Some of my female classmates work full-time or part-time outside the home, 女同学里有全职工作的、也有兼职工作的，

and just as many are stay-at-home mothers and volunteers like my mom. 而像我母亲那样的全职妈妈和志愿者也为数不少。

This mirrors the national trend. 不只是我身边的圈子有这种倾向，

In comparison to their male counterparts, highly trained women are scaling back and dropping out of the workforce in high numbers. 与男性相比，具有较高职业素养的女性人数正在大幅度减少，大量女性正在退出劳动力大军。

In turn, these diverging percentages teach institutions and mentors to invest more in men, who are statistically more likely to stay. 男女比重的分化直接导致各类机构与指导人员愿意更多地在男性身上投资，因为从统计的角度来看，他们更有可能坚持工作。

Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation and the first woman to serve as president of an Ivy League university, 朱迪思·罗丁，是洛克菲勒基金会总裁、常春藤盟校中的第一位女校长，

once remarked to an audience of women my age, "My generation fought so hard to give all of you choices. 她曾对与我年纪相仿的一群女听众说：“我们这代人曾奋力抗争，以求给你们有选择一切的自由。

We believe in choices. But choosing to leave the workforce was not the choice we thought so many of you would make." 我们信仰选择自由，但没想到你们选择的是放弃工作。”

So what happened? My generation was raised in an era of increasing equality, a trend we thought would continue. 那么，究竟发生了什么？我们这代人成长在一个日益平等的时代，我们也相信平等是一种会一直持续下去的趋势。

In retrospect, we were naive and idealistic. 现在回想起来，我们当时都太天真也太理想主义，

Integrating professional and personal aspirations proved far more challenging than we had imagined. 职业抱负与个人发展的结合远比我们想象的更富有挑战性。

During the same years that our careers demanded maximum time investment, our biology demanded that we have children. 几乎是在同样的人生阶段，我们既被要求在工作时间上要有最大投入，生理上又要求我们生儿育女。

Our partners did not share the housework and child rearing, so we found ourselves with two full-time jobs. 丈夫们通常不分担家务，也不帮着照看孩子，于是我们发现自己同时承担着两份全职工作。