Ladies, I happened to be at work this afternoon, not billing (I am a lawyer), reading your respective blogs about Ms. Pinkers’s book and I had a flashback. Remember that article in the American Prospect by Linda Hirshman.

You gals seemed to be agreeing with Hirshman, who equates feminism with access to money, power and recognition. Is that what feminism is really all about?

The only reason that lawyers are slaves to billable hours is their desire for more money. There are alternative ways for lawyers to make money, especially if you are a criminal attorney (usually a large up-front retainer), a workers comp or personal injury attorney (a percentage of the recovery) or a government, state or in-house lawyer (you get what they pay you.)

I am not the only female or male lawyer with children who trades billable hours for time. There has been such a backlash on the billable hour way of making money (or gaining status in your firm) that I believe it is on the way out.

But let me get back to my original point. If you are a female or male that has decided to have children, why would you want to work mega hours? When you first gave birth to that child or first held that child in your arms, didn’t you feel so much love and outpouring of affection for that child that you would have done whatever it took to make sure that child was happy? O.k. maybe if you had a bout of post-partem that question doesn’t necessarily apply to you. But for the rest? I think we (all parents) were meant to love and adore our children. And I could find all the research in the world, but do I have to go find it to show you that loving your children, wanting to be there for them, taking care of them, is good for them? Is that anti-feminist?

I am of the belief that both parents should be involved in the raising and care of children. I think children whose dads are away too much suffer also. How many pieces have you read, especially from men, who talk about how they longed for more time with their dads who worked long hours? When are we going to get this worked out? Why, in this country, do we all yearn to be superstars at work? Isn’t it o.k. to be good enough?