The conversation that started on Mama, Ph.D., which many of us picked up, continues. Tedra brings out some pretty scary stats on the rate of tenured and t-t female faculty who are married with children as compared to men. It raises the question, once again, of why people question whether women can handle both family and career. As many of the commenters have said on my earlier post, it has a lot to do with the balance of work at home. As I said somewhere in there, I just think women are still more likely to care whether the house is in decent shape and the kids have doctor’s appointments, etc. So sometimes they just do it and don’t ask. But I think we should ask. And I think husbands/partners should jump in more and as Libby said, they should push for more flexible schedules, too. And Libby added universal health care to the list, which I think is a fabulous addition. And, can I add affordable college, too? That was a big part of my struggle in deciding to quit.

This is one of those weeks where, if I were working full time, I’d be juggling a few too many balls. Today and yesterday, my youngest gets out at 11:30. Mr. Geeky could have managed yesterday, but today, I would have had to get child care or take 1/2 day off from work to deal with not only my daughter, but the parent-teacher conference. It’s not that I don’t want to do the parent-teacher conference, but the double-whammy of having the conference and the lack of child-care is problematic.