Balancing the balance argument

The chief executive of UCAS, Mary Curnock Cook, recently made a really important point on gender 'balance', reported in the last issue of the Times Higher Education.  Speaking to the Association of University Administrators she observed that whilst it would take an additional 15000 female students to 'balance out' the current male dominance in engineering, it would take getting on for double that to do the same for the current female dominance of subjects allied to medicine, which includes nursing.   So, she argued, we should maybe be paying at least as much attention to getting more men into subjects where they are underrepresented as we do in respect of…
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Confidence, convergence and caretakers

An interesting recent post from Jessica Valenti on 'why the female confidence gap is a sham' has made me rethink PP Factor 3.    PP Factor 3 refers to women's greater reluctance to put themselves forward for jobs, or for promotions, as one of the explanations for flatter careers and lower pay.  I've been in the habit of labelling this as 'lack of self-confidence'  but it needs a broader and more nuanced description. Valenti's piece is a guffaw at a new book The Confidence Code, which argues that American women need more confidence.  "It's true," she says, "that there's a gendered disparity in confidence..but the 'confidence gap' is not a personal defect…
Read More

Asia: where the PP applies most strongly?

The Economist recently ran a long piece on 'Holding back half the nation:  Japanese women and work'.  It chronicled the challenge facing Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, as he seeks to change the position of Japanese women in the economy.  Japanese women are amongst the best-educated in the world, but 70% of women who have children stop working for a decade or more, and many never come back.   The  economic participation rate  for women is just 63%.  Fertility is, predictably, low. Japan and Korea are probably the most powerful examples  of the PP at work, with exceptionally well-qualified women almost all of whom have poor career prospects.   Mr Abe…
Read More

Grey trainees

Lucy Kellaway's column in today's Financial Times puts forward the idea of middle-aged trainees, with her usual reflexive wit.  (Sorry, I can't give you the link - no FT online sub…)  She contrasts her own early traineeship as a 'sneering waster' with the knowledgeable commitment likely to be shown by anyone who is taken on in their early 50s.    Older trainees might be quite willing to work at trainee rates, at least initially, if they had paid off mortgage , kids were off their hands etc. The key behind this, of course, is the increased duration of our working lives, from 40-odd to 50-odd years.  That makes an investment…
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A fertile post

Below is a comment submitted in response to a blog of mine challenging Mrs Moneypenny's sense of value. I've kept it anonymous at the request of the author  (let's call her K) but quote it in almost its entirety because it encapsulates so many PP issues.  In particular: 1.  Fairness is and should be central.  The driver is K's sense of injustice at her discovery, not her desire for more money.    People should not have to work to find these things out, nor happen on them by chance. 2.  Part-timers often give better value.  Another, rather different, example:  I was listening the other week to Brian Moore - the…
Read More

Balancing the balance argument

The chief executive of UCAS, Mary Curnock Cook, recently made a really important point on gender 'balance', reported in the last issue of the Times Higher Education.  Speaking to the Association of University Administrators she observed that whilst it would take an additional 15000 female students to 'balance out' the current male dominance in engineering, it would take getting on for double that to do the same for the current female dominance of subjects allied to medicine, which includes nursing.   So, she argued, we should maybe be paying at least as much attention to getting more men into subjects where they are underrepresented as we do in respect of…
Read More

Confidence, convergence and caretakers

An interesting recent post from Jessica Valenti on 'why the female confidence gap is a sham' has made me rethink PP Factor 3.    PP Factor 3 refers to women's greater reluctance to put themselves forward for jobs, or for promotions, as one of the explanations for flatter careers and lower pay.  I've been in the habit of labelling this as 'lack of self-confidence'  but it needs a broader and more nuanced description. Valenti's piece is a guffaw at a new book The Confidence Code, which argues that American women need more confidence.  "It's true," she says, "that there's a gendered disparity in confidence..but the 'confidence gap' is not a personal defect…
Read More

Asia: where the PP applies most strongly?

The Economist recently ran a long piece on 'Holding back half the nation:  Japanese women and work'.  It chronicled the challenge facing Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, as he seeks to change the position of Japanese women in the economy.  Japanese women are amongst the best-educated in the world, but 70% of women who have children stop working for a decade or more, and many never come back.   The  economic participation rate  for women is just 63%.  Fertility is, predictably, low. Japan and Korea are probably the most powerful examples  of the PP at work, with exceptionally well-qualified women almost all of whom have poor career prospects.   Mr Abe…
Read More

