Women Don't Sell Their Souls to Corporate America
A really interesting article about women in the sciences, but ultimately just about women in the workforce. It's an interview of a male scientist who used to be a female. In it, he asserts that there are trained women who are not reaching the top:
"These women have worked very hard. They have fulfilled their side of the social contract. I think what we've got is just a lot more highly trained, frustrated women."
I wonder if that's true. If all these highly trained women are reaching for the top and just not getting there and are frustrated, bitter victims or if they've chosen not to try for the top. It goes back to one of my favorite questions: Are women not ruling the world because the glass ceiling is holding them down or because they don't want to rule the world?
It's a relevant question in a world where women make up more than 50 percent of college students and are increasingly going to graduate schools as well but are not reaching the top of the corporate rung. And maybe it just takes time. And maybe there is endemic discrimination. And maybe even now women don't really feel the same need or drive or responsibility to support their families the way men do.
I mean, I can tell you that many of the offices I or friends of mine have worked in are like old boy's clubs, and maybe that's it -- maybe it's just too hard or intimidating to break into that. Maybe that is the glass ceiling and it doesn't matter what your credentials are or what degrees you have hanging in your walls.
Or maybe women aren't willing to sell their souls to corporate America or a law firm or an investment bank in the same numbers that men are wiling to do so.
posted by Eli7 @ 4:36 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I like the title :)
On the other hand Eli7, look at Sandra Day, Condi Rice, Oprah, (Rita Levi-Montalcini, Linda Buck, etc in science), etc... women Are in prominent/accomplished positions in society.
Aside from the endemic conspiracy theory (sorry, i have to kid a little), I'd say the same thing you suggested - it takes time. It HAS taken time...think of the revolutions women have had since Dickinson's or Gilman's time. Perhaps in 15-20 years we'll see all these college grad women in more dept chair positions. Anyways, hope the article doesn't discourage you from the success you deserve for your hard work.
I can tell you from a "science" perspective that while perhaps there are more women than men in doctoral programs (or at least 50/50) the number of tenure tracked professors that are women do not even come close to that ratio.
There may be many women in science but not so many in leadership positions. Whether that is because women have other dreams such as children and family while men are not as focused on such things...I'm not so sure...
Yakki, I have avoided commenting on the blog before, but I thing that the glass ceiling may be harder to break than you think. There are some real problems universities need to fix that won't happen just by time passing and people getting more used to women in top positions. A lot of women in leadership roles were outcasts or didn't have families. The question is, how do we make it normal -- and from offices I've been in, in D.C. and New York, that means changing a culture of what is said in the office, how people interact with each other, how many jokes are made about women, and making issues like this one things that are dealt with from the start not studied and thought about and then maybe changed. I’m not sure if this made sense. I hope it did.
anon - what do you think the best way to go about changing this 'ole boy's club culture is? how do you stop the jokes?
what's wrong with the husband taking care of the baby while mom is doing her research at columbia during the day? (maybe dad is one of those writer types that spends the whole day in coffee shops in the west village? ..not a bad environment for a baby) Eli7 wants both a law career and a family - she can have both.
(I have to admit I must not see this the way someone on the east coast does for some reason - my university has a Considerable amount of women professors, every single job i've ever had was under a female boss (4), and ironically nearly every woman in my immediate and extended family is a JD, MD, or Phd.. With a family).
shabbat shalom!
OK, so why aren't women selling their souls to corporate America? I don't think it's a question that can be answered with one fell swoop.
Why have there been no female presidents? Why is there currently only one female Supreme Court justice? Why are the vast majority of top-tier positions filled by men?
I do believe that there are women who choose not to reach for the top. But maybe they do that because they don't think they can get there. And I don't think it's as simple as the article I quoted says -- that women see they can't reach the top so they choose to put their efforts into raising their families. Maybe women choose their families first.
Because there is a sense in which at one point or another women do have to choose between career and family. Maybe that's not fair, maybe that's discrimination, but that's the way it is. And Yakki, maybe I can have it all, but there is a reason my blog is called "Delusions of Grandeur"--because even looking at it with my optimistic 21-year-old eyes, I know that it's unlikely that I can have it all.
But I think the question is why? Do I think that because even now I know that raising a Jewish family is more important to me than getting to the top level at a law firm? Or do I say that because even now I know that getting there is unlikely and not worth the effort?
And while I think anon is right about the culture, I also don't think it's not necessarily as bad as that. I thnk it depends in what office and what profession, but even in offices where I've felt like the leadership was an old boys' club, I've never felt discriminated against and rarely felt uncomfortable as a woman.
I don't know if this makes sense. It sorta is just random, non-spellchecked train-of-thought stuff, but I do think we're seeing cracks in the glass ceiling, but we haven't managed to break it. And my question is why haven't we managed to break it? Is it a choice women have made? Is it a choice men have made for women? Is it just reality and not truly anyone's choice?
I think that men also need to choose between family and jobs but since they are stronger and have been in power they picked women for it. There is an enormous amount of discrimination. You just don't realize it. People view women as not as smart...women have to be smarter and better than a man would to overcompensate for her being a woman.
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