IWF: Women Know Best Why They’re Not CEOs

Submitted by Roy on Thu, 2006-12-07 00:16

Carrie Lukas at the Independent Women’s Forum writes – "More than 40 years after Betty Friedan urged women to exchange their aprons for business suits, by many measures, women’s progress in the workforce has stalled.

Certainly today more women work and hold more prestigious jobs than ever before: as of 2002, women accounted for 46.5 percent of the workforce and held more than half of managerial and professional specialty jobs. Yet few women make it to the very top of the business world...

Why is this? Liberal feminist groups, like the National Organization for Women (NOW), tend to insist that sexism and discrimination are the primary cause. Yet many individual women recognize that their choices — particularly the choices they make once they have children — make the difference."

(Rather balanced article; nice to know that women actually have/make choices; though it omits any mention of our unquestioned cultural expectations that men must become lifelong wage-slaves with fewer choices than women.)

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Comments

Having the children was an option in the first place. It is often used by women as an opportunity to "retire" early, like before age 35. Yes, I know raising children is work. But in most cases, being a "stay-at-home" mom is not as draining as being at work 8-10 hours a day, 5 days a week. For one thing, when you're at work, you have to keep your nose to the grindstone (in most job fields) the whole time you're there, or risk the anger of that asshole you work for. Whereas if you are with the children 10 hrs per day, then unless there are 8 kids or something, it is not as if you do not have the opportunity to relax once in a while. Of course that would vary, for example some days of the week would be busier than others..you may be transporting your kids to school, events, lessons or whatever.

But one thing to always keep in mind when comparing, is this: there is still the father to help raise them, and that makes a big difference, even if he isn't home that much during the day. For example, some of the kids' events will be scheduled for evenings or weekends, knowing that the father will be there to share in those duties. The converse is not true, however..the man cannot tell his boss, that his wife is going to come in and work in his place for a couple hours, while he takes a break to watch TV.

Another thing we hear all the time, is how "well, raising kids is a bigger responsibility than working for a company". Too bad there is a lot of subjectivism involved in making that statement, and it depends on the scenario. But if I had a choice between a)Dealing with idiots constantly, 8 hours per day; rude customers, unbelievably assinine managers, co-workers who do not do their jobs; constantly meeting deadlines; standing for 8 hrs per day; working in a sewer or some other dangerous environment; being next to loud machinery all day; being a cop.. or 2)Listening to the occasional tantrum, changing diapers, cleaning up spilt mild and driving Hosina to her tap dance lessons twice a week, I will take 'b' thank you:)
-Axolotl

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Submitted by axolotl on Fri, 2006-12-08 00:49