I have dealt with blatant sexism in my career only a few times. The real difficulty is being a (single!) mom and having jobs expect me to work 16 hour days. For a long time I dealt with it by refusing to work as an employee and declaring my own hours and work space. For three years I left tech completely. At my current job, pre-employment negotiations involved a grueling process of settling exactly what my hours were and laying out that if they wanted over time out of me it was going to be at my house, not in their office.

If programming wasn’t the only skill I have that makes a living wage in this country (Israel) I would probably be doing something else.

or the past year or so, after I finally realized how having kids had impacted my chosen career path (I am a toxicologist) I began asking for essays about family and career written by other science moms - eventually gathering essays from 33 women, whose careers span the 1970s-through current graduate students - which fill the pages of Motherhood the Elephant in the Laboratory: women science speak out, released this month by Cornell University Press.

This is a topic that lurks in the background but which isn’t always discussed - at least not by those in the trenches, except to those they consider “safe” (friends acquaintances) - for fear of looking unprofessional or loosing credibility.

I’d asked contributors how they keep their science alive while tending to family needs. Many wrote about alternative yet very satisfying career paths through the sciences, including part-time and full-time jobs, while others wrote about sharing academic positions, or raising kids while attaining tenure.

If you’d like to learn more about the project and the book, please visit
(link) The more women who speak out, the more likely things are to change (I hope.)

This all led to a book, recently published by Cornell University Press, Motherhood the Elephant in the Laboratory: women scientists speak out.

I think focusing on the work/life balance as a basic HUMAN RIGHT (it affects health so deeply — physical and psychological), as opposed to a gender-specific issue, will help it gain more traction with the broader public.

Treating causes like this in a more ‘universal’ manner is the key to change, really. It’s much like what’s happened to affirmative action (AA) in colleges. After various Court rulings declaring it unconstitutional, the colleges have simply changed it from a race issue, to a class issue — which after all is much more fair, and also satisfies the original intent of AA, since there is a strong correlation (though not an exclusive one by any means) between race and class. By giving special considerations based on class, as opposed to race, the colleges have actually given MORE people the opportunities they need/deserve. And they’ve done so in a way that is supported by a much broader base (politically and economically).

Helping to broaden the work/life balance from mainly an issue of mothers who want to spend time with their children, to a basic human right will also help. 100+ hours a week spent at any job is simply a 21st Century form of indentured servitude — and yes, while one can say ‘If you don’t like it, just find another job’ however, that’s not always possible, especially in times of economic slowdowns and mortgages that can’t be met… This takes an enormous toll on families, as well as the nation as a whole:

* from added strain upon the healthcare system
* to lower birth-rates — the movie Idiocracy may not be so far-fetched — but even beyond that, there are many financial & social strains placed upon countries with declining birth rates among wage-earners, coupled with aging populations (just check out the budget and healthcare issues in Japan, much of Europe, etc. which are just entering such an era)
* to added strains on the justice system — so many kids growing up with absentee parents certainly can’t remain trouble-free for long
* and much more…

This is a much larger issue than many seem to realize…

The “Macho Club” - I find that much more of a real issue. Men don’t seem to draw such a hard line between business and play either - but nobody invites a woman to be one of a foursome for golf and then have drinks in the “mens grill” afterward. There are many places that women are not included, period.
My comments here may apply more to the Northeast part of the US than it would to the West Coast, not sure.

Glamour at Google
Marissa Mayer, Google’s first female engineer and current vice president, talks about her personal style philosophy, and what’s in her wardrobe.
The Wall Street Journal. May 1, 2008
(link)