Xenia - I found an article which I thought you might find interesting!

[emkana]

I think she has a point, not sure if you agree

I think she has a point.

lol

I think there is some truth in the article that there are less women at the top or they are earning less because a lot of women don't want those jobs because they don't think the sacrifice is worth it.

And something in the idea that men would lose more 'face' so to speak in giving up the chance of these top jobs because of their work-home balance than women would.

I don't think that this is the whole reason as to why, but I think it offers an alternative explanation for part of it.

And I will be interested in what Xenia thinks.

Greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeny!!!!!!!!!!!!

How the divvil are you?

Not three bad VVV

Getting over another snotty season with the boys, but otherwise fine and dandy... have been out with essbee and fennel this evening, and very nice it was too - and am now sitting with dh eating pickled chillies and finishing off a bottle of manky wine

How are you?

Wanky wine? Sounds lovely.

That essbee is a lovely lady.

bump

Bloody hell! Someone finally dares to state the bleedin' obvious. I don't want to do the high-flier thing - hell I'm not sure I want to work at all truth be told, but all the alpha males were taken when I wanted one !

i think rachel johnson talks absolute tosh. it is very hard in my company - a fairly typical one - to be promoted when you work flexibly, and i do the same amount of work as any man (full-time but two days a week from home). the fact that some women succeed somewhere like the States (where there is much more 'positive' action) hardly means women have got everything they need (has she ever read hillary clinton's autobiography - hardly a typical woman's experience). men in my company get on by playing golf, drinking late at night with the management, same old networking stuff - you can't do it if you have to get home to put the kids to bed - and anyway senior men with wives at home see women with children as 'disengaged' at work which is bs.

Work HAS to be the most overrated crock in the history of Western society.

Really.

What will I teach my daughters?

Marry young and marry rich. Have babies.

And I will be sure you always have a very good lawyer .

Have they sacked Daisy Waugh?
(The Times)
I must admit, I wouldn't want to be messed with a top job like that, not while the kids are young, anyway.

agree with Expat.

expat

it does make a huge difference whether or not you enjoy your job

Of course it does Wheels. But it doesn't alter the fact that in order to make yourself available to do your work - enjoyable or not - you have to jump through too many hoops which often makes it far from enjoyable.

I have often said that I need a wife......

I think that article bears little relation to my take on career/family life.

This article says that the reason women are not at the top is because they don't want to be. I do think some women opt out of career life because they 1 want to and 2 are able to. But, there are other factors. There is sexual discrimination. It comes from bosses, colleagues, and husbands. Not from all of them of course. But, it does exist, and it does hold women back. I think this article trivialises these very real obstacles.

uwila - absolutely. Noelallie - you can't just throw in the towel because you have to jump thru a few hoops. where's the suffragette spirit!

I think it is only part of the story, yes

but it does make the point that some of us choose to step off the ladder for good reasons

and that we are not victims as a result

Ladder, my arse.

More like a treadmill from hell - a whole lotta running to get to nowhere.

I don't think you are a victim if you yourself choose to step off the career ladder. But, I do think you are taking a very big risk that I myself wouldn't be prepared to take. It is a path I would advise my daughter against, just as my mother advised me against. And I'm glad she did.

"Suffragette spirit" wheels? I beleive that what there was left of it was knocked back at Christmas when the gin ran out .

Oh, how sexist of me, I should say that it is also a path that I would advise my son against!

so what happens when everybody (men or women) give up the tough jobs?

I agree with uwila. If you choose that is fine.
But me myself want to have a role in shaping the world.

Who knows? if there was more women out there willing to do hard jobs we wouldn't have so many bloody idiot men making a mess of out planet!
and yes, I am sexist!

Nothing sexist about the path of least resistance.

Worker smarter, not harder.

I wish I'd listened to my mother.

I rue the day I was too immature to see her wisdom.

I think there is a lot of truth in the article. Xenia will rip it to shreds.