Damned if you do, damned if you don't...

Check out this article, about how it's virtually impossible in the workplace for women to control how they're perceived by their colleagues:

Women and Work - perceptions

Organizations Working for Women - South

I noticed when reviewing the list (appendix) of 58 organizations that are Working for Women, only 2 of the 58 were in the South. That's 3%! Looks like we have a lot of work to do in this region of the country - the Northeast and California seemed to be the hot spots. Tennessee and Georgia were the only two and I bet there are more women needing advocacy here than in the other regions. Hey, where are the other bloggers?

Do women faculty in the sciences face discrimination?

http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/12/07/gender

http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/05/17/harvard

MIT Gender Equity Project
http://web.mit.edu/gep/res.html

Article on creating a "family friendly workplace"

"A Real Option" an article from Inside Higher Education that addresses the concern of creating a "family friendly workplace”. Just click below:

http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/03/24/parttime


Other related articles follow (for those who have time to read...)

http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/03/21/care

http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/08/23/stress

http://insidehighered.com/news/2005/09/15/ucsb

As promised, I did a lot of reading last week while I flew to and from Seattle and got on my stationary bike for an hour last night. I just finished chapter 8. Sometimes I'm pretty aggravated reading the book - I can't believe we still have so far to go to have equity and respect. A point that really hit me was how we pay people more to cut our lawns and detail our cars than we do those that care for children. How can we not value the raising of children at the highest level? Also, that one CEO that had such outrageous behavior yet the company merely paid out a big settlement and kept him on as CEO. Is that a statement or what? Of course, my husband is getting an earfull as he is usually close by when I'm reading and venting my frustration by reading him excerpts. Fortunately, he agrees with me!

N.Y. Times Article - Silence in Small Lib Arts College

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/opinion/15mon4.html?em&ex=1192766400&en=3ff656dadfddae7b&ei=5087%0A

This is a link to an article about silence in the classroom at a liberal arts college . . . and it sounds quite familiar. In my classes it's the men who are noisier, except for one that has 7 women and one man . . . (I think that class is small enough that we are dealing with personal dynamics instead of the usual classroom behavior. But let me think about that.)

OK, I will try to stick with the group

After deciding I didn't have time for this "How to Balance your Life" group I read Rhonda's latest post and will continue on.

Who else is reading Competing Devotions? This book is very interesting in that it breaks down women into four categories: work schema devotion, family schema devotion, reinventing schema devotion - part-time careers and reinventing schema - family life among full-time executives. None of us like to be put into a category but reading this book you can not help but see yourself and other women you know. I was a stay-at-home mom/student for 11 years (family schema) and now fall under part-time career schema and in school hoping to become part of the family life among full time executives schema. This book is dead on when examining external factors that can contribute to the placement of women in various categories.

As a part-time schema, I find myself straddling two worlds: the work schema and family schema and I don't quite fit into either. That is a big drawback for me. Now that I have added school to the mix I think I am out totally. There simply isn't time for anything but my family, job, and school - goodbye clean house, friends, TJ Maxx, working out, and gardening! Where is the balance?