Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/63429
"HOW MANY DADS DO YOU SEE DUCKING OUT OF BUSINESS MEETINGS TO CALL THE NANNY AND REMIND HER THAT CHARLOTTE WILL ONLY WEAR THE PURPLE-STRIPED LEOTARD TO GYMNASTICS? " Obviously, to a large extent we can only reflect the society in which we operate. In economics, business, and finance, full-time women faculty members are still a rarity. (Women faculty experience unique problems too. Students often expect a female professor to be more nurturing and forgiving than the male professors, and the students are angry when this stereotype falls apart. They often will try to get away with foolishness that they would not try with a man.) In 2000, only 12 of the 65 officers and directors at the prestigious National Bureau of Economic Research were women; the 13 "directors by univer- sity appointment" included just one woman. Role models from the corporate world are even rarer still. Moreover, we sometimes have to be careful about the subtleties when we invite female CEOs to address our stu- dents. Male CEOs whose fathers or grandfathers founded their compa- nies raise few eyebrows (just think Bill Ford). Female CEOs whose fam- ily name is also over the door are, no doubt, equally qualified and impres- sive. But they may send a more per- nicious message to our student body, in which many women come from cultures like India, Pakistan, and the Philippines, where a woman's pri- mary path to power is still through a powerful father or husband. Of course, we can only take our cues from the broader corporate world. As we all know, the number of women who have truly broken through the glass ceiling is still small, for a variety of reasons. One of the main reasons, though, is the one we don't like to talk about: Women are not just short men— we have the babies, and they don't. And this is where I think we fail to truly prepare our women graduates for what lies ahead. Honesty and real- ism would require me to say that it may always be harder for women than for men. Harder, of course, because prejudice and discrimination still linger, especially outside the U.S. It is still legal in most countries, for example, for a prospective employer to ask a job applicant about her mari- tal status and whether she plans to have babies; this has long been taboo in the U.S. In Japan, where large companies often maintain a two-track employment system, a recent survey found that women accounted for only 2.2 percent of those on the management track, but a whopping 91 percent of those on the general or secretarial track. Most of all, though, it's harder because as most working mothers will tell you, having it all generally means trying to do it all. Studies show overwhelmingly that in dual working-parent households, the mother still does the lion's share of housework and child care. This is old news. What's new, woman's prime years to become a mother coincide perfectly with her prime years to build a career. At the risk of being called anti-feminist, I believe that the answer is some sort of mommy-track, enabling women to maintain a career path while still devoting the attention to their young children that the kids deserve. To be even more anti-feminist, I would go even further and suggest that while some fathers might opt for a daddy-track—and that's great, too—most dads won't. Motherhood is fundamentally different from fatherhood, and it's time we admit- ted this truth. I know few fathers who agonize over a business trip that takes them away from their kids for a week; I know few mothers who don't. And how many dads do you see ducking out of business meetings to call the nanny and remind her that Charlotte will only wear the purple-striped leotard to gymnastics? But until we expand this brave So biology plays a funny trick; a though, are studies also showing that the more successful a woman is at work—the more money she makes— the less likely she is to have a husband and children. (This brings us back to role models again. The popular press has lionized a few female CEOs in recent years, conveniently overlook- ing the fact that almost none of them are mothers and wives.) Even newer is medical knowledge telling us that it is extraordinarily difficult for a woman over 40 to conceive and deliver a healthy child; a woman's fertility begins to decline at age twenty-seven. Women who assumed they could focus on career first and get around to babymaking later are in for a rude shock. new world beyond a handful of companies in which employers are accommodating, workplaces are child-friendly, and the decision to opt for a mommy-track is respected rather than scorned, the reality is that management-bound women face a tough slog. I don't mar my students' triumphant graduation day by telling them these truths; I figure they'll learn soon enough. I just wish giving them the skills to prepare for it were as straightforward as teaching them to read a balance sheet. s z Jane Hughes is a professor at the Brandeis University Graduate School of International Economics and Finance, a consultant, and an author. She has four children. BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2002 63