Fascinating NY Times article - "A Market Punishing to Mothers" - about gender inequality and the rise in the number of women leaving the workforce to raise children (an amazing 40.2 percent of married women with kids under 3), and what that does to their future earnings potential.

The best hope for making progress against today’s gender inequality probably involves some combination of legal and cultural changes, which happens to be the same combination that beat back the old sexism. We’ll have to get beyond the Mommy Wars and instead create rewarding career paths even for parents — fathers, too — who take months or years off. We’ll have to get more creative about part-time and flexible work, too.

Hear, hear. Is it too late for me to become a pediatrician or a veterinarian? (Two of the most flexible career paths, apparently.)