International Women's Day

Last week was International Women's week. For the first time ever, I attended two programs organised by my company. One of the sessions was interesting as they invited female leaders in Singapore to share their views and tips. What I found particularly interesting were the following :

- choose a right spouse , one who believes your career is as important as his (I guess it's too bad if you have already chosen.. haha). If you are still single , perhaps you can check this out : https://hbr.org/2017/10/if-you-cant-find-a-spouse-who-supports-your-career-stay-single

- don't lean out 
Many a times women will not try for a job or take a job if they feel they only have 6 or of the 10 requirements checked.  However, a man will go for it even if they only have 6. In fact they may package themselves as a 12. 

- you can be your own role model 
Many a times, we look at the job ahead, we give it a miss as we do not want to travel so much, spend so many overtime hours as the current person in the role. However, the truth is that once you are in that position , you can set your own style and your own tone. You need not simply inherit the current as-is way of doing things. 

There are many other things being shared but these were what I found the most interesting. 

On a unrelated note, I was also thinking of what are the parenting duties or invisible tasks that are typically done by the mothers that take up time and cannot or shouldn't really be delegated, but ideally can be shared amongst dads as well.  In my house, all these are still manageable as Ah Pa is very hands on and Ah Gong / Ah Po can be activated to help out from time to time on the meals and transportation. And since I have a village of support, I think it's all quite manageable. Nonetheless, these are the things that I think are the things that are typically done by most mothers including me. 

- brush their teeth (when they are young)
- do craft work / art work (school assignment) 
- prepare goodie bags for party and other party preparations 
- prepare teacher's day or party presents 
- bedtime reading 
- meet the parent sessions
- seeing doctors 
- taking care of kids when they are sick 
- play some games or do some writing together 

I have not listed other common activities like grocery buying , meal preparations,  etc as those can be delegated to other people like grandparents, helpers, husbands, technology etc (redmart/amazon prime). 

The list doesn't sound long but it certainly means that mothers tend to be rushing around all the time since we share the same 24 hours as anyone. 

So if you want a truly multitasking manager who does fierce prioritisation on a daily basis and take cares of all the invisible details, look for a working mother.  




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