her husband, singer Marc Cohn, “having had the baby, I can’t imagine going back to that demanding job right now.”

For the “20/20” piece airing at 10 tonight, Vargas examines the lives of three working women with children, interviews politicians and serves up a slew of statistics on the problems faced by working mothers.

As an example of public attitudes, she cites a Cornell University survey of undergraduates who said that if they were employers, they would offer women with children $11,000 a year less in salary than childless women and be 44% less likely to hire those with kids.

“There is still in this country real discrimination against working mothers,” Vargas says.

She also reports that the United States is one of five countries, out of 168, that do not mandate paid maternity leave. “North Korea and Iran offer more benefits,” Vargas says.

If it sounds like she’s become an advocate on the issue, she doesn’t dispute that. “I have a strong point of view on it, yes, because of what I’ve been through,” says Vargas.

She says she was drawn to the subject because “women talk about this everywhere I go. My friends at work talk about it.” Men too: Her producer on the segment, a divorced father, sometimes has to rush home from the office.

“I know I’m very, very lucky,” Vargas says. “I have a job with a lot of flexibility. I am well compensated for it. And I can afford good child care.” She still hopes to return to news anchoring -- but not for a while.