Majority of what we read this week reminded a lot about my mom. My mom is an extremely high-strung, competitive women. She has been working in a male-dominant career most of her life, spending each day buying and trading stocks. She is a portfolio manager. The problem my mom has is that when she comes home from work, she never shuts off the drive that she needs at work everyday in order to compete with the boys club she is surrounded by. The other night while talking to my dad about my mom's attitude and need to create a debate over every little thing, he tried to explain to me about how male-dominated my mom's career truly is. All I asked my dad was, "Why don't you come home from work and act the same way you do in the office?" He had no response. This leads me to believe something about women in male-dominate careers.
My mother loves what she does, and she is extremely good at it. In "Power" by Adrienne Rich, Adrienne speaks about Marie Curie and her overall impact from being a female scientist in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Curie denied the hardships that came along with doing what she loved. "She died a famous women denying". Marie Curie and my mother have that in common. My mother appears to have almost completely emotionally checked out of her own life. Everything is a competition, and nothing seems to be as much fun anymore. While getting to the professional level my mom has exceeded to is an incredible accomplishment, sometimes it would be nice if she wasn't always mentally in the office. Women in male-dominant careers have a certain edge to them, and it is a good edge to have, but I feel they need to always remember that they are still emotional women. The world may be moving to "The End of Men" in a sense, but women as we know them may be changing to be more like the men who have been running the corporate show all these years. I may be wrong though, maybe if there are enough women in an office, they can find a moment at work where they don't need to compete with men. Hopefully this could make them more like my dad who can come home and unwind from his long days at the office.
