Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Another magazine cover story predicated on my least favorite assumption, has hit the stands: Fast Company tries to figure out where the women at the top of the business world are. The conclusion: they've largely abandoned the goal of running the show, scaling back their work and their aspirations to allow some time for family.

But the story's undercurrent is that women are either too timid or too smart to climb to the top rungs of the corporate ladder. And it assumes that men care a lot more about work, on average, than family. And while these two assumptions may generally be true, the story never gives a second thought to whether that's a good thing or whether such stereotypes ought to be challenged.

The author, Linda Tischler, says: "For the most part, men just compete harder than women. They put in more hours. They're more willing to relocate. They're more comfortable putting work ahead of personal commitments."

But why should that be the case? Though a generally thoughtful story, it suggests the stereotypes about what men and women value are fixed. Sure, the story seems to say, some women may have the stomach for the CEO fight, but they're the abberation. The flip side, of course, is that paints men who chuck their careers as abberations, too. (There is a to-be-sure graf noting that men, too, are looking to live saner lives, but nothing more is said.)

The other omission -- not uncommon in these types of stories -- is the husbands. Are these women stepping off the fast track because their husbands are pulling little weight at home? We don't know (other than one woman's snide remark that she made an effort to spend as much waking time with her child, "'I doubt that his father was doing the same.'" she says).

The untold truth is that for women to reach the top rungs of the ladder and still have an intact family, there needs to be a lot of support from her mate -- ideally one who stays home. The data suggest that men at the top generally have had the advantage of an at-home spouse or a working wife still able to devote time to managing the household. Why should we think that women can survive that environment as well without such an asset?

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