People say that women can’t have, can’t combine, a family and a career, that it’s having family responsibilities that keeps them from advancement – the inability to work late or on weekends, the tendency to need time off to tend to kids…
I’m not so sure. I’ve never had such competing obligations, and I don’t have a career. I think the family thing is a red herring. Women just don’t get hired into career-track jobs nearly as often as men, and when they do, they don’t get advanced. (And not because their family responsibilities get in the way.)
In fact, it might be an advantage to be a mother, because you’re seen as more adult then, you’re seen as an authority. Certainly one carries oneself with more authority, I notice that a lot: as soon as someone becomes a parent, the authority they are to their kids spills over, and they start acting like they know everything with everyone, like they have a right to tell everyone what to do. It seems to me especially obvious with women because it’s the first time they have, or are seen to have, authority. Women without kids aren’t grown up yet, they aren’t granted any sort of authority, certainly no position of responsibility. It’s as if becoming a parent proves you can be responsible.
(But of course it does no such thing: witness the very many irresponsible parents; indeed, becoming a parent in the first place is, for many, due to irresponsibility. And, of course, there are many other ways of demonstrating responsibility.)
