As I’ve mentioned before, I’m the breadwinner in our family. My husband stays at home and looks after the kids. So while I’ve got an impressive corporate job, I sometimes wonder whether I am advancing the cause of women and families generally in the workplace.
Have I just bought into the dominant paradigm that a serious corporate job needs a “wife” to go with it? Would I be setting a better example if we both had a serious corporate job (which was the position we were in for our older son’s first year of life)?
On balance, I think that I am better doing it this way than the reverse. I am more likely than the average man to leave work at a reasonable hour to try and have dinner with the family. I am also more likely to say no to extra work for that reason, or at least question whether it is really adding value. I also like to think that I am reasonably sympathetic to others who have work life issues that mean that they’d rather not spend all hours in the office.
But I do sometimes wonder if I’m just behaving like a man in woman’s clothing.