"Stop Blaming Women for Holding Themselves Back at Work"

"Perhaps it is a uniquely American desire to uphold the myth of the meritocracy, the ideal of the level playing field. If we can pin a woman’s stalled trajectory on the fact that she took too much maternity leave, or she was devoted to the point of obsession to her progeny and took her eye off the ball at work, or she conceived and bore too many children, or she can’t or won’t do the hours or the face time needed to succeed, or she didn’t find the right mentor, or she couldn’t figure out the rules of the game, or she didn’t try hard enough — then at least we preserve the possibility thatsome women, if they play their cards exactly right, can succeed... as the HBS study reminds us, when there’s a whole lot of trying without commensurate succeeding, then you have to start to consider that the game is rigged."

http://nymag.com/thecut/2014/12/stop-blaming-women-for-holding-themselves-back.html