I will preface this by saying that I am literally a card-carrying feminist. So my question to everyone is what are and can you do to improve these problems that you are seeing? Anyone going to open a law office that taps the great potential of all those smart women who want to not work 100 hours a week?
I guess personally, I haven't done tons. I have (1) done a joint name change after marriage, thus simultaneously satisfying the both-people-have-the-same-last-name requirement and the anti-patriarchal requirment (2) try to assist the folks at work who are trying to figure out why there are so few women in top technical positions here, even though women have a relatively good showing in top management positions, and even though there is a pretty good culture and practice of flexibility/family friendliness.
#1 was easy. #2 has been frankly baffling. My best guess so far is that people pick goals based on different criteria, and some pros and cons appeal more to men or women. The goal of being a top scientist may be essentially an egotistical one, often motivated by wanting to be the best in a competitive way. The goal of being a top manager may be motivated by a mix of wanting to be paid a lot, wanting to be in charge, wanting to make the team effective. The cons of being a top scientist here include having to be able to travel and spending a lot of time outside of work improving technical skills. The cons of being a top manager include having to spend a lot of time dealing with people.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2007-05-03 12:03 pm (UTC)I guess personally, I haven't done tons. I have (1) done a joint name change after marriage, thus simultaneously satisfying the both-people-have-the-same-last-name requirement and the anti-patriarchal requirment (2) try to assist the folks at work who are trying to figure out why there are so few women in top technical positions here, even though women have a relatively good showing in top management positions, and even though there is a pretty good culture and practice of flexibility/family friendliness.
#1 was easy. #2 has been frankly baffling. My best guess so far is that people pick goals based on different criteria, and some pros and cons appeal more to men or women. The goal of being a top scientist may be essentially an egotistical one, often motivated by wanting to be the best in a competitive way. The goal of being a top manager may be motivated by a mix of wanting to be paid a lot, wanting to be in charge, wanting to make the team effective. The cons of being a top scientist here include having to be able to travel and spending a lot of time outside of work improving technical skills. The cons of being a top manager include having to spend a lot of time dealing with people.