the tides are turning

To all my fellow single girls in the big city - our time has come.

Please read this article from today's NY Times front page.

Young, educated females have proved their place in this world. I, for one, could not be more proud. But we as women must remember to keep pushing so our efforts don't fall by the wayside. While young urban women earn more than men, the article warns that this is not true for ALL women.

"Typically, women have fallen further behind men in earnings as they get older. That is because some women stop working altogether, work only part time or encounter a glass ceiling in promotions and raises."

Progress is good, but the war is not won. Women in rural areas and women over 30 are still lagging behind. While I will condemn no one (man or woman) from making the decision to remove oneself from the workforce to care for children full time, the glass ceiling is still very real, and something we must all fight to shatter. It's great to see the younger generation more educated and earning more and I hope that in time, we will continue to carry this momentum later into our careers. Chauvinism is sadly still rooted in our society (as was highlighted to me over instant message with a certain male egoist this morning, just before I wrote this posting) and will stop at nothing until we go beyond proving ourselves as equals. We must make it the indelible and and undeniable that judging our performance, capability and potential in the workforce is completely unrelated to gender, race, sexual orientation, creed, socio-economic background, etc.

Go on and call me a crazy idealist, but I refuse to let the notion that this world should be a meritocracy die. Not everything is ever fully fair in life, but at the very least, we as a society cannot act as complete bigots. Remember ladies and gentlemen, we are all in this together. So keep hustling!