The Problem With Power Careers

Ladies, you’ve been lied to.

For decades we’ve all been told that significance in this world was attached to your professional accolades and position. How long did women with professional aspirations languish in the home? Her days filled with what Cosmo said were, "demeaning and thankless tasks such as, dishes, meals, and raising the children."

The liberation movement said that things would be different when women were allowed to enter the workforce unhindered."Women can do the same work as a man and just as well. Women deserve the same professional benefits as men!" Let’s mark that time as 1970, fair enough?

So how about now? According to the combined statistics from the Census Bureau and Pew Research; percentage of women who are employed was 35% in 1970 and is 49% now.

54% of college graduates are women now as opposed to 36% in 1970.

Men whose wives out earn them was 4% then, 23% now.

Number of Fortune 500 CEOs who are women? 1970 was zero. Today 18.

Women now fill the majority of jobs in the America and 51.4% of managerial and professional positions.

In the 30 and under set, women out earn the men of the same age group in all but 3 major cities.

Those are pretty decent increases and changes in areas that a lot of people consider critical. There is another area getting a lot of attention in this transition of more women into power careers and an article I read recently exposed some real problems. The area I’m referring to is the number of men who are becoming the "house-husband."

Of the 18 women CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, 7 of them have had a stay-at-home husband at some point in their career. Those staying at home have put any career aspirations on ice to take care of the home and raise the children…sound familiar?

The fact that a gender reversal has begun in the traditional breadwinner and homemaker roles is not the issue. My problem with these trends is that in the face of all of this change, NOTHING HAS CHANGED!!!

Since the industrial revolution started taking people out of their homes and into the factories to earn a living, men dominated the business landscape and women were relegated to the home. Men missed out on their family, important events, building relationships, and longed for retirement so they could finally enjoy the fruits of their years of labor. But hey… they had powerful careers.

Now you can swap out "men" for "women" and the story is the same. But hey… you’ve got your career.

And the advice women are receiving from so-called experts is doing nothing. It is all geared toward having a career at the expense of everything else and if you listen to those that have achieved their career mark, it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

"I wish our 19-year-old son were in touch with me as frequently as he is with his dad."
-Sold her cosmetics company for $1.7 billion and still spends most of her time in stores or online chatting with customers. Says she’s jealous of her husband’s relationship with their son.

"I’m afraid my kids won’t be ambitious because they hear me complaining about how hard it is all the time. I’ve missed so much with my kids – school plays, recitals, just seeing them every day." -CEO of a pharmaceutical company that considers her absence from home a success because her career paid off.

"My responsibilities provide very limited time for our three kids." -former State Governor who built a great career and years of resentment in her home.

Exciting, right? Isn’t that what everyone dreams of? So how do you fix the issue of having a great career and a resentful family at home? Listen to the experts (who I’ll mercifully leave anonymous).

"Marry down and find a husband who won’t mind staying at home – or wed older men who are ready to retire as your career takes off."

"Choose your spouse carefully," not bad so far, but just wait, "If you want a top job, you need a husband who isn’t self-involved and will support your success."

Woo hoo! There are some nuggets for life-long bliss! The trophy wife has become a symbol of animosity in our society and now we’re teaching women to go get a trophy husband. You know…the kind that sits on the shelf, looking pretty, but doesn’t really do anything. Marry a man that won’t be in your way.

The problems are not in which gender plays what role. The problem is that society at-large is teaching the wrong approach. Putting people into a career silo and telling them it is their only focus is a lie from the pit of hell and a recipe for disaster.

The question everyone must answer is not, how can I set up my raging career? We have to answer, what do I want my LIFE to look like?

This is the only question that can give us full perspective on the thing so many are missing out on… a real life. A life full of passion and success for ALL of the things we love. Not just our professional pursuits.

With the answer of how we want our overall life to look, we can begin to assess how things like career, family, health, spouse selection, etc. support the life we desire. I firmly believe that young women and men alike should be very selective when choosing a spouse, but not because you need a doormat that won’t interfere with your career.

Our choices throughout life need to be based on what best supports the life we want to live. Contrary to popular culture, our careers are not the center of our existence! They are one of many pieces that support life as we choose it.

If the life you truly want to live is filled by a smoking career, absentee parenting, a spouse that’s more of an accessory than a partner, and pervasive loneliness… I apologize for trying to persuade you. 

This may be a topic for an entire conference because there’s no way I can complete this rant in one post… anyway, I guess I have two final questions.

Isn’t it time for a real revolution? We as a society are steadily grinding the life out of ourselves by promoting glorified mediocrity. Lives full of only one thing and it’s the thing that isolates and destroys when allowed to dominate. Make the decision to be different.

Secondly, what are your thoughts on this? Honest comments preferred. Thanks.

Here is a follow up article to this post.

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PJ McClure helps aspiring entrepreneurs to multi-million dollar business owners destroy roadblocks and seize opportunities to achieve their ideal vision of success. He is an award-winning speaker and the best-selling author of Flip the SWITCH: How to Turn On and Turn Up Your Mindset and Unlock Your Life: How to go beyond Time-Management to the Life of Your Dreams. You can download a copy of Flip the SWITCH for Free by clicking here.