Confined by the Stained-Glass Ceiling

By MELANIE SPRINGER MOCK

Lunch-table gossip apparently commenced soon after my husband and I announced three years ago that we were going to adopt a baby. My colleagues speculated about when I would quit work — surely soon, given the child's imminent arrival — and who would be taking my place on my department's tenure track. No doubt candidates for my position were proposed and considered over grilled-cheese sandwiches and clam chowder. I imagine a few tongues clucked at my early departure: What