- I had my thesis defense today! A total breeze. Not much to fix. Making changes and turning in the final copy next week. Then turning the 140-page document into a 6-page journal article and publishing it somewhere to get a bit of aca-traction. I love my committee! I love MIT! I don’t want to leave! Oh wait, I’m not leaving…
- I’m not leaving MIT immediately. Will stick around the Center for Future Civic Media at least through the summer, possibly longer, as I hunt for really excellent jobs in the EU.
- I still really want to leave the country. Even though God has graced us with Mr. Obama. I have not given up on international travel; I will never give up.
- After next week, I will spend one intense month finishing my Peru documentary. I’ll post it when it’s done so you can watch and be super bored/intrigued/amazed.
- I still miss Peru.
- Last night Studio Crux (me & DD) won “Best Non-fiction” for our Living Room Monologues at the CMS Annual Media Spectacle. Woo!
- Things to do after graduation: find lucrative job; take Italian and German lessons (at the same time); consider taking pottery again; start swimming and playing tennis again; regain the emotional & spiritual equilibrium I apparently lost sometime in February.
April, 2010 Monthly archive
[by David Wagoner]
Don’t do it, the guidebook says,
if you’re lost. Then it goes on
to talk about something else,
taking the easy way out,
which of course is what water does
as a matter of course always
taking whatever turn
the earth has told it to
while and since it was born,
including flowing over
the edge of a waterfall
or simply disappearing
underground for a long dark time
before it reappears
as a spring so far away
from where you thought you were
and where you think you are
it might never occur
to you to imagine where
that could be as you go downhill.
I will not get up until I have written a thesis conclusion.
Sorry I haven’t posted much recently, I’ve been busy trying to be a high-ranking technical woman and finish my master’s degree. Therefore I felt it would be appropriate to post this little summary of research by the Anita Borg Institute. Enjoy.
Top attributes of success for senior technical women
- Analytical: The majority of senior technical women perceive themselves as analytical. Indeed, all technical employees tend to see themselves as high on this attribute, as technical careers tend to first and foremost look for analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Unafraid to Question/Desire to Learn: A majority consider themselves as questioning – having the ability to ask the right questions, which is critical to problem-solving.
- Risk-Takers: A majority of senior technical women view themselves as risk-takers, which was identified by technical employees as one of the top four attributes of success. Moderate amounts of risk-taking are an important part of leadership, and senior women and men are equally as likely to perceive themselves as risk takers. This research shatters the stereotype that men are more likely to be risk takers than women are.
- Collaborative: Senior technical women are collaborators. A collaborative work style is perceived as a critical success factor in high-technology by both technical men and women, and is consistent with a culture that values innovation, which cannot be achieved without extensive collaboration. Collaboration is both a critical source of success but also a great source of career satisfaction.
- Hard-working/Long Hours: Advancement for senior women comes with long working hours. This finding is consistent with the culture of technology where advancement is tied to increased responsibility and significant availability. This can be a barrier for women who seek advancement while juggling family responsibilities in dual-career couples. 72 percent of the senior technical women surveyed reported cutting back on sleep to advance their careers and nearly a third have delayed having children.
- Assertive: A majority of senior technical women describe themselves as assertive – significantly more so than women at the entry and mid levels. In a professional culture that rewards speaking up, self-promotion, and ambition, senior women interviewed uniformly said they had to learn to be assertive and promote themselves in order to advance. However, research also shows that women have less freedom than men in assertive behavior. Because women’s assertiveness defy long-standing gender stereotypes, women often experience a “likeability penalty†when they are assertive.
Friend in Berlin has memorialized my marriage in the form of a plant: “Whenever you marry, something old, something blue and something sitting on a balcony in Berlin.
However, it likes its new environment and has already started growing.” Thanks, A!
