The KathyHowe soapbox on successeful women.
I have a confession to make. I totally love Ted.com. It is a source of some of my favorite, most insightful videos. I have watched many of the videos more than once. Including this one by Sheryl Sandberg on Why we have too few women leaders.
Watch it then come back here. I'll wait.
I really like this video for a long list of reasons. She is so right in all of her points and while I am not a C-level executive, I am in management and I can see how my choices are in line with some of her thoughts and ideas.
But one thing I thought was blatantly missing was any commentary about single mothers in the workplace. Specifically, single mothers that desire leadership roles.
Clearly, Sheryl is not a single mother so it is possible she didn't feel like this was a topic could comment on but I think if we are going to talk about women in leadership roles we cannot forget the single mothers out there who are busting their asses day and night to do everything for their children, their home, their careers and themselves.
And they are doing it without the support of a significant other.
There are women out there that are exceeding in the workplace and at home and they are doing it all alone. They are achieving because they deserve to achieve. Because they worked hard and took chances.
They are not succeeding because they simply got lucky.
If any woman out there, single or coupled, wants to figure out how to manage it all and make it work, I suggest finding a single mother as a role model.
If a single mother can do it, why can't you?
/soapbox
posted by Kathy Howe @ 1/02/2012 12:30:00 PM
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I often refer to myself as "cruise director"--there are so many things that need to be managed, day to day--Kid A needs X for a school assignment, Kid B needs Y dollars (because she just does...) the car needs something, people need to be fed and clothed, etc. There's a meeting at the office and a meeting at the school, just 20 minutes apart. On and on. I wish you could put single parenting on the resume and it would be looked at for what it is--a very active and hands-on management job. My boss doesn't have half the skill I have at dealing with problems and juggling numerous things at once. I'd even go so far as to say that he's not particularly skilled at doing much of anything, but, he acts like he is, and so, he got that job.
Three months after I started at this position, my manager at the time (a woman) left for a different position and asked me if I was interested in applying for the manager job. I said no--my thought was, "I've been here three months, what the hell do I know?" Turns out, I know a hell of a lot more than the guy they eventually hired. I'm not saying I would have gotten the job if I had applied, but I can assure you that I'll never make the mistake of thinking, "gosh, I couldn't do that" ever again.
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