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.