Quote Originally Posted by Twisterdog
I know women who decided to take a few months, or a few years, off after they had a child. They chose to do so, no one forced them to. They could have put the child in daycare and gone right back to work. But, if you choose to take five years off from a job, and your office mate chooses to work full time during those five years, of course he OR she is going to be making more then you when you go back to work five years later. I also know men who chose to stay home and be a stay-at-home dad when the children were born, or who opted to work part-time. I'm sure these men expect and accept the fact that when they go back to work they will be making much less then their continuously employed counterparts. There are a LOT of reasons why women make less then men. And why some men make less then some women. They ONLY reason is not sexism.

WOW. I am always so amazed when I see this sort of comment from another woman. Women are penalized everyday for "choosing" to stay at home with their child/ren, and re-entering the workforce 5 years later. It isn't that they are not making the same as their former co-worker. It is that they are not making the same as their counterpart...that man in the same position as they are, for whatever reason.

Just think, I coulda ditched my 6 week old infant in daycare JUST TO SECURE MY POSITION IN THE WORKPLACE. What a trade off. I suppose the coined phrase, "mommy track" was invented by someone like me- a working mother, who just had a little too much time on their hands to spare?

From women everywhere, mothers or not, Thank You!