Until society looks down on men who choose careers over families, more women than men will choose families over careers.

Women are different from men. There is no doubt that we are biologically different. And biology plays a large role in how we act.

Since women are the only gender that can get pregnant, naturally one can conclude that women should be the primary caretaker of their children.

I argue that women choose to be stay at home moms because society praises them for it. When I had to choose my medical specialty, I noticed that more females than males were discussing the conflicts between careers and families. In fact, I know of several female students who intentionally chose their medical specialty because they wanted to have a family. But why do women still have to choose between success in their careers and success in their families in the 21st century??

Obviously, the fact that fertility decreases dramatically after women turn 35 years old plays a huge part in our decision making. But, assuming the average age difference between married couples is 2 years, I would also assume a large proportion of single male students should also be worrying about having enough time to raise their children.

But they don't. Because society does not expect them to spend more than a couple hours each evening with their kids. Men work. Women raise kids. In fact, society looks down on females who choose careers over families. They are portrayed as the lonely workaholics who have little to show for their lives except for their careers.

If our culture looked down on males who choose careers over families, if we start calling all males who choose to pursue a highly competitive career Mr. Scrooges, men would spend more time with their families. And women could finally have equal opportunities for success.

I strongly believe that an equal proportion of genders/ethnicities/etc should be in an equal proportion of non-physically dominated successful positions such as ceo's/presidents/thursday night comedy stars/etc. That means an equal number of men should be able to become stay at home dads. An equal number of men should be expected to pursue careers that are more family friendly. And an equal number of men and women should be able to pursue careers that are less family freindly.

Women can succeed in formally considered "male-only" roles. Just look at physicians. 50 years ago, there were no women in the profession. Now each class is made up of 50% women. And surprisingly enough, the world has not ended. I would even argue that doctors have benefited from having another perspective since half of our patient population is incidentally female.

In fact, I really wish dads were expected/given the opportunity to spend as much time with their kids as moms. I love our moms. They are strong, wonderful women. But, who knows, maybe having a stronger dad perspective since half our children are males would benefit us in some way. At the least, I'm pretty sure the world won't end.