Women in my life have had their entire careers derailed by having children.

My sister is a genius. When she was in high school she was one of the top students in the old residential district in our city. Her record was so impressive that she got into the best medical school in the country where her grades still never dipped below 85 for the entirety of six years.

Sadly, our home country is very conservative. The kind with arranged marriages. It is unheard of for a woman to not be married and with children past her late twenties, so my sister was married fresh out of med school and now has three children. Nearly 15 years later, she’s still a resident although she is very close to being a dermatologist now. Like I said, my sister is a genius and a hard worker and that didn’t change with children.

She studies for her dermatology exam while minding the children and completing household chores and working as a resident. One time we spoke on the phone and she complained to me that our parents ruined her life by marrying her off so young. I really feel for her. And still my mum protests when I tell her that I have no plans of ever getting married or having children.

Now onto my sister in law. She is a very artistic individual and wanted to become an editor for a fashion magazine. I spoke to her just today, and she tells me now that she has two children, it would be too time consuming to pursue a career in fashion and the most she can hope for when she does return to work is to find a job at a boutique. This is what she gets for years of study in journalism and design?? A part time job at a store??

And I haven’t even spoken about the useless men they’re married to. My brother and my brother in law’s careers are progressing smoothly. And they don’t even help with household chores or childcare even though their wives also work or plan to work. I’ve never more firmly believed that marriage is a scam intended to trap women into unpaid servitude. I’m so angry for the women in my life.