Episode 162: The Coming Shift: What's Happening to Our Careers (part 2)

“It just seems like the overwhelming story we keep getting is dire tales that women are suffering...[but] one astonishing reality is the Berlin Wall of personal and professional life has fallen down, not just for women but for men too.”

— Avivah Wittenberg-Cox

Going down?

In the last episode you heard Jessi Hempel and I ask, what is happening to women’s careers right now? So many of us are still at home, often with family underfoot, attempting to manage children’s schooling or simply care for them while also doing our own jobs. Much has been written about the ‘women’s recession’ and the enormous pressure women are under during this pandemic.

This week guest Avivah Wittenberg-Cox offers a more hopeful perspective.

Ashley and Avivah during the interview

She sees this crisis is an opportunity for organizations to change the way they do things and make the workplace fairer for everyone. She says a generation clash between men is part of the current problem. And she says many of us will undergo a big shift in our careers in the months and years ahead, whether we welcome it or not.

You can also read a transcript of the show.

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Further reading:

These Forbes articles are all by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox:

Build Back Balanced: 3 Ways to Get Gender Driving Recovery

Do Her Justice: 4 Lessons from RBG

Why We Need Women in Tech and Government

Daniel Carlson’s research on men, women and domestic labor during the pandemic can be found here.

Episode 161: What is Happening to Women's Careers Right Now?

“It’s not so much that those career questions went away, it’s as if they exist in a different plane in time. And we’re not existing in that plane right now.”

— Jessi Hempel

Jessi Hempel

In this episode I sit down with Jessi Hempel, host of LinkedIn's Hello Monday podcast on the future of work.

We talk about how the last six months have affected women's careers in particular, and what might happen next. We discuss who's able to get ahead right now, and the delights of a supportive manager whose home/work life is as crazy as your own.

This is an incredibly uncertain time. A time when a lot of us are simply managing the day to day, which is itself challenging.

Jessi and I don't have a crystal ball, but we wonder - will this pandemic have lasting effects on women's progress?

This is the first of a few shows looking at what’s happening to women’s careers as this global health crisis continues.

You can also read a transcript of the show.

Episode 160: Stress and the Benefits of Being Outside (re-release)

“The time that women spend outside as girls having adventures and doing sports outside, the more confidence they have as adults. ”

— Florence Williams

When I first made this show in 2017 I could never have imagined how much more relevant the concept of getting outside to reduce stress would be three years later.

In this show I talk to science writer Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix, about how spending time outside can help lower our stress levels and allow us to gain perspective on daily problems. Most of us live and work in urban environments, spending hours a day in front of a screen. Nothing could be less natural. In this show we talk about how spending time outdoors can improve our lives in multiple ways, and how women can benefit even more than men.

You can also read a transcript of the show.

Episode 159: Science Evangelist

“Your voice is precious, and you should protect it, and you should do everything in your power to make sure it gets heard. ”

— Ainissa Ramirez

ainissa ramirez

Ainissa Ramirez has loved science since the age of four. But her dreams of becoming a scientist were almost squelched when she got to college. When she graduated she vowed to make other people's journeys through science better than her own.

Today, she's helping thousands of people understand and appreciate how the world around them works - and maybe even go into science themselves. In this episode we talk about the influence her grandmother had on Ainissa’s life, the ups and downs of her career, leaving academia to go out on her own, and some of the amazing (often untold) stories in her new book, The Alchemy of Us.

She also has some solid advice for other women scientists who may be finding their workplaces...challenging.

You can also read a transcript of the show.

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Further reading:

The Alchemy of Us by Ainissa Ramirez

STEM Education Needs a Course Correction by Ainissa Ramirez in Scientific American - this is where I first read about the airport bathroom story we talk about at the top of the show.

Black Images Matter: How Cameras Helped, and Sometimes Harmed, Black People by Ainissa Ramirez in Scientific American.

Episode 158: Caring in a Crisis

“I feel elderlies are being neglected. It’s just a good feeling to do my part, and I’m really worried when I get to be that age – who’s going to be there for us?”

— Susie Rivera

“I’m not worried about [going to work] because I believe that in a crisis, not doing anything is not an option...I am not a part of the problem. I am part of the solution. ”

— Maria Colville

Photo by sam thomas/iStock / Getty Images

A lot of us have been able to work from home during lockdown these last few months. One group of workers that hasn't is paid caregivers - aides, mainly women, who are paid by the hour to help elderly, frail and disabled people accomplish some of the tasks of daily living.

In this show we meet two women who have been doing care work for three decades - Susie Rivera in Texas and Maria Colville in Massachusetts. Their job is one of the fastest growing in the U.S. But it pays poorly and a lot of people don't see its importance...until they need that care themselves. Some clients are grateful and gracious, others less so.

Each woman feels called to her role. As Maria puts it, "The opportunity to make an impact in someone else's life," is its own reward.

You can also read a transcript of the show.

Episode 157: More Than Power Poses

“You hear this word empowerment associated with the kind of Lean In style of feminism...This idea that if we could just be a little more assertive, if we would stand up for ourselves, then we would be paid equally, we would reach positions of power.”

— Ruth Whippman

In this show I’m handing you over to Lauren Schiller, host of Inflection Point, for a summer swap episode. Some of you are already Inflection Point fans but if you don’t know it, there is lots to discover. Lauren created the show and has been hosting it for five years now. She has talked to a fabulous array of guests.

She produced this episode on the difference between ‘empowerment’ and actual power with writer Ruth Whippman in 2018, and I wanted to air it because it’s thought provoking, funny and smart (would I offer you anything less?) I also share Ruth’s outsider view of life in the U.S.

You can access a transcript of the show on the original episode page.

lauren schiller (l) and ruth whippman in the inflection point studio