It’s a tale as old as the modern workplace: In the 1960s, women entered the workforce en masse, ready to compete with their male counterparts for promotions, pay, and opportunity—only to find the system wasn’t built for them.

Today, women comprise almost half of the U.S. labor force. The playing field looks different now, but the fight for equal access hasn’t gone away. It just moved into subtler territory.

Companies make quiet calculations about who’s worth “investing in,” says Corinne Low, gender economist and associate business professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Women often face career penalties in anticipation of motherhood as employers presume they’re more likely to take leave or step back. Once in their 40s, “past” childbearing, this bias fad

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