Grey trainees

Lucy Kellaway's column in today's Financial Times puts forward the idea of middle-aged trainees, with her usual reflexive wit.  (Sorry, I can't give you the link - no FT online sub…)  She contrasts her own early traineeship as a 'sneering waster' with the knowledgeable commitment likely to be shown by anyone who is taken on in their early 50s.    Older trainees might be quite willing to work at trainee rates, at least initially, if they had paid off mortgage , kids were off their hands etc. The key behind this, of course, is the increased duration of our working lives, from 40-odd to 50-odd years.  That makes an investment…
Read More

A fertile post

Below is a comment submitted in response to a blog of mine challenging Mrs Moneypenny's sense of value. I've kept it anonymous at the request of the author  (let's call her K) but quote it in almost its entirety because it encapsulates so many PP issues.  In particular: 1.  Fairness is and should be central.  The driver is K's sense of injustice at her discovery, not her desire for more money.    People should not have to work to find these things out, nor happen on them by chance. 2.  Part-timers often give better value.  Another, rather different, example:  I was listening the other week to Brian Moore - the…
Read More

Balancing the balance argument

The chief executive of UCAS, Mary Curnock Cook, recently made a really important point on gender 'balance', reported in the last issue of the Times Higher Education.  Speaking to the Association of University Administrators she observed that whilst it would take an additional 15000 female students to 'balance out' the current male dominance in engineering, it would take getting on for double that to do the same for the current female dominance of subjects allied to medicine, which includes nursing.   So, she argued, we should maybe be paying at least as much attention to getting more men into subjects where they are underrepresented as we do in respect of…
Read More

Confidence, convergence and caretakers

An interesting recent post from Jessica Valenti on 'why the female confidence gap is a sham' has made me rethink PP Factor 3.    PP Factor 3 refers to women's greater reluctance to put themselves forward for jobs, or for promotions, as one of the explanations for flatter careers and lower pay.  I've been in the habit of labelling this as 'lack of self-confidence'  but it needs a broader and more nuanced description. Valenti's piece is a guffaw at a new book The Confidence Code, which argues that American women need more confidence.  "It's true," she says, "that there's a gendered disparity in confidence..but the 'confidence gap' is not a personal defect…
Read More

Asia: where the PP applies most strongly?

The Economist recently ran a long piece on 'Holding back half the nation:  Japanese women and work'.  It chronicled the challenge facing Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, as he seeks to change the position of Japanese women in the economy.  Japanese women are amongst the best-educated in the world, but 70% of women who have children stop working for a decade or more, and many never come back.   The  economic participation rate  for women is just 63%.  Fertility is, predictably, low. Japan and Korea are probably the most powerful examples  of the PP at work, with exceptionally well-qualified women almost all of whom have poor career prospects.   Mr Abe…
Read More

Grey trainees

Lucy Kellaway's column in today's Financial Times puts forward the idea of middle-aged trainees, with her usual reflexive wit.  (Sorry, I can't give you the link - no FT online sub…)  She contrasts her own early traineeship as a 'sneering waster' with the knowledgeable commitment likely to be shown by anyone who is taken on in their early 50s.    Older trainees might be quite willing to work at trainee rates, at least initially, if they had paid off mortgage , kids were off their hands etc. The key behind this, of course, is the increased duration of our working lives, from 40-odd to 50-odd years.  That makes an investment…
Read More

A fertile post

Below is a comment submitted in response to a blog of mine challenging Mrs Moneypenny's sense of value. I've kept it anonymous at the request of the author  (let's call her K) but quote it in almost its entirety because it encapsulates so many PP issues.  In particular: 1.  Fairness is and should be central.  The driver is K's sense of injustice at her discovery, not her desire for more money.    People should not have to work to find these things out, nor happen on them by chance. 2.  Part-timers often give better value.  Another, rather different, example:  I was listening the other week to Brian Moore - the…
Read More

Balancing the balance argument

The chief executive of UCAS, Mary Curnock Cook, recently made a really important point on gender 'balance', reported in the last issue of the Times Higher Education.  Speaking to the Association of University Administrators she observed that whilst it would take an additional 15000 female students to 'balance out' the current male dominance in engineering, it would take getting on for double that to do the same for the current female dominance of subjects allied to medicine, which includes nursing.   So, she argued, we should maybe be paying at least as much attention to getting more men into subjects where they are underrepresented as we do in respect of…
Read More

Confidence, convergence and caretakers

An interesting recent post from Jessica Valenti on 'why the female confidence gap is a sham' has made me rethink PP Factor 3.    PP Factor 3 refers to women's greater reluctance to put themselves forward for jobs, or for promotions, as one of the explanations for flatter careers and lower pay.  I've been in the habit of labelling this as 'lack of self-confidence'  but it needs a broader and more nuanced description. Valenti's piece is a guffaw at a new book The Confidence Code, which argues that American women need more confidence.  "It's true," she says, "that there's a gendered disparity in confidence..but the 'confidence gap' is not a personal defect…
Read More

Asia: where the PP applies most strongly?

