Do women ever get a break?

First nature saddles us with having to give birth, then we have to let the giant headed beasts nourish themselves from our teets, then we have to raise them and teach them to function as productive members of society, and as if that wasn´t enough, many members of society would like to see us bow out gracefully from our jobs.

For those women who choose to continue working, all sorts of discrimination awaits them. Take the example of policewomen in Madrid:

In order to be promoted into a higher ranking, police officers have to pass a battery tests that are offered every six years. Because it is nearly impossible for pregnant policewomen to pass the the physical exam, they are forced to wait until the next test cycle, let me repeat, offered 6 years later to even have another chance at being promoted.

This is a blatant way of denying women promotions and a kind of punishment for trying to have both a family and professional life. How hard would it be for the women to take the physical exam once they´ve recovered from having the kid. It´s the least the police department can do for one of it´s own.

Source: 20 Minutos, Madrid, Spain, 06/28/2005