At kindergarten pick-ups, there is usually a group of mothers waiting eagerly outside the class for their little ones. The class door opens and the three-year-olds run out in turn, each into the embrace of mom. It is a beautiful sight, but for many moms, it comes at a price.

For stay-home mom Sharon, motherhood came at the price of her legal career. Sharon was a practising lawyer with the mergers & acquisitions team at law firm Baker & McKenzie in Melbourne. She invested long hours in her career for many years, knocking off between 7pm to 10pm, past mid-night at times. But she really liked her job and the team she was working with.

When she gave birth to her first child, however, everything changed. After being home with her baby for the six weeks of paid maternity leave she was entitled to, Sharon did not feel ready to return to work. The firm extended her maternity leave and kept her role open for her for the next three years while she stayed home to have her second child and care for her children. She finally resigned as the firm was not able to keep her job on hold any longer – offering instead that she should call them when she felt ready to go back.

Clearly the firm valued her contributions. But the unpredictable hours and commitment required made her feel it would be impossible to juggle family and work, especially with a husband who works full time. “It is the nature of the job. A lot of work is done with people in different time zones, so conference calls are scheduled around the clock. Projects are beholden to a timetable and when problems come up, there is no way to stop work at 5.30pm,” Sharon explains. “My child was so little and not feeding so well. I didn’t want to just leave her.”

Sharon is one amongst many women who have given up successful careers to become stay-home moms. A recent survey conducted by the Australian Law Council found that female lawyers with children found balancing responsibilities at work and home challenging, with 49% of female respondents citing work-life balance as the most important reason for having given up their careers.

This is a familiar story for mothers in other professions too. Michelle, a regional marketing manager at Japanese electronics firm Canon, based in Singapore, was promoted twice in seven years ahead of her colleagues. She had put in the hard work and long hours, and the firm rewarded her with opportunities to grow as an executive. But when her husband had been offered a posting to Melbourne, Michelle put family before career and gave up her beloved job so her children could be with their father rather than have the family spilt up across two continents.

The stories of Sharon and Michelle tell an interesting tale. The recent Gender Indicators’ Report released by the ABS reveal that in 2013 to 2014, only 26% of management roles were staffed by women, with women occupying only 17% of CEO positions. That women face a glass ceiling in the workplace is an easily drawn conclusion. Yet for Sharon and Michelle, it was not a lack of opportunities at the workplace, but their competing role in the home, which made them feel compelled to choose between a career path to corporate stardom, and family.

Why, however, do women feel more compelled to leave their jobs over their husbands to raise children?

While men and women may take on equal workloads for similar roles in the workplace, this equality may not necessarily be manifested in the home. The ABS reports that full-time employed women spent six hours on average caring for their children, while full-time employed men averaged around three hours, based on a survey conducted in 2006. Although the data is a decade old, it seems the role of mothers has not changed much since that time. Acknowledging that a woman’s role in the household does not magically disappear the moment she takes on full-time employment, Sharon explains, “if I had to work full-time and pick up the slack at home like I know I would have to, I would end up feeling resentful.”

The downside of a choice to give up paid employment, unfortunately, is that it does come with some gloom. Michelle grappled with depression for six months after quitting her job. Sharon admits to suffering a dip in her self-esteem. “I feel like I’m not taken as seriously as before when I tell people I meet for the first time that I’m a stay-home mum,” Sharon says. The Australian Institute of Family Studies found a similar trend amongst mothers they surveyed, reporting that “mothers who had spent less of the previous year in employment had, on average, poorer mental health.”

It appears, however, that the pros outweigh the cons on this one. Both Michelle and Sharon do not regret their decision. “I am much closer to my children now, after staying-home. My husband often reminds me that it is worth my while. I definitely feel that it has been worth the career sacrifice”, Michelle says.

Call it cultural programming or maternal instincts, but until humanity evolves to equalise the roles of men and women in the home, it may be mostly moms doing the kinder pick-ups for now.