This contender for “best comment ever” appears on a Gray Lady article called “The Mommy Penalty,” documenting the damage done to women’s salary prospects after they take off time to have kids. Doctors fare better than MBAs; PhDs fall somewhere in the middle. Starbucks employees? Who cares? Not the NYT!
But that’s not important right now. What’s important is, this man (who sure does love his exclamation points!) has probably never spent several hours pacing in the dark while carrying, and singing to, an inconsolable infant who is squalling and leaking fluids onto his shoulder.
If I had to choose between repeating that night I spent babysitting a six-month-old and “material riches,” you’re damn right I would dive for the MBA — or the MBA, or the PhD –, and so would he. I mean, if the tedious, thankless work of keeping babies alive is “priceless,” why the hell doesn’t he do it?
Judging by the resounding silence that greeted his comment — if you listen hard, you can even hear cyber-crickets! — the Gray Lady’s fan base agrees with me.
I saw this NYT post when it initially came out. I think the data set is skewed. It starts counting female MBAs in the 1960s, when there were virtually none, and no role models for female MBAs with families. A more apt comparison would also include MPPs and MPAs. This could account for women who chose to go into the nonprofit sector, for a multitude of reasons, including what they perceived as inequity in the private sector.
Any time I hear the address, “Mothers of the World…,” I get pretty nervous. Nervous and giddy.
I know! Isn’t it wonderful? Like something out of soviet propaganda.
@bec — I’m sure you’re right. I’m not taking the “science” of the article itself too seriously; most studies seem to be for entertainment-purposes only these days.