According to Bowles & McGinn (2005) and Eagly & Carli (2007), “Women do have somewhat less work experience and employment continuity than men, driven largely by the disproportionate responsibility women assume for child rearing and domestic duties.” (as cited by Northouse, 2016, p. 400). That was the case for me. Gender has affected my own career trajectory. After my first year of college, I got married. About the time I was to pay fees for my second year, I found out I was pregnant. I wanted to be a stay at home mom, so I didn’t go back to school. Eighteen months after my son was born, my second son was born. We lived about an hour from the closest university, and online classes weren’t widely available if available at all. I had planned on commuting, but I didn’t want to do that with small children at home. School wasn’t really an option for a long time.
We lived in a tourist town, and I managed some tourist lodgings from my home, and later I opened a bakery where I did mostly wedding cakes for about ten years. Then we moved closer to the colleges when my oldest son was about to graduate, and I was ready to do something else. I went back to school and got a job as a computer lab manager at an elementary school. Education is second career for me. At an age where many educators retire or are thinking about retirement, it’s far from my mind. I still have a lot to do! Where it will lead, I do not know yet.
I wouldn’t change what I did. I knew it was a sacrifice at the time, and one that I was willing to make. Although, occasionally I wonder about what I might have been able to achieve career-wise if I would have finished school, and then got married, and then had kids.
To close the gender gap in cases like mine, now we have online classes and degree programs available for stay at home moms or for those who live in remote areas without higher education institutions close by. Making sure that we teach our children and students the value of education, of consequences to our choices, and about setting goals will help close that gap, as well as knowledge of career opportunities. In her video on YouTube, Alice Eagley (2011) makes the point that many young women may not understand the effects of staying home, doing part time work, or dropping out of the work force temporarily. So once again, educating students, so they can make educated decisions is important in closing the gap.
Working in elementary education, my classes were all generally balanced except during my internship when my 4th grade class had 19 boys and nine girls. During my time in elementary school, I had six female principals and no males. All three superintendents that I’ve worked for were male. Although one larger district had some assistant superintendents who were female. All of the teachers were female except at one school, one male teacher, and at another couple schools the P.E. teachers were males, and at one other, the music teacher was male. The elementary school where I volunteer has quite a few male teachers and a male principal. It’s a 3rd and 4th grade school. I don’t know the numbers, but it would be interesting to find out.
At the university where I work, there are more men in leadership positions, but there are some women too. We have three deans that I can think of that are women, and a vice-president. The heads of most departments and programs are men. There are several women in IT, though not at the top of the ladder. There are quite a few women professors, but lots of men. I’m curious now to know the numbers.
[Big Think] (2011, June 27) “Alice Eagley: Is there still a “glass ceiling?” [Video File]. Retrieved from
Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publications.
Catalyst 