I'm feeling a bit got at. Last week I was a delegate at a fascinating one-day workshop on my specialist area of research. As I was chatting to other delegates during the break, a senior male delegate (a businessman, not an academic, in case it makes any difference) marched up to me, handed me his data stick and said "put my slides on the computer ready for my talk, would you?"
I'd heard stories about this kind of thing from women on here (can't remember who was asked to take the coats at a conference where she was keynote speaker?) but this was the first time it has happened to me and I was flabbergasted. The worst part was that instead of saying "you should ask the administrator about doing that", I was so staggered that I actually just went and did it! I thus managed to annoy the chair of the next session, by fiddling with the computer he was about to use, to boot.
Then this morning I went to a Couples Counselling session with DH (we're having some trouble communicating and generally making enough time for each other). The entire discussion seemed to focus on whether I was working too long hours or should just give it all up to be a SAHM. The (female) counsellor clearly didn't think to ask DH whether he'd do better as a SAHD. When I said I didn't want to be a SAHM, I was told I should consider giving up my career to become a PT school teacher instead. The worst part was when she said "when you're 50, your DS will be 18. What will he be saying to you then about his childhood? Will it all have been worth it to have had your career?"
I didn't feel guilty (much!) about WOH before I went it, but I came out feeling like a dreadful mother and wife. It was only when I got home I started to wonder if I'd fallen down some timeslide to the 1950s.
Ugh. I'm just having a whinge to people who will get what I'm on about. Sorry folks.
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A whinge
11 replies
JacqueslePeacock · 07/10/2013 22:39
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WhentheRed ·
07/10/2013 23:10
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WhentheRed ·
07/10/2013 23:34
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BuffytheAppleBobber ·
08/10/2013 09:35
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