Need Advice: Mid Career Woman in a Male Dominated Field

[Anonymous]

Hi wise DCUMers,

I've slowed my career down a lot over the last 10 years to date and finally start a family. It took a long time. My young child is finally demanding less of my attention, and I find myself looking for a greater challenge than my current role (mid-senior professional, non-managerial) at my federal agency. I need to keep this job, as it is stable and my family depends on the income. My field is male dominated, and the gender gap hasn't improved in about 2 decades. Today I visited the website of the prestigious professional society in my field and saw that a former classmate (who is male) is in a leadership position there. There was only one woman listed among the dozen or so leaders. Should I invest my energy in writing a paper to present there next year? (I haven't written a paper in over 10 years, and this will likely require putting in night and weekend hours.) Or, should I do independent consulting on the side? This would be a new challenge, and somewhat scary, but it seems like a realistic goal. I'd have to generate clients and find chunks of time to do the work, in addition to keeping up my day job. But maybe gender will be less of a barrier if I follow this path. I cherish my time with my child and don't want to destroy the balance I currently enjoy. But if there is a way to find challenges while keeping this balance, I want to give it a try. Many thanks for any thoughts/advice.

[Anonymous]

It's unclear what you want. If you're a fed, it doesn't seem to me that you need to do anything "extra" to keep your job, so long as you're meeting the work requirements. If you want to move up (in grade, or title?), it depends on what your agency requires. Generally speaking, I'm convinced that the difference between the number of men vs. women at the top is due to the fact that there are fewer people at the top reaching down to pull women up. In other words, women have fewer "supporters" who'll say "Suzy is awesome, you should bring her on." So the men who have supporters saying this get promoted - more often, and at higher wages. Which means that your next step may be to find and cultivate someone who'll do this for you.

[Anonymous]

Writing papers is very highly looked upon at my work. I work in a field that is around 80% male for the Federal Government with an enormous age gap.

I actually think that the reason women don't move up is for a variety of reasons: 1) when you're young you don't make the friendships men make with each other 2) women tend either work less and concentrate on family more, or work more and concentrate on family less (like all people) and women who do either are not looked upon highly by anyone, particuarly other women who did not focus on family.

Consulting on the side can cause an issue. You'd need to specify what you're doing to make me understand your goals with that. Writing a paper is extremely low risk. The worst that happens is that it doesn't get accepted. What are the other negatives, exactly? Spending time on something that doesn't pan out? If you're not willing to do that, you're not going to get anywhere.

[Anonymous]

It's not clear what you want from your career. If you are looking for a greater challenge, talk to your supervisor at work. See if there are projects or opportunities there.

I think you may be too hung up on gender. It's much less of an issue than you are making it. Be assertive, tell your supervisor what you want from your job, and see what happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Writing papers is very highly looked upon at my work. I work in a field that is around 80% male for the Federal Government with an enormous age gap.

I actually think that the reason women don't move up is for a variety of reasons: 1) when you're young you don't make the friendships men make with each other 2) women tend either work less and concentrate on family more, or work more and concentrate on family less (like all people) and women who do either are not looked upon highly by anyone, particuarly other women who did not focus on family.

Consulting on the side can cause an issue. You'd need to specify what you're doing to make me understand your goals with that. Writing a paper is extremely low risk. The worst that happens is that it doesn't get accepted. What are the other negatives, exactly? Spending time on something that doesn't pan out? If you're not willing to do that, you're not going to get anywhere.

Thanks.

Did you mean "wage" not "age"?

My goals are to utilize the training I obtained through my advanced degree and to obtain recognition for my contributions. Granted, some academic skills are not relevant to real world problems, and therefore I agree that I should spend part of my time doing a variety of activities valuable to my organization, which do not rely on my training. However, it seems that the males in my organization have greater access to assignments that utilize their training. They also appear to have their names on work products more often than the women do.

There are two negatives to writing a paper. First, it can be difficult to get permission for sufficient official time to write quality papers. Second, if you invest the time to do so, you will have less time for an independent consulting project. Writing the paper can be rewarding, I agree, even if it doesn't get accepted.

What issues can consulting on the side cause? I would clear this in advance with my ethics office, and I would choose areas outside the domain of my agency to avoid conflicts.

[Anonymous]

You have to clear publications with your agency as well.

I would not ask for official time to write a publication. Maybe I'm wrong, but I can't see how that would help your career.

I think you should focus on trying to get on better projects at work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Did you mean "wage" not "age"?

My goals are to utilize the training I obtained through my advanced degree and to obtain recognition for my contributions. Granted, some academic skills are not relevant to real world problems, and therefore I agree that I should spend part of my time doing a variety of activities valuable to my organization, which do not rely on my training. However, it seems that the males in my organization have greater access to assignments that utilize their training. They also appear to have their names on work products more often than the women do.

There are two negatives to writing a paper. First, it can be difficult to get permission for sufficient official time to write quality papers. Second, if you invest the time to do so, you will have less time for an independent consulting project. Writing the paper can be rewarding, I agree, even if it doesn't get accepted.

What issues can consulting on the side cause? I would clear this in advance with my ethics office, and I would choose areas outside the domain of my agency to avoid conflicts.

No, I meant age. There's like a 10 year gap in the middle, which makes it a little more difficult to get ahead because every time there's an opening there are a ton of people looking to fill it. I'm honestly not sure why I mentioned it. I must have misread your post.

Anyway, whether or not you get to write a paper on official time depends on what the paper is on. If the group sees it as a good thing for them, they'll let you write it on the clock. Otherwise you need to do it on your own. I was referring to ethics issues in consulting, but if you're going to make certain there's not a conflict that is okay.

In any case, I can't really see what you're going for. I think you need to be more clear on what the type of recognition is that you're looking for. If you're looking for something more challenging or something that garners recognition. Those are not the same thing....although they could come from the same place.

The fact is that you may not get to use all of your skills at work. If you don't want to leave your job you'll have to figure out how to use them elsewhere. You're stating in your original post a lot of things that conflict. You want to get recognition and use skills. You can't use them at your current job. You do not want to leave your current job. You don't want to do these things off the clock. You can't have it all. You either need to find a new job (in the Federal Government, likely) that utilizes your skills or you need to do something about it off hours, which will eat into your time with your family.

We're all making these choices, men and women, so I can definitely identify with your problem. I just don't know that there's a good way to solve it.

[Anonymous]

I don't think you can do consulting as a fed. At least in my agency, you have to report any second job to management to avoid conflicts of interest. They take it very seriously.