to ask what the "stereotypical 6 figure MN mum" does?

[TigerJoy]

And how can the rest of us get a job like that?!

This is about women though - not sure why your DH is relevant

Because whilst he may not be a mum, I doubt it's compulsory in his line of work to have a penis. Therefore the comment could still be informative for the OP.

Because whilst he may not be a mum, I doubt it's compulsory in his line of work to have a penis. Therefore the comment could still be informative for the OP.

gender pay gap is a thing…

That makes you a stereotypical 6 figure MN wife. This thread is about women who earn their own 6 figures, presumably the OP would like some advice on how to earn her 6 figures.
I don't need to go into how much harder this is for women than men do I and I think we could all agree the issues women face are very different to those men might have.
We don't want to know how men do it, we want to hear about women!

Because girls/women are educated and socialised differently to boys/men. It’s why girls disproportionately pick “soft” subjects at GCSE and A level over the more highly prized STEM subjects disproportionately picked by boys. Because women disproportionately then tend to pick lower paid lower status “caring” career paths (childcare, education, counselling, nursing.) Because women then disproportionately put their careers on the sidelines - often reluctantly - so that they can take part-time positions or jobs in more flexible but lower paid industries e.g. local government, education, civil service etc so as to fit around childcare and their DH’s work. Because women still face discrimination in the workplace, particularly in areas like banking, insurance and tech, which are where some of the highest salaries are found.

When women earn six figures it’s often despite being women and having faced a lot of battles along the way that men typically haven’t. That’s why women are interested in hearing from successful women who have made it work despite a lot of structures which often work against them, rather than hearing about successful men.

I'm just into the 6 figure bracket with bonus. Went to a shit school in a deprived area and then uni where I did an arts degree. Got into IT through a postgrad conversion course and made my way up from the bottom in a big IT company over 25 years.

I took a year out with both my kids and worked part time. Would be on bigger salary if hadn't done that. Am now in a technical sales role which is full on but flexible WFH mainly.

Have strongly encouraged my DD to do advanced maths, triple science plus Computer Science at GCSE. Hopefully I've been a good role model.

I would also make the point that when I referenced educational background I’m referring to todays graduates. In my old career very few of the senior leadership had degrees, when I started there was a requirement for a degree of some sort, today you would need a specific degree.

Genuine question - how many times in your career have you had to sleep under your desk because you didn’t have time to go home? How many weekends and nights have you worked? How many times have you had to fly home early from holiday or cancel your holiday because of work demands?

I think the vast majority of people who say they work hard in their jobs do not understand just how hard junior City lawyers work. Yes, they earn a lot once they get to senior positions however the average hard worker wouldn’t have the stamina or the stomach for the effort required to get there.

Normally banking or software. Though I know one who’s a “accountant” she’s a onlyfans and escort 😅

Owning our own businesses. My husband has a professional qualification (not related to any of the businesses) but I left school with GCSE’s only. It took a lot of risk taking to get where we are now (50’s) but nothing ventured nothing gained. We literally sold everything we had to buy our first business and have never looked back. My husband is the hardest working man I know.

Just realised this is about ‘mums’. I never had kids, so that made things a lot easier (and my post irrelevant I guess).

Not true of my DH either, he messed up his A levels, did a sandwich course at a poly sponsored by a large company and worked his way up. Changed jobs very frequently and ended up as an international sales director.
However, the women I know have not taken this path.

Hold on a minute…are you seriously suggesting that it would have been just as easy for a woman to reach your DH’s level as it was for him?

Women and especially mothers face completely different challenges from
men in the workplace, and that’s leaving aside the lifetime of bias and misogyny that they have endured before they get to the workplace in the first place.

For one thing, I’m willing to bet that your DH’s success is due at least in part to the fact that you have facilitated it by picking up more of the slack at home. Presumably you are not a high earner yourself or you’d have mentioned it, but I bet you do the bulk of the house and kid work, as most women do regardless of the amount they earn.

I used to earn six figures as a chartered surveyor in a big London firm - but I "committed career suicide" as a partner told me (I had four children in fairly quick succession), so gave up my profession in my very late 30s to be a SAHM, and have dabbled in a bit of property consultancy on an ad hoc basis every now and then since - but don't earn anything like that now as I also work for a charity in a completely different field.

(DH earns 6 figures in marketing - almost every job he's applied for recently has gone to a woman - so there must be some fairly high earning women in marketing....!)

Sorry I quoted the wrong person above

IT sales and PM. Over £200k PA. Many years of hard work, including many 4am starts to get a flight to customers. Weeks away from home, 18 hour days the norm. Pressure at quarter end/year end. WFH a lot, lots of travelling for work on my own time. Lots of late nights in front of laptop.

Didn’t go to Uni.

I'm a writer. Technical copy during the day (grants, policy papers), novels by night.

I find these threads depressing because so many people appear to believe that anyone claiming to earn six figures must be lying.

BTW I don’t think earning six figures is the be all and end all. But it is very striking that if someone answers this question they are automatically assumed to be “making stuff up on the internet”.

Ywr apparently the DH earning £100k is far more plausible.

To be honest, I think some of it is net fantasy. People can pretend to be whatever they like.

There are approx 155k women earning over 100k vs 625k men.

Yet another lawyer. I had a good start going to a top private school (paid for by my dad working 6-7 days a week in the building trade). Worked really hard in my 20s at a commercial law firm then was lucky to land a tax-free job abroad and make a name for myself there. Had 3 kids between 35 and 39, with 1 year mat leave for each. Since having kids I’ve worked part time and mostly from home. I’m really lucky in that I drop the kids off at 8 and pick them up at 3 and have lot of time for them. I do end up working in the evenings though when things are busy. Being part time has meant choosing to pass on a couple of promotions, but I’d rather have the work-life balance than the stress of a more senior position where the extra money goes to a nanny. When the kid are in high school maybe I’ll put my foot back on the career pedal.

A few people have commented how important it is to talk about money - women are generally bad at this, which only compounds the pay gap which already exists.

I went into banking and never made 6 figures. Though I was in accounts rather than the generating money side of things.

Finance Director. Other women I know - lawyers, someone who writes cybersecurity algorithms, sales directors, tech managers, project/programme managers, journalists. All work FT.

Senior person in a commercial real estate company (earns well over 150k).

Partner in a GP practice.

Both women took minimum maternity leave, went back part time after having kids but were working full time within a few years. Their husbands have always seemed to take equal responsibility for childcare.

Council house / state school - no degree until I did my MBA 10 years ago. I am 54 and been 6 figures for maybe 15 years. I work in semiconductors.
and how do you get here, hard work , long hours and sacrifices