I have noticed lately that in the workplace, women get asked questions that men never do. Questions such as, “are you more career-oriented or family-oriented” and “How to you plan to manage work and family life?” If you are a man and have ever been asked this question in a corporate setting (interview or otherwise), then please, let me know. If my assumptions are correct, then it is still women that are being asked these kinds of questions and NOT men. How does that work, in this day and age of “equality” in the workplace?


I’ve written before about feminism and glass ceilings in the workplace, but this is a little bit different. To me, it’s a low blow. I am offended if people ask me those kinds of questions, because it second guesses me and if I will be able to do my job or not. Also because, at this point in my life, I’m not sure. I don’t know when I’m going to get married or have children, or what I will want to do with my career at that point. And, why should I have to know that now? Why is that relevant now for the next say, two or three years? Sure, maybe someone got burned before by a woman who left a position because she got married, or got pregnant. But, is that any different than a man leaving for the same reason? His wife is moving, or they decided that he would stay home with the children. No, but I am willing to bet that a man would never get asked about his intentions to mix work and family obligations and how he planned to tackle that. I know plenty of women who have considered this, but how many men out there have?


There was an article recently that highlighted the issue of a lack of women in boardrooms across the country. I agree that still, there is a problem in that women are not properly groomed and trained to be good executives. It’s hard for women to find good role models, and also be given the opportunity to really know how to properly balance that work and family life. There is the school of thought that a woman who is too career minded cannot properly care for her family, and also the idea that a woman who stays home is degrading herself by not “really” working (though ask anyone who does it, and being a homemaker is not sitting around eating bon-bons all day either) and contributing to setting women the women’s movement back.


All of this leads me to wonder, what am I going to do? How are the choices I make now changing (or reversing) choices that my mother made? And how are they going to affect my daughters?