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06/11/13 | OOO

Continuation of the Women’s Movement: Leaving Work to See Your Kids Play Sports

“Be bold and honest about your personal life,” writes Joanne Wilson, who argues that “until more women start speaking up in a work environment about the realities of their own personal lives we can not move forward.”

By Joanne Wilson (Blogger & Angel Investor, Gotham Girl)

Tech communities are bubbling up all over the globe. The same issues we have here in regards to women entrepreneurs or gender balanced companies are also taking place in all of the tech communities. I do believe that many of the conversations around women are changing.  Certainly there are plenty of women in the tech community where a decade ago there were very few. More women are graduating from college with computer science skills, more women are starting companies that are built on a technology platform, more women are becoming CEOs of large companies, more women entrepreneurs are getting funded to build their businesses and more companies are striving to be gender balanced.

One of the constants we see are that women are really beginning to support each other. There are women groups being formed, cocktail parties being thrown, listservs being built and conferences being thrown to build networks and a support systems. It is a great but there has to be more.

I heard a story this week from a young woman who had taken a class three years ago that taught the students about women entrepreneurs, women CEOs and women in the workplace. They had a bevy of high-level women come and speak to the class. One woman talked about how in her workplace, a large financial institution, that when she wanted to go see her children’s sporting events that she would say that she had to take one of them to a doctor instead of the truth. Yet when the men went to go see any of their children’s events that they would boast about it and look like great fathers. More than likely every woman in that class was probably shell-shocked. I would have been too.

Here is my response. Every woman that thinks that they need to do that is wrong. Be bold and honest about your personal life. Why would anyone want to work in an environment where they couldn’t be honest? Until more women start speaking up in a work environment about the realities of their own personal lives we can not move forward. That woman should say to her colleagues my daughter/son has a soccer game this afternoon so I am going to be leaving early…go team…end of story.

This post originally appeared on Gotham Girl.

Women 2.0 readers: Do you agree that women need to be bold about discussing their personal lives at work?

About the guest blogger: Joanne Wilson is an advisor and investor in startups, including Curbed (Eater/Racked), Food52, Red Stamp, Catchafire, DailyWorth, Editd, Ricks Picks, Cacao Pietro, Editions 01, Hot Bread Kitchen, Nest.io, Gotham Gym, The Moon Group and MOUSE. Her most successful venture is being married to her best friend Fred and raising her three kids, Jessica, Emily and Josh. Joanne blogs under the name Gotham Gal. Follow her on Twitter at @thegothamgal.

 

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