|
February 17, 2003
A: FROM MENTOR SHEILA ENGLAND
IN PA
My voice is not always heard in meetings. Later, a male will
say exactly
what I said but was ignored and then the issue gets addressed.
I have not always received the same training offered to males
to prepare for
a project but I have been expected to perform equally.
I have been paid less and promoted less quickly than males.
I have been expected to be supportive, understanding and nurturing
to my
male colleagues and when there were times that I refused,
my male colleagues
were angry with me and the females in management would talk
to me about it
trying to convince me of my value in providing these intangibles.
There is a more stringent behavioral standard for females.
There are more expectations to be met when one is female.
One huge dilemma is when to speak up and when to stay silent.
If I speak
up, I have been labeled as a feminist and when I have been
silent, I have
been labeled as passive. I am still learning.
Another really challenging issue is the difficulty of being
in a world where
there are few females and where we have not yet learned to
stand up for one
another.
********************
A: FROM MENTOR KRISTIN TAGHON
IN IL
I am a Software Engineer. I design, program and test software.
I have two big
challenges. One is that I have to keep educating myself to
learn new technology
because technology keeps changing so quickly. If I don't stay
with it, I won't
be able to keep my job and if I can't keep my job, I won't
be able to find
another job where they are lookng for people who know the
latest technology. My
second big challenge, has been the politics of my job. I really
want to DO my
job and not worry about what the manager of another team thinks
of me. I just
wanted MY manager to know me and know I do a good job. For
a long time I could
do that because my job was secure. But, now, with layoffs
and bad economy, I
can get laid off if that remote manager doesn't know my work
and know that I am
a good employee. So, now I have to make sure that manager
KNOWS who I am, knows
that I do a good job. I don't even have to do this via my
programming. I have
to get involved in department-wide teams that manage different
areas - like
diversity or quality of work programs or project management.
I guess a third
challenge has been to do things that I really don't like to
do because everyone
has to do some of that. It's part of the job.
|