The Economist recently ran a long piece on 'Holding back half the nation:  Japanese women and work'.  It chronicled the challenge facing Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, as he seeks to change the position of Japanese women in the economy.  Japanese women are amongst the best-educated in the world, but 70% of women who have children stop working for a decade or more, and many never come back.   The  economic participation rate  for women is just 63%.  Fertility is, predictably, low. Japan and Korea are probably the most powerful examples  of the PP at work, with exceptionally well-qualified women almost all of whom have poor career prospects.   Mr Abe…
Read More

Grey trainees

Lucy Kellaway's column in today's Financial Times puts forward the idea of middle-aged trainees, with her usual reflexive wit.  (Sorry, I can't give you the link - no FT online sub…)  She contrasts her own early traineeship as a 'sneering waster' with the knowledgeable commitment likely to be shown by anyone who is taken on in their early 50s.    Older trainees might be quite willing to work at trainee rates, at least initially, if they had paid off mortgage , kids were off their hands etc. The key behind this, of course, is the increased duration of our working lives, from 40-odd to 50-odd years.  That makes an investment…
Read More

A fertile post

Below is a comment submitted in response to a blog of mine challenging Mrs Moneypenny's sense of value. I've kept it anonymous at the request of the author  (let's call her K) but quote it in almost its entirety because it encapsulates so many PP issues.  In particular: 1.  Fairness is and should be central.  The driver is K's sense of injustice at her discovery, not her desire for more money.    People should not have to work to find these things out, nor happen on them by chance. 2.  Part-timers often give better value.  Another, rather different, example:  I was listening the other week to Brian Moore - the…
Read More

Balancing the balance argument

The chief executive of UCAS, Mary Curnock Cook, recently made a really important point on gender 'balance', reported in the last issue of the Times Higher Education.  Speaking to the Association of University Administrators she observed that whilst it would take an additional 15000 female students to 'balance out' the current male dominance in engineering, it would take getting on for double that to do the same for the current female dominance of subjects allied to medicine, which includes nursing.   So, she argued, we should maybe be paying at least as much attention to getting more men into subjects where they are underrepresented as we do in respect of…
Read More

Confidence, convergence and caretakers

An interesting recent post from Jessica Valenti on 'why the female confidence gap is a sham' has made me rethink PP Factor 3.    PP Factor 3 refers to women's greater reluctance to put themselves forward for jobs, or for promotions, as one of the explanations for flatter careers and lower pay.  I've been in the habit of labelling this as 'lack of self-confidence'  but it needs a broader and more nuanced description. Valenti's piece is a guffaw at a new book The Confidence Code, which argues that American women need more confidence.  "It's true," she says, "that there's a gendered disparity in confidence..but the 'confidence gap' is not a personal defect…
Read More

Asia: where the PP applies most strongly?

The Economist recently ran a long piece on 'Holding back half the nation:  Japanese women and work'.  It chronicled the challenge facing Shinzo Abe, the Japanese prime minister, as he seeks to change the position of Japanese women in the economy.  Japanese women are amongst the best-educated in the world, but 70% of women who have children stop working for a decade or more, and many never come back.   The  economic participation rate  for women is just 63%.  Fertility is, predictably, low. Japan and Korea are probably the most powerful examples  of the PP at work, with exceptionally well-qualified women almost all of whom have poor career prospects.   Mr Abe…
Read More

Grey trainees

Lucy Kellaway's column in today's Financial Times puts forward the idea of middle-aged trainees, with her usual reflexive wit.  (Sorry, I can't give you the link - no FT online sub…)  She contrasts her own early traineeship as a 'sneering waster' with the knowledgeable commitment likely to be shown by anyone who is taken on in their early 50s.    Older trainees might be quite willing to work at trainee rates, at least initially, if they had paid off mortgage , kids were off their hands etc. The key behind this, of course, is the increased duration of our working lives, from 40-odd to 50-odd years.  That makes an investment…
Read More

A fertile post

Below is a comment submitted in response to a blog of mine challenging Mrs Moneypenny's sense of value. I've kept it anonymous at the request of the author  (let's call her K) but quote it in almost its entirety because it encapsulates so many PP issues.  In particular: 1.  Fairness is and should be central.  The driver is K's sense of injustice at her discovery, not her desire for more money.    People should not have to work to find these things out, nor happen on them by chance. 2.  Part-timers often give better value.  Another, rather different, example:  I was listening the other week to Brian Moore - the…
Read More