[crocowhile]

You either don't know what you're a talking about or a in bad faith. The demographic or PhD researchers is, in fact, the problem because the ration of women to men is very high at the beginning of the career but declines as the career progresses and becomes embarrassing at the professorial stage. This is the whole reason why DEI became essential because it aimed at removing those anti-meritocratic barriers that promoted male career at the expenses of females.

This is the case in biological sciences, for instance, the field I am in: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Scissors-Diagram-Showing...

[ahmeneeroe-v2]

I wonder if there are any biological reasons for why women would drop out of a professional workforce over time.

[rafram]

Men raise children too. And parental leave exists to make having kids compatible with having a career. Not clear to me why we should just accept women dropping out after becoming parents as a given.

[ANewFormation]

I think if/when you have children you'll see that these sort of statements are not really realistic.

In a sustainable society every single woman needs to have a bit more than 2 children on average. The 9 months are not so bad though so come with a significant number of side effects and a substantial number of hospital visits, both planned and unplanned.

After birth the real fun begins. At first you'll be nursing every 2 hours, constantly. Over time that changes to every 3-4 hours but that is now the new normal, 8 hours of sleep is a thing of the past. And nursing isn't just whip out a boob and a few minutes later you're done, depending on your baby, his mood, teething, growth spurts and a zillion other factors it could last an hour all the while his hunger for the next window also grows!

And, probably as an evolutionary warning mechanism, the mother will frequently experience vivid nightmare playing out every horrific scenario that could happen, experience anxiety (probably as a result of the former) and so on. That fades over time but never really goes away.

And back to breastfeeding, if a mother doesn't constantly drain her breasts it can lead to infection/mastitis/blocked ducts and all other sorts of fun stuff.

And that's just a sampling of some of the issues (completely ignoring baby himself here) for one child, at which point it's time to get ready for number 2, let alone 3.

This is a multiple years long process that completely consumes your life. Now imagine pairing all this with a 9-5 which in reality is rarely just a 9-5.

There's a reason the West's fertility has fallen well below replacement. This fantasy of doing a great job both as a mother and as a corporate drone, just isn't realistic at all.

[bildung]

Obviously not, otherwise the dynamics would be the same in other developed countries.