Recently I read an article discussing how there is now a lot of in-fighting among women at work.  The two opposing sides are female parents vs. females who are not parents.  It seems as though those females who are not parents feel as those the benefits such as 'maternity leave'  are unfair, since they do not have a 'comparable' benefit at work.

The non-parenting females also feel that mothers who work have a built in excuse for leaving early, taking time off, i.e. they have to pick up their child at daycare and/or teachers' conference or pediatrician appointments.

What I found so astonishing about the article is how childless females complained about maternity leave even. Worse, was they were upset about women talking about child care issues such as potty training and teething and being unwilling to devote as much time on the non-parents issue with their dog or cat.  For some reason the childless female felt this was unfair to her, since she was not getting equal time in conversations. So that at work two camps are developing females with children and females without children.  It seems as though people look to see if you have pictures of children on your desk.

Females without children, consider putting pictures of kids on their desk just so they can leave work early or not have to stay on extended business trips because of their parenting responsibilities. Females with children complain about how childless project leaders, extended trips to schmooze with clients that make a 2 day trip into a 4 day trip, which is untenable for working moms..but great for her single social life. On the other hand, parents with kids seem to think that childless females do not mind working between Christmas and new Years since they do not have families.

I honestly feel that at the end of the day what the real issue is, is that these women without children are simply envious of the women with children. That no matter what the reason is for the woman being childless, deep down, she is unsatisified and feels she has not lived up to the expectations of society and that she internalized to be a mother. Being childless is somewhat of a stigma and anomaly like being a spinster use to be for females.

The real question is how should employers handle this since this people are suing for equal time off.