I used to wish I were a boy, for a brief period in grade school.  When I was younger, my mother told me this story from her life: after losing her first babies, twins of a boy and a girl, ten years earlier, my mother was pregnant with me.  She was alone, somewhat of a drifter, and very, very desperate for love and a family to call her own.
 
She became pregnant with me, and prayed for a boy.  For back then, girls had their charms, but boys worked and supported the family.  For a lone woman making her way along in life, she could not really see shackling herself to another girl.
 
When my mother birthed me that autumn day in a hospital in Seoul, Korea, the nurse told my mother, "You have a baby girl!"  Apparently my mother's heart fell.  "A daughter!" she thought as she lay on the bed.  "What shall I do with her?"
 
But then the nurse brought me around, cleaned up and wrapped in a hospital blanket.  My mother tells me that the minute she clapped her eyes on me, all her desolation vanished and she could not imagine loving a baby more.  A mother's love is indeed all-encompassing and unconditional.
 
Of course, a story like this, honest as it is, does not really please a girl growing up.  "Great, Mom!" I used to yell.  "You wanted a boy."
 
As I have grown up into adulthood (I am now 32), I realize it really does not matter, and my mother's initial surge of feeling when she first saw me, has held true my whole life.
 
I majored in mathematics in college, where I was often the only girl in seminars.  Who cares?  The numbers certainly didn't.  The professors, bless them, certainly did not care, either, and some even went to great lengths to encourage me to pursue mathematics.
 
And now I'm a lawyer, practicing business litigation.  “Business litigation” is a fancy-pants way of saying what happens after this conversation: Company A: “My corporation is going to sue your corporation unless you fork over some money!”  Company B: “Screw you!  My corporation’s not giving yours a penny!”  (Company A promptly hires business litigation attorney.)  That's business litigation.  It’s also a profession with many men in it, and as for now, mostly men at the top.
 
Times have changed since the pre-industrial days of my mother's childhood, when gender roles were rigid, and men could contribute to earning money in the world through the sweat of their labor but women's destinies rose and fell with that of the man to whom they hitched their life.  A woman like my mother, who had little luck in finding such a partnership, was, to put it bluntly, SOL.  What could she do?  Well, she could have a boy...
 
Nowadays, it's different.  True, it ain't that perfect.  We all know women earn less on the dollar compared to men, that the glass ceiling is still there to bump your nose into, and there are still people running around who think that "intelligent, ambitious, and meant to be top dog" cannot go hand-in-hand with "a great mother."  Phooey, I say.
 
At least nowadays, we women have a fighting chance.  Sure, you have to work harder to prove yourself.  But we can craft our own titles by sheer force of will, against the obstacles, by indeed having people say that "Ms. X is intelligent, ambitious, and make no mistake about it, she runs the show!" and then be called "Mommy!" at home.  It isn't easy, but it's possible.
 
Even if you do not have children (I don't), or ever plan to, it's still difficult, as we all know.  I don't know why it should be in this day and age.  It just is.
 
But we can change that.  May I suggest:
 
1) Mentorship.  Hey, it's a dog-eat-dog world out there.  If we don't look after each other, who will?  Help out the young women who cross your path, who are trying to find their way in the professional world, and are disadvantaged from the starting gate because there is a dearth of powerful female role models.  We all have something to offer from our experience to the young women who follow us.  Some honest career advice, training, perhaps even a continuing, fruitful, long-running relationship that helps both the mentor and mentee grow...this is all good.
 
2) Mentality.  Seriously.  There are only a few things in this world that men are better at than women.  Peeing in public is one.  But very few others.  I don't care who told you what that "girls don't do that" or "it's a job for a man."  I also taught high school math and tutored children in literacy for several years, and let me tell you, KIDS ARE THE SAME.  There are children with verbal facility, math smarts, artistic talent and athletic ability in BOTH genders.  Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.  There is nothing like watching children's mind stretch in your classroom to realize that there is no difference in sheer talent that can be attributed purely to whether the kid is a boy or a girl.
 
3) Finally: don't forget that you are a woman, and despite the challenges that may pose for you professionally, it's still a fabulous thing!  I know that when my husband is tired and has rings under his eyes, guess what?  He's going out in public with rings under his eyes.  Me?  I blissfully use concealer and I'm shiny new again.  Guess what short men do?  They complain.  Short women?  We wear knockout heels!  :)  So, I guess what I'm saying is, don't be like me when I was six years old, wishing to be a boy.  It's a great time to be a girl!