I don’t have a job yet, but I’ve already thought about how children would fit into my career. I’m not jumping the gun. I had to weigh future children into my decision to go/not go to grad school: If I have to take off of work to care for children, could I use that time to go to school? Would children keep me from being able to go school? Would having children make a master’s degree worth less? My father, my boyfriend and my brother’s didn’t/don’t have to ask themselves those questions. But I do, because of the “mommy tax,” a workplace penalty against those who take care of children (MP 342-343). The mommy tax makes women the most disadvantaged people in the work place—with inflexible work schedules, an emphasis on quantity over quality of
