Why Millennial Women Are Burning Out At Work By 30

[Harmony Blue]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larissafaw/2011/11/11/why-millennial-women-are-burning-out-at-work-by-30/

Young professional women may not relate to the financial struggles their Millennial peers are protesting against during the Occupy New York movement. After all, these ambitious go-getters are working as doctors, lawyers, engineers, and advertising executives, blessed with great salaries, health benefits, and paid vacation.

But these women understand the protesters’ frustration and unhappiness over the fact that their lives aren’t supposed to turn out this way. This is why a growing number of young professional women who seem to “have it all” are burning out at work before they reach 30

This is sad but I think what many young women are not taught to do is to put aside time for themselves. Young men having experienced the worker drone paradigm and are walking away from that lifestyle (eg Japanese men). But I think women are starting to have that epiphany too that working hard while it effects your health and mental well being is not worth in the long run.

What we (Millennial) have been taught as children ("Reagan-ism&quot that dominated our youth shows that it was all a lie.

I prefer to lead a simpler life and I am happier. I tell all younger men and women and my peers the same thing.

[Skittles]

1. at work a twenty-something gal (intern) asked me when I eat lunch

my goodness I how I laughed at that question

[JI7]

2. are they trying to fit in a bunch of other activities outside of work also

?

[PasadenaTrudy]

3. Who wants

"it all" and why? Why conform? You don't have to.

[enough]

7. These are such great questions. (nt)

[geek tragedy]

4. what a stupid, stupid, stupid article.

For one, it doesn't rely on any data or studies about millenials, or women, let alone millenial women, and their experience in the work place.

It merely provides statistical evidence of the glass ceiling, and then assumes that's because milennial women aren't mentally equipped to handle the workplace and its challenges.

And, somehow, she manages to avoid talking about preganancy and having children and how that tends to take women off the career fast-track.

Jesus.

[Gravitycollapse]

5. Women are being forced to be primary caregivers for grown men, thus wasting their free time.

Which is why this article and your post is so hilariously ass backwards. Men have only mastered the art of free time by making women do everything for them.

This is why women are more likely to suffer negative consequences from marriage and committed relationships while men are more likely to reap positive consequences. Being married, especially with children, statistically lowers the average terminal age of the woman while having no effect on the man.

[davidn3600]

9. Your post perpetuates a negative stereotype of feminists

That you want equality in the workplace and in the home except the man should still be expected to conform to his gender role of providing a safety net for his wife to fall back on.

[Gravitycollapse]

12. Where in my post did I suggest such a thing?

[davidn3600]

20. The title...

"Women are being forced to be primary caregivers for grown men, thus wasting their free time."

First, who's forcing women to do that? Did someone force successful women to marry such men? Did someone force women to take such jobs that have long stressful hours?

There are men that have the same jobs. Do they get "burnt out at age 30?" Do they complain their wife is unemployed or doesn't make as much money as they do?

[Gravitycollapse]

24. "First, who's forcing women to do that?" - Society, the state, friends, family members.

Men are are rewarded for being economic patriarchs which is a function of the social expectation. Whereas women who go into financially rewarding positions are very rarely ever celebrated. Moreover, they are subject to the public/private double bind. Social expectation is for women to perform domestic tasks. While women are not as reviled now for being financially successful as they have been in the past, there is still a powerful demand that women meet the expectations "at home" regardless of their commitment elsewhere.

Thus, men are privileged by a social expectation that maintains their dominance in the socio-economic hierarchy. Women are relegated to menial domesticity and are chastised for assuming they can excel in anything else without first being domestic.

[name not needed]

14. Because all men are lazy sacks of shit.

I think you've been spending too much time in HoF.

[Gravitycollapse]

15. Men aren't inherently lazy. But they are taught to depend disproportionately on the care of women.

Shedding off their responsibilities to the relationship on women who very often are stuck in the household to raise children.

Being the financial "breadwinner" doesn't make you a mutual contributor to a committed relationship. It in fact is very often used as an excuse to do little or nothing else.

