Having more bosses with school age children. Every boss I have ever had in 25 years working has either not had children or children who have left home. It is hard to confidently assert to a boss about why you don’t want to do hours of email once you are at home with family when they simply have got to where they are doing exactly that. It is hard when the role model in front of you for the next ladder of success is someone who has made sacrifices for sure but can’t necessarily relate to the ones most pressing on you. I lived in NYC for the first 10 years of parenting and had next to no friends with part time jobs since they all had to return to work so quickly after having children. In contrast the majority of my Australian female peers work part time as the 6-12 months leave they took at the beginning presented to them different options and created alternative pathways that didn’t seem possible in NYC. — Lisa Grocott, Melbourne, Australia

Women are financially punished for caregiving. In my case, I took four years out of my career to care for my mother, who was dying of ovarian cancer. I’m an academic in the social sciences, so I kept one foot in the scholarly world by volunteering in the local public history sector — which was about all I could manage while on-call 24/7 for a cancer patient who underwent a major surgery, four rounds of chemo and one of radiation during that time, and who could no longer drive. My husband graciously supported me through it. But the gap in my CV effectively meant that any chance at a tenure-track was over.

In the wake of my mother’s death, I have cobbled together several part-time jobs including adjuncting and paid work in public history, but with little security these jobs don’t count for much when you approach a bank for a loan to start a small business, which I’ve also recently done. Women who take time out to care for children face much the same. Not only is caring for the old and the young an unpaid and thankless job — it has punitive consequences. These jobs need to count — socially, culturally and economically — in the labor and financial sectors — as WORK, which is what they are. Vital and meaningful work, which produces the next generation of laborers and ensures that our sick, disabled and elderly are not thrown to the wolves. If we don’t do it, who will? And yet under capitalism, which commodifies just about everything else, we are expected to do this for free, and then excluded from opportunity when we do.

What would help practically? In economic terms, there should be a social wage for these jobs, rather than women and their families absorbing the costs alone in lost wages. In cultural terms, caregiving should be a normal and acceptable line on a CV or resume, rather than a void of silence we fear having to explain when we attend a job interview. In social terms, we need to formalize this informal labor, give it a name and provide structural support for it. Oh, and need I say it? We need universal health care, so that no caregiver goes uncovered, or has to spend hours in paperwork and phone calls explaining to some bureaucrat why they don’t have a “real job.” - Dr. Eliza Jane Darling, Benson, N.Y.

Idea generation in the fields such as social sciences, psychology, and philosophy is mostly controlled by large institutions, which in a way is good as it helps consolidating the common resources and attracts large-ticket outside financing, promotes collaboration among scholars and incentivize the contributors to contribute freely without worrying about expropriation or outright repudiation. However, this also precludes the independent scholars or individual contributors like me to participate actively. The institutional bodies financing the idea sharing forums should know that unaffiliated scholars face tremendous challenge in the absence of infrastructure available to institutional scholars. If they were contriving to make a meaningful contribution today with their scarce resources, the assistance to provide the opportunity of interaction would only improve the quality of their contributions in the future. Though there is no dearth of good ideas from within but if the idea from an independent source is good, it will be a good addition to the community of the scholars. In this case, I am averse to suggesting any women-centric special fund or forum to promote independent women scholars. Such special entity is more likely to restrict its own function, as it would fail to become the part of mainstream research community. Perhaps, a better inclusion policy from institutional side would be helpful in my case to make my ideas known to the wider audience. Nevertheless, I would continue with my readings, creating and relishing every moment of my work. — Charu Agarwal, Delhi, India

I am a 37 year old college graduate who has yet to make over 16 dollars an hour since graduating from college. I’ve had little to no return on my liberal arts degree. I would like to go back to school for nursing but the thought of accruing more student loan debt on top of the 50k I already owe seems daunting. I also battle anxiety and depression and feel the resources I need to fight these often debilitating afflictions are often too expensive and when my doctor prescribes a certain medication that works for me the insurance companies deny and ask I try a cheaper, less effective medication.

My goals this year are to find a job that pays me enough to live where I can afford to put a new tire on my car instead of having to ask my parents for the money because my paycheck is already stretched to the max. I want opportunities that equate to my intelligence, education and employment history. It’s all so very disheartening. I was told my whole life the key to success was to have a college degree. But, now...to be gainfully employed and make a living wage it seems you must be specialized. I want the stigma of mental illness to end. I want women to be able to openly discuss their issues without the worry of judgment. I want to go back to school to become a psychiatric nurse. I want to be able to afford to do so. — Kate Combs, Columbia, S.C.