Forced to Choose Between Motherhood and Career
Sometimes, stories about inflexible employers are just so heartbreaking—and infuriating—you can’t help but be moved to action. Here’s one such tale.
Sometimes, stories about inflexible employers are just so heartbreaking—and infuriating—you can’t help but be moved to action. Here’s one such tale.
It’s fantastic that so many working moms and dads are talking about the importance of work flexibility. But I am not a parent.
In the context of gender and work, people often talk a lot about choice. It’s empowering to view the decisions we make solely as a matter of individual will. But choices aren’t made in a vacuum, and most of us weigh a variety of factors when faced with decisions about how to support ourselves and spend the bulk of our time.
After writing my recent post “If You Build It, She Will Come,” I was left with a nagging feeling that I was missing something about why women in particular seem so much more inclined to leave the workplace rather than men. Do women have an inherent need to find more meaning in work than men do, and do they leave because that unique need is unfulfilled?
With all the conversations going on about how the country needs more women in technology and Sheryl Sandberg’s claim that women should ‘lean in’ to their careers, I got to thinking more about my own path and why, as a woman with a background in computer science, I’m not leaning in myself.