> People make choices. My choice may be to work until I have enough money to where I can earn enough interest passively while I go to Africa and join Engineers

> People make choices. My choice may be to work until I have enough money to where I can earn enough interest passively while I go to Africa and join Engineers without Borders. Or my choice might be to have children. Either way, my productivity, savings, and future goals need to be harmonized for my plans to come to fruition. Most responsible, productive people find it very easy to return to the workforce. Sometimes they are a step down or two (as in the case of my mother, who was a former research manager at IBM before she had my brother and me) but if their skills haven't eroded, they quickly gain back, and even exceed their position (she's now fairly high up at AT&T managing the internet pipes between Asia and the Americas, as well as VPN services to huge companies like Siemens). what you are saying here is that, although having children is typically something that two people do, the onus falls on the woman to bear the career hit, and have to run faster and harder to return to the same place.