I'm one of those women. I left development when I had my first and switched to writing. But the reason wasn't so much because I had a child but because I weighed my options. After a string of jobs that were much like you describe, Trina, where I had more knowledge and more experience, but was paid less and had less authority, was it really worth it to continue or did I want to shift gears, change what I was doing, and spend time with my child? In that case, family won, hands down. But my husband was the first to point out that if I hadn't felt boxed in I probably would have continued in the same minimum 60-hour weeks.

What does have to happen, however, is women need to quit undermining themselves. The two things I see most often that I think stand in our way pop up frequently. One is the adoption of the "whore" version; that by acting in such a way that draws the boorish behavior exhibited in the TC comments, you get attention. I won't mention any names, but you'll see a few examples frequently in the articles at Valleywag. I don't think that type of attention is something any woman should aspire to. The other, however, is the victim card. Oh, look, woe is me. I'm just a little woman here who needs help from a big, strong man.