Twice As Good or Four Times As Hard?
One of my all time favorite quotes is this:
“Whatever women must do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.”
~ Charlotte Whitton
How true this statement has been in my lifetime. There is some interesting math involved here, though, depending on how you interpret the quote. If we have to work twice as hard to get half the credit, wouldn’t we have to work four times as hard in order to be equal? No wonder we women are so exhausted all the time!
Now on to the part that says “Luckily, this is not difficult.” I am not so sure that is true. Any time a woman takes on the challenge of a “man’s job,” there is usually an instant barrier set in place that she must somehow get over. I have honestly never yet met a woman who walked into a particular job or field of expertise and was just accepted and never once felt an ounce of discrimination. If you have ever experienced total acceptance, please share your story.
So what do we do about this? It seems that every time we make some progress, something happens and we slide backward a few notches. Take the field of technology for instance. Women were making great strides in this area just a couple of years ago. Today, the number of women pursuing careers in the computer sciences is on a serious decline. Why? Are there less females interested in technology now or are they just tired of working four times as hard to get the same results as the males?
What is your profession? Do you feel like you are working four times as hard?
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