{success and power}
Good news, girlfriends: we’re doing a darn good job of rocking the boat up in here. Women for the win!
If you’ve read this, you’ll probably (or hopefully) have taken from it that although I have some fun and silly little hobbies (and a ridiculously massive collection of nail polish), I am extremely dedicated to my professional success. I just like to have well manicured nails in the meantime. But as a girl in the world of engineering, it’s really encouraging to hear about women closing the gender gap in the workplace, specifically the gender gap that exists in male-dominated fields.
{polished and put together}
Recently, The New York Times published this article detailing a new phenomenon called the reverse gender gap. Essentially, the “empowered woman” movement that was meant to inspire us to be equally as successful as men has caused us ladies to not only close the pay gap that divides the genders, but reverse it by making more than our male counterparts. This is good news, considering the fact that we’ve been falling behind for decades. But there’s also some alarming news.
The NYT explains how some women feel like their success in the boardroom translates to failure in their personal lives. Some women are even lying about their insanely awesome professions to dumb themselves down and be liked by men. WHAT!? I’m not here to tell anybody what to do, but isn’t the point of being successful and powerful to be proud of what you do, and confident in yourself? This just seems so completely backwards.
Please, people, please don’t let this be you. We need successful ladies, just like we need successful men. The point of equality in the workplace isn’t to laugh at the men below us and say “now who’s the breadwinner, homeboy!”. Noooo. It’s to address the fact that everyone has their niche, and sometimes a woman’s niche earns higher pay than a man’s. Sometimes it does not.
Regardless of the fact that we’re supposed to be doing what we love (we are, aren’t we?), we’re supposed to be appreciative of those around us who are doing the same. Girlfriend, if a man can’t respect you because you’ve got a bigger pay check than he does, he doesn’t deserve to ride shotgun in your Beemer. Can I get an amen?
{amen}
It’s absolutely shocking to me that women feel this way, but then again, I’ve never been an unhappily-single 45-year-old professional. I’ll admit, it could be pretty hard. But let’s just make ourselves a promise that we aren’t going to feel bad about doing what we want with our careers, okay? Success in one arena does not come at the sacrifice of success elsewhere, I swear. And I’ll prove it… but I’m only 24, so it might take me a while!
In the meantime though, think about the great and fun things we can do with our lives as we grow and learn and succeed. If you, like me, are annoyed by all of this “glass ceiling” baloney, and aren’t afraid of the nay-sayers out there, then you can help me break the ceiling too. And I will break it, I promise you that. Because not only do I love a good challenge, I love the outdoors. And a patio is far better than a greenhouse, even in December.