[Major Nikon]

19. Hogwash

Men spend 40% more time on the job compared to women. Women spend roughly the same additional time with domestic duties. It all works out.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.t01.

Post #14 had it right.

[Gravitycollapse]

21. You have done literally nothing to counter my argument. You've actually helped solidify it.

Women are resigned to the banality of domesticity, performing all of the least rewarding, least socially powerful tasks while men take all of the credit for being the financial patriarchs. Which is something so historically demonstrated that even you are incapable of arguing otherwise.

[Major Nikon]

25. That which can be asserted without proof can be dismissed without proof

You never had more than an unsupported opinion as an argument. The BLS data proves your baseless conjecture wrong whether or not you choose to accept it.

Furthermore you almost make it sound like being a wage slave is a great thing while spending more time with the kids is the ultimate drag.

[Gravitycollapse]

26. I never said being a wage slave was good. I said it is more highly regarded, more powerful...

Than being Cinderella.

The BLS data actually furthers my argument, despite your claims to the contrary.

The statistics support my argument. Look at the proportion of women in executive positions (they constituted only 12 to 13 percent of all executives last I checked and only 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs), women in law firms (they constitute only a few percent of managing partners), and women in public office.

I have multiple books you can feel free to read which are annotated.

It Still Takes a Candidate by Lawless and Fox
Notes from the Cracked Ceiling by Kornblut

[Major Nikon]

36. You haven't supported your assertion with anything

Your claim was that men are lazy and women are carrying them. Where you came up with that claim is anyone's guess, but you have yet to offer any hard data for it so I'm assuming this is nothing more than your personal perception. Meanwhile I linked to the BLS which proves it's complete nonsense. Men and women spend roughly equal time in different activities. Now perhaps you think domestic chores have no real value(I don't agree), but it doesn't change the reality that on average both sexes are sharing equal loads once all activities are considered.

[joeglow3]

28. THIS is why our country is fucked.

Our society teaches us that raising a family is a shit job that is a curse. Sad really.

[Gravitycollapse]

29. No, our society teaches us that raising a family is crucial...

And that women should be the ones to do all of the nasty, backbreaking work keeping them together.

[joeglow3]

38. I have a brother and male friend who stay at home

You should see the shitty looks they have received from male and females, liberals and conservatives, when they find out.

[Orrex]

40. Exactly what do you mean by "least rewarding" in this context?

In real life I don't know any male who finds his work "rewarding," except in a mundane, financial sense. But a personally fulfilling occupation? Well, that's a luxury--a privilege--that very few people enjoy, male or female.

[delta17]

30. Sorry, but this is ridiculous.

Men are expected to do all of the dirty and difficult jobs at home. Mowing, shoveling snow, home repairs, and vehicle maintenance all fall under the "man's jobs" umbrella. The idea that men are taught to go to work and then just sit on the couch is ludicrous and insulting. Men that actually did that would find themselves cold and alone. I don't agree that jobs should be divided by gender roles, but traditionally men and women were expected to both do their share at home.

[Gravitycollapse]

31. Traditionally masculine tasks (also periodic) for being physically demanding...

Which is actually a consistent reaffirmation of dominant masculinity.

These tasks are also very often parodies for men (although vehicle maintenance just means you're a "real" man). They view it as a sort of comical "domestic task" mimicking what many women have to do every day, all the time. For instance, the "honey-do list" is usually seen as funny nagging by a girlfriend or wife. And men are praised for checking things off the list. As if they're saints for taking time out of the rest of their life to do something which should be done without any particular fuss.

Now is this the case with everyone? Absolutely not. Is it part of socially normative expectation? Absolutely.

[delta17]

34. You said

"Men have only mastered the art of free time by making women do everything for them." I just explained that this isn't true.

You seem to want to turn this into some battle of the sexes. The fact is, both men and women are expected to contribute by working outside the home and at home. I just read somewhere that 67% of couples with children under age 18 have two working parents. The stereotype of men being some Al Bundy caricature is just plain wrong.

[snooper2]

39. omfg you this post is so full of it

Just because you were raised like that don't try to project it on half the population.

[flvegan]

16. Wow.

I have nothing else to add.

