I think of it this way.  The modern workplace is designed for men, and for
women who can act like men.

As I see it, feminism hasn't done a good job yet of dealing with the fact
that women ARE different.  The important differences are the ones having to
do with reporduction---the amount of time and energy that a woman physically
puts into making and nurturing a baby vs. the amount that men do.  That is
biologically determined.

Behavior is a different story---we can all behave in nurturing ways with
babies and surely we all should.   But it is only the nursing mother that is
investing those 500 calories a day plus the time to breastfeed or express
milk.  And she has to do this, 24 & 7, in order to remain a breastfeeding
mother.  Luckily, she has a partner in her work of milk production, and when
the baby does a good job of extracting milk from her breasts, she is spared
that part of the "work" of breastfeeding.  (I always tell moms who are
pumping for a non-nursing baby that it's extra hard work because they have to
do the baby's share of the work as well as their own.)

Whatever our reproductive status, women and men should still get equal pay
for work of equal value.  That's a no-brainer.  But when they hand out the
job assignments, somebody should remember that a pregnant or lactating woman
is already doing a lot of work before she even gets to the workplace.

As my mother used to say, scraping the last delicious morsel of her
home-cooked kitty food onto the cat's saucer, "A cat uses up a lot of energy
just being a cat."

Peace.  Chris.

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