Saturday, September 3, 2011

balancing it all: the professional woman.

I think this struggle occupies my mind more than it should. In latest family news, my youngest E-mo- aunt in Korean- received her Ph.D. from SNU Monday this week. I'll be cheering her on in her career & family life.

I stumbled upon this opinion piece from Forbes, which made me think. Here is a paragraph that had me deep in frowns once I was done processing this avalanche of correlations.
For our purposes, a "career girl" has a university-level (or higher) education, works more than 35 hours a week outside the home and makes more than $30,000 a year.  
If a host of studies are to be believed, marrying these women is asking for trouble. If they quit their jobs and stay home with the kids, they will be unhappy ( Journal of Marriage and Family, 2003). They will be unhappy if they make more money than you doSocial Forces, 2006). You will be unhappy if they make more money than you doJournal of Marriage and Family, 2001). You will be more likely to fall ill ( American Journal of Sociology). Even your house will be dirtier ( Institute for Social Research). ~Michael Noer for Forbes.com
So, I should give up my career so that my husband does not fall ill and that my house stays clean (who measures these things anyway?). If I happen to keep my career, I should make sure to make less than my husband, okay.

I went through Forbes 2010 list of World's Most Powerful Women and tallied up their marital status & children, which was at least hopeful.

To be honest, I am usually surprised by my friends who grew up with nannies or grandparents, but I am not being fair to my fellow gender. I think the gender equality & career issue is something we are recently coming into, and hope that in my lifetime (in my own life) we are able to figure it out.

It is Labor Day weekend, and I've been searching "paragenesis of [mineral]" for the last hour. I finally watched Vanilla Sky last night and loved it, but I kept thinking about Minority Report (Tom Cruise repeats his facial expressions). Also, did you know Penelope Cruz basically repeats her same role as in the Spanish version just five years prior, Open Your Eyes?

Day trip to an outdoor park and maybe an observatory this afternoon. I'm sending good vibes to Austin!

3 comments:

  1. Thank goodness that opinion piece is JUST an opinion piece, and a bit of an archaic one at that; although, there's some empirical data backing it up. In the near future, this may not be a problem at all-- what with the rising demand for Beta Males and all.
    http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/relationships/article2602592.ece

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  2. Sounds like a perfect idea for a dating website: "Alpha female" looking for a "Beta Male" or vice versa. See if they have happier marriages than normal.

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  3. Haha! That made me laugh more than it should.
    That's a good idea, actually. On a side note, I think most people often mis-associate the Beta Male with negative qualities like impotence and spinelessness, which is a mistake. Beta Males are the vice-President to an Alpha Male's Comander-in-Chief.

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