highly educated women tending towards specialties that allow greater flexibility

The hit to salaries is greatest for women with MBAs, least for those with medical degrees.

interesting article on barriers to women’s advancement at work

Article in the Harvard Business Review. Some of the key points include:

•“There is a special kind of relationship—called sponsorship—in which the mentor goes beyond giving feedback and advice and uses his or her influence with senior executives to advocate for the mentee. Our interviews and surveys alike suggest that high-potential women are overmentored and undersponsored relative to their male peers—and that they are not advancing in their organizations. Furthermore, without sponsorship, women not only are less likely than men to be appointed to top roles but may also be more reluctant to go for them.

•Women’s mentors have less organizational clout, a detriment since the more senior the mentor, the faster the mentee’s career advancement

Thinking ahead

While attending the conference earlier this month, I met quite a few women whose children were already grown and who were focused on other pursuits in their lives. One impressive woman didn’t even seem old enough to have grown children – yet her four kids were already out of the house. She is now a writer, a painter and starting teaching fifth grade last year.

These women reminded me of the many years of post-intensive parenting that lie ahead, even for women like me who start families on the later side. They reminded me that those are years ripe for possibilities and that the decisions I take now will determine the type of life I have then.

When being a parent doesn't matter

When I first arrived at this gathering of writers, I was impressed by all of the women who were mothers, but who didn’t make that their central point of life. They were fully engaged in the craft of writing, and some also had day jobs and/or another artistic talent they pursued.

Some of these women had grown children, and they helped remind me that there is a life beyond kids and I should keep that in mind, in order to prepare myself now for where I want to be then. Others had younger children, who they clearly cared for and missed, but it didn’t stop them from being away for 1.5 weeks and dedicating themselves to what interested them. And then there were quite a few pregnant woman – four, including myself, due between roughly Thanksgiving and New Years.

At the same time, in my area of interest, I felt a sense of – it’s OK to be a woman, as long as you don’t let womanly concerns, like the home and children, interfere with your craft. I felt a certain pressure to keep that part of me separate, I felt that taking pride and pleasure in my role as a parent was somehow shameful. I struggled to do that, because it is an essential part of who I am today.

In certain communities, such as I’d imagine the BlogHer gathering to be (I haven’t been) being a parent is a badge and a matter of pride, perhaps too much of an emphasis for my taste. But here, I felt like that aspect of my reality had to be separated more than I was comfortable with. I didn’t see why there couldn’t be a middle ground. Why it’s not OK for me to be concerned about issues of early childhood education, potty training and vaccinations, as well as issues of larger global interest.

Part of me was thrilled to be away from daily parenting to focus here. Part of me, at times, wanted me to run back to my child and spend time cuddling with him. Most often, I wanted to believe that I can do it all – I can be a quality parent, I can find time for my pursuits, and I can be taken seriously. The best I can do is to try.