Work-life balance discourse in tech masks a gendered pressure to choose work

Evidence

When asked about work-life balance in a speech to Girls in Tech, Leah Culver, founder of the now defunct micro-blogging site Pownce, said, “Pick one or the other, make your choices, whatever makes you happy.” The “life” in “work-life balance” is often a gendered euphemism for family and children. The prioritization of work implied that these things were unimportant; I did not hear any young men discussing their concerns in this area. The common attitude was that one could not have both; the underlying implication was that one should pick work. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 184

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to ‘The Optimism Gap’ analysis of tech’s institutionalized exclusion of women. — connects to: Openness rhetoric in open-source culture masks gender-exclusionary status hierarchies — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 173; Espousing meritocracy while reinforcing sexist talk perpetuates low women’s participation in tech — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 693; Gender inequality is structurally embedded in Silicon Valley’s self-image and status system — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 648 (+4 more)
• SHARE: The observation that no young men voiced work-life concerns is a small, precise datum for someone mapping gendered tech discourse.

Broader Connections

• Espousing meritocracy while reinforcing sexist talk perpetuates low women’s participation in tech #corroborates (0.82) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 693
• Gender inequality is structurally embedded in Silicon Valley’s self-image and status system #corroborates (0.78) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 648
• Women’s tech careers were systematically credited to male mentors while men’s were not #corroborates (0.78) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 704
• Gender expectations spill into work roles and cost women authority #expands (0.75)
• Gender-inequality analysis must study practices’ work, not just their meanings #qualifies (0.72)
• Women must disconfirm gender stereotypes to enter male-dominated jobs #complicates (0.72) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 753