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Happy Tuesday! We know our news roundups are pretty dense reading from week to week — if you have time to catch up, we suggest you start with these stories, which were some of our favorites over the past year. Some of them were Big Stories; some of them have just stuck in our memories as the year has worn on. Readers, which were some of your favorite news stories relevant to overachieving chicks (whether we covered them or not) during 2014?
- 2014: The year we stopped apologizing, and started talking about women being the breadwinners (even one of our guestposters). Also the year that people made fun of stock photos of businesswomen and stock photos of moms. Oh, and we talked a lot about freezing our eggs (whether it works, whether we should get insurance coverage, and more).
- Well and Good had a handy slideshow about how busy women actually fit in their workouts.
- We pondered whether we should recline (instead of leaning in) after reading these articles in Foreign Policy and The Atlantic.
- The Atlantic excerpted The Confidence Code, which pondered whether women are holding themselves back because of a lack of confidence in their abilities and qualifications; for example, many of us won’t apply for a job unless we meet the listed requirements 100%. (Our discussion on the article is here.)
- Slate's Hanna Rosin reviewed Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time by Washington Post journalist Brigid Schulte, who says busyness has become a status symbol.
- Nothing new here, but Business Insider had a great roundup of all the subtle ways women are treated differently at work. AOL Jobs featured tips on how to work in a male-dominated field (pretend it's France! read this interesting Business Insider article that kind of gives you a preview of how “French” it all can be), while Wired reported on some nasty quid pro quos faced by female tech entrepreneurs.
- Mint (via Popsugar Smart Living) had great tips on how to invest $100, $1000, or $10,000. Along money lines, I thought this article about income brackets by the Planet Money blog at NPR was fascinating — “most Americans make it to the top 20% — at least for a while.”
- The Wall Street Journal’s At Work blog garnered some job interview tips from a woman who’s been through 100 of them.
- If your goal is to make partner at your law firm, you may want to check out Above the Law's analysis of partnership class by practice area.
- This one got a ton of discussion among commenters: a piece from The New Inquiry described the author’s “constant struggle” to maintain a size 0 and pondered the way men treated her differently than when she was only “average.”
- Lifehacker checked out Kitestring, a “just in case” webapp that might make your mom a bit less worried about your online dating activities.
- Laugh of the week(s): Medium told us how to appear smart in meetings, and Columbia B-School Follies celebrated being a bitch in business.
SuziStockbroker
I didn’t read this back in June, but just now scrolled through the comments posted about the “struggle to stay a size 0” article and one really stood out to me, about the expectation of “effortless perfection”.
I think high-acheiving women definitely get this. And it is exhausting. True, we probably do it to ourselves to a certain extent. I certainly do.
But other people expect it too. This time of year is a great example. I am a mother of 3 preteen and younger children with a demanding career and a husband with a demanding career. I am expected to provide thoughtful and generous Christmas gifts for family, support staff, teachers etc (about 35 people). Provide and cook one Christmas dinner, and contribute extensively (both dishes and paying for the turkey for 25 people) for another.
I could go on and on, but don’t have time :)
CPA Lady
Yes. I audibly gasped after I finished reading that article. There are so many things in life that expect this effortless perfectionism, and quite frankly, I try with some things, but a lot of things just slip through the cracks, or I can’t be bothered to deal with.
There are some women who always look beautiful, perfect, well maintained (nails, hair, etc). I used to envy them and wonder what their secret is. I’m pretty sure there is no secret. The answer is “they work damn hard at it”.
Idea
Yeah, they do. And I wonder what else doesn’t get that same amount of effort – which is OK. It helps to keep in mind the balancing act and that not everything is always going to balance all the time.
Idea
Was the French/being in France comment about the right article that was linked there? Didn’t really see that part, so not sure. Thanks.
Kate
Sorry if that was confusing! Here is the “France” article: http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2014/07/07/how-women-can-succeed-in-the-boys-club-of-finance. It was linked from “AOL Jobs.”
Idea
Ah, thanks! good article!