Working Women....

Tonight I found myself home alone with nothing on our Sky+ box that I wanted to watch that F didn't want to watch too. So I looked to see what was on and came across a series entitled 'The Problem with Working Women'.

Oh my! So much in there kind of fits with what I am thinking and feeling! And with what friends of mine are thinking and feeling out there in blogland..... I can't say as I agreed with everything on the programme but it did explore some of the issues very well and there is more to come....

Some time ago a psychological test was done on young boys and girls. Each child was timed running by themself and then timed running with someone of a similar speed to themselves. The test showed that boys ran quicker when they had competition but the girls ran slower. On the programme they repeated this experiment and found little difference between the sexes. It seems nurture was the reason for the difference because the brain has a plasticity and adapts to the attitudes it is exposed to. Sexual difference in attitudes are largely caused by society and the differences that there are, are not as large as we might have previously believed....

Successful women make a choice. 25% of women with degrees will be childless on their 40th birthday. Women these days often can not afford not to work once they have children. They are the ones which are expected to work flexibly in order to support their family, the ones who sacrifice promotion. A male surgeon featured on the programme had five children but the female surgeon they spoke to had none and was single in her 30s.

In fact sexism is still rife, despite the efforts of the feminists. Women generally don't work on building sites. Women working as investment bankers may be excluded from meetings because they take place in strip clubs or asked to schmooze clients. Men don't often get to work as midwives...

One pioneering feminist said that she had gotten it a little wrong. The women she sees these days are a whole generation of very, very tired women. How sad is that? and how true.... In order to get freedom in the work place they have to juggle far more balls....

I think the programme missed one thing though... It should be a choice, to work or not to work and there is no reason why it shouldn't be the man who is the main carer, who has flexible working to look after the children, who sacrifices their career. But I have known men who when they did become the main carer after being made redundant, just couldn't cope - not because they weren't up to it but because society made them feel like failures for it and non-masculine....

Not all men are alpha males however. An alpha male and an alpha female both trying to work and raise a family is a recipe for disaster it seems... but a working alpha female and a beta male at home? why not.... Times need to carry on changing.... I want to be able to afford to be a stay at home Mum... Another scary stat for you - the more time children spend int he care of non-family members before the age of five, the more aggressive and the less discipline they have in later years... If I can't be at home, then I want F to be home....