She had been climbing the career ladder of science her entire adult life, but as 33-year-old Rachel Bock neared her goal of getting her Ph.D., her once confident strides began to buckle. The hairline fractures in her worldview really started to show. "One more year," her then-roommate said to her, looking up from her laptop as they sat at the kitchen table, both students working over breakfast. "I can't wait to start trying to have a baby, I can't wait to be done with this. I hate this." Ms. Bock had indeed heard correctly. The younger woman let it slip out, saying what many of her peers were thinking.