There are many generalisations about the differences between men and women, and like most generalisations, they are sometimes valid – clichés don’t get to be clichés without a good foundation in truth. This is particularly the case when it comes to the workplace, where the following assumptions are often made and are
“Work is a break for me” and “Heading home now to the real job” are some of the comments I used to hear from work colleagues who were parents – this was before I had children myself, and really, I didn’t believe them. Surely they were just trying to make
The night before returning to work after Christmas, many of us feel The Fear; lying awake, mind buzzing, right at the time when we really, really need to sleep. But this is a just momentary quiver in comparison to the all-consuming, stomach-churning fear that some of us experience the night before returning to work
This is my 100th blog-post. And tomorrow is New Year’s Eve. So I’m thinking that it might be OK for me to say something about that – about my first year of blogging. For me, 2013 has been a year of engagement. Not the diamond-ring type – that was a decade
Spring 2011, sitting in Copenhagen airport, sipping a €7 cappuccino and eating a Danish pastry (of course), I browsed through my copy of Marie-Claire, stopping on an article about “Impostor Syndrome” Just the week before, I had been explaining the term to a friend who hadn’t heard of it. Many
After reading “Here’s why we need to start asking men – how do you do it all?” I started to really think about why we don’t ask men this question, and about all the other questions we are asked as women. Can you picture a man being asked any of
A thought provoking piece appeared in the Independent this week by Miriam Donahue, recounting how she once broke the glass ceiling but then handed back her promotion in favour of having time with her family. She makes very good points about quotas, about women in politics and women on air.
Mothers: what is the solution? With working outside the home I mean, and the attempts to balance. I have never met a mother with whom I haven’t had this conversation – the one about work. All of the below conversations took place over a two week period, just a typical fortnight
The perpetuation of so-called mummy-wars assumes that there is a distinct split between just two types of mothers: those who go out to work in paid employment and those who stay at home with their children. Black and White. Opposite ends of the spectrum. Apparently. And it has reared it’s
Maternity benefit has been cut in this week’s budget to €230 per week, down from €262*. This is getting some attention in the media, but understandably, it is overshadowed by more hard-hitting changes. There have been some comments from ISME, One Family, and from the Director of the National Women’s
Is there really a glass ceiling for women in the workplace? Or is it for the most part, something experienced by mothers in the workplace? I realise that this is a controversial question but I’m genuinely interested to know if there are people reading who have been held back in the workplace simply because
Working mothers are being put on the “mommy track” according to an article in the Independent last week. We have so many terms to learn all the time it’s hard to keep up – for anyone who is not familiar with it, “mommy track” refers to the sidelining
Don’t be a martyr. Don’t be a mammy-martyr or a worker-bee-martyr or any other kind. It didn’t end well for Joan of Arc and it won’t end well for you. I don’t know if it’s an Irish thing or a woman thing or a mother thing, or maybe a little
A provocative headline from the daily mail: why SHOULD childless women like us do longer hours to cover for working mothers see the article here More than 1,000 comments already, and the pot has well and truly been stirred. But a headline like “Most people work together as best they can
Mommy-wars. Or since we’re in Ireland, let’s say Mammy-wars. I can’t stand the term, but it’s the widely-used name for the phenomenon of mothers judging mothers on every element of parenting, originally coined to refer to mothers working outside the home versus stay-at-home mothers. Newspapers love the SAHM/ mothers working outside the
Working from home: no to mascara and high heels, yes to school runs and meals with kids, and best of all reduced guilt…. Lots of people work in jobs that are not suitable for working from home, and plenty of other people are not allowed to by employers. But if you have children, and have ever
As a mother to three children under six, most of my adult conversations every day are with other parents, most of whom have kids in childcare. Over the last few days, a recurring topic is the news story about RTE’s Prime Time sending undercover researchers into two Dublin creches, and gathering video footage
It’s lunchtime and I’m under my desk having a snooze. Well not really, but that’s where I’d love to be right now, as I scribble these notes and drink my third cappuccino. My baby was up all night, and I’m beyond exhausted. OK he’s not technically a baby anymore, and it
I should have been in bed, it was heading towards midnight on Sunday, and I was due up at 4am to head to the airport for a work trip. As usual I was feeling 90% apprehensive – worrying about leaving the kids, anxious that the baby would wake during the night and not understand
No matter how much you enjoy your job, and certainly if you don’t, returning to work after maternity leave is often daunting. Even if you feel “ready to go back” it’s hard leaving the little person with creche or childminder. It’s difficult the first time, and it’s no less difficult