>all of those things are vapid and empty compared to spending time with your children.

Yes, for some. Come to think of it, spending time with the kids is probably the number one reason men downshift (by choice) as well.

What is complicated and not fully understood by me is how accurately we have accounted for women who voluntarily choose to downshift in all of the 'glass ceiling' statistics. I think that the glass ceiling is very real, but I just wonder how trustworthy the stats are. It's complicated.