Women’s professional success starts with creating clear equality at home so she’s not carrying an additional load into the office.
Some of my clients fear the time commitment for a senior role would be overwhelming. ‘I don’t want to be exhausted from an 80-hour week’, one woman said this week.
But it turns out that the real problem is that women may not be set up at home to take on the extra energy and headspace required for this commitment.
Research shows that not only is there a problem getting women into senior leadership in sufficient numbers, there’s also a problem keeping them there.
Those who do make it are more likely than their male colleagues to leave. They may site an unhelpful working environment, or the pull of support during children’s important school years. Or it may just be that they haven’t set themselves up domestically for success.
Are they still number one on duty for looking after sick children (perhaps because they happen to be working from home anyway)? Do they carry the family’s domestic load – mental space to take responsibility for remembering dentist appointments, arranging family gatherings, sorting out the leaking tap?
Women who make more money than their husbands still end up doing more housework than their spouse, a new study reveals.
“We see these top female earners as compensating in doing more housework, when mothers out-earn fathers. So parenthood seems to have that traditionalizing effect.” says Professor Joanna Sydra at University of Bath School of Management.
Time, energy and mindspace are finite. What do you want to do with yours? How can you offload the non-essential to give you more time, if it’s only for rest?
