I'm more qualified for many jobs than my husband... yet...

[ljm2002]

20. If you're not open for travel...

...don't lie about that. But you don't have to tell them you have children, either.

It's a fact that women are penalized for having children. By "penalized", I mean: they are often not considered for jobs because of it. Whereas a man with the exact same qualifications who also has children will not be penalized in the same way. This is not necessarily because the people hiring are bad people or are consciously discriminating; however, the social norms are what they are, and it is still expected that moms will bear the brunt of parenting (and that is still true for the most part -- for example, I wonder if your husband is open for travel?).

Gender discrimination in hiring is very real. Many studies have been done, asking people to rate the resumes of people, where half of the resumes were given a male name and the other half were given a female name. In areas that are considered "male" (i.e., engineering, sales), the identical resume was always rated substantially higher when it came with a male name.

One tactic is to think of a male nickname for your first name (such as "Jerry" for "Geraldine", or whatever), or alternatively just use initials (although that is sometimes a clue to people that you are female, since very few people of either gender use initials these days).

Again, I am not suggesting that the hiring people are necessarily sexist, at least not consciously. But you should do everything you can to give yourself an edge. If that means hiding the fact that you are female, long enough to get in the door for an interview, then so be it.