I know some folks at the Globe, including the Foreign Editor. I didn’t realize the salaries were so good!

I’m not sure it’s necessary to buy the equivalent of a stay at home spouse. With increased income comes increased flexibility, including the flexibility to simplify our lives.

I guess it comes down to how we compute the value of the stay-at-home spouse. If it’s the house manager piece that’s important to you, you’ll hire a house manager. If it’s the support, companionship, etc. that’s important, you’ll find ways to buy the equivalent of that.

I value simplicity. I could use more money for music lessons and math tutors and and trips to France and emergency day care, we all could. But I think if I had the sort of home life that required a house manager, that would be a problem, in and of itself.

The point of most of my writing on this topic is to address that fact that men and women have largely achieved equality in the workforce in terms of opportunity and earnings. Until there are kids. Once there are kids, the higher up the ladder you go, the more unequal things are between men and women.

I write for the Boston Globe, so I do a lot of research and reporting. On my blog, that usually appears as links, so you have to click to find the research. I am linking below to the research that shows the equality before kids and the inequality after kids and the impact that going up the ladder has on the equation.

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2006/08/27/your-family-would-be-better-off-with-a-housewife-so-would-mine/

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2007/05/01/forget-about-the-wage-gap-what-about-the-web-20-gap/

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2006/07/29/please-no-more-studies-about-getting-women-to-the-top/