[1000words]

22. Some of the poster's finest work

I see it as performance art.

[tooeyeten]

17. Women and men remain worlds apart

Even while women have more opportunities, the corporate workplace and American culture fails to provide equality for working women with families and men with families.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2014/03/05/harvard_business_review_study_on_work_life_balance_male_executives_see_family.html

[Journeyman]

6. "We run the race, the race was won / By running slowly" . . .

Saving up the birds in hand
While in the bush the others land
Take what we can before the man
Says its time to go

We Used to Know ~ Jethro Tull

[Bonobo]

11. "To each Journeyman his own home-coming"

Cold supper nearing with each station stop
Frosty flakes on empty platforms
Fireside slippers waiting. Flip. Flop.

[Demo_Chris]

32. That's fantastic. Did you write it? nt

[Bonobo]

33. It's from the song "Journeyman" by Jethro Tull. Ian is a master lyricist.

"Journeyman"

Spine-tingling railway sleepers ---
Sleepy houses lying four-square and firm
Orange beams divide the darkness
Rumbling fit to turn the waking worm.
Sliding through Victorian tunnels
where green moss oozes from the pores.
Dull echoes from the wet embankments
Battlefield allotments. Fresh open sores.

In late night commuter madness
Double-locked black briefcase on the floor
like a faithful dog with master
sleeping in the draught beside the carriage door.
To each Journeyman his own home-coming
Cold supper nearing with each station stop
Frosty flakes on empty platforms
Fireside slippers waiting. Flip. Flop.

Journeyman night-tripping on the late fantasic
Too late to stop for tea at Gerard's Cross
and hear the soft shoes on the footbridge shuffle
as the wheels turn biting on the midnight frost.
On the late commuter special
Carriage lights that flicker, fade and die
Howling into hollow blackness
Dusky diesel shudders in full cry.
Down redundant morning papers
Abandon crosswords with a cough
Stationmaster in his wisdom
told the guard to turn the heating off.

[liberal_at_heart]

8. Everyone should be free to pursue whatever lifestyle makes them happy.

Neither should be discouraged. If you are happy living a simple lifestyle that is great for you. There are young women out there that want to help cure cancer or sue environmental polluters or just make enough money to be self sufficient and retire and send her kids to college. Historically because of raising families women have always been at a disadvantage when it comes to retirement and personal savings. Most abused women don't have enough money to leave. It's okay to live a simple life. It's also okay to be ambitious and have a career.

[Bonobo]

10. Welcome to the wage slave life.

Too bad all those consumer goods made people think it was so desirable.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. The Rat Race is non-discriminating in still being The Rat Race.

Only a few are wise enough to get off the merry go round say "enough" with or without the brass ring.

[LeftyMom]

18. The whole notion is so classist I barely know where to start.

As burnt out as I get by my bullshit job and being a single parent and never fucking ending housework "working less" and "simplifying my life" would quickly put my millenial ass in a tent next to the river.

But goddamn, does the media love to tell lifestyle stories about wealthy dipshits and their newest neuroses.

[Orrex]

41. ^^That.

[DURHAM D]

23. Drivel

[Hippo_Tron]

27. I call bullshit on the entire premise

"53% of the entry level workforce is female, while 37% is mid-management, and 26% are Vice Presidents suggests to me that corporate culture has largely been a boys club for decades and that."

That doesn't suggest to me that women are burning out at age 30. It suggests to me that there are more women getting into professional career tracks than there were 10 years ago, just as there were more 10 years before that, and 10 years before that, and so on...

[BainsBane]

35. Apparently the much lauded freedom of choice for women

voiced by some on this site only applies to swimsuit models, prostitutes, and porn stars. Women who seek to work in professional fields are "sad" because their choices don't correspond to what the OP thinks they should do. Or is it because they represent competition in fields that some believe should fall to men, as opposed to being a bikini model or porn star?

I cannot help but see this thread in the context of previous threads:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024175836
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024528019
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024550887

[treestar]

37. Why just women?

I remember the ridiculous 80s values about working hard. To the point where there was no time for a life otherwise.