WOMEN’S WORK: It’s a mother

I’m one week late.

Last Friday, March 8^th was International Women’s Day so I really should have said lots of nice things about women and women in the workplace.

Oh well, I’ll just have to try to make up for it now.

But my male readers don’t have to move on to the sports page yet – as if you haven’t already been there – I’m not going to go overboard with my praise.

As a matter of fact, I don’t think women can do all types of work as well as or better than men and there are a lot of jobs they really struggle with, but I do believe females are generally superior to males for work that requires several things to be done at the same time.

And since the modern technology-dominated work place is jam packed with jobs that require multi-tasking, women workers should be in ever increasing demand.

Men tend to be stronger than women and the male brain is wired for superior spatial awareness, but when it comes to doing more than one thing at a time the female brain reigns supreme.

I mean, when I’m driving I really don’t want to be doing anything else and if I come into a bit of traffic the first thing I do is turn the CD player off.

Your average woman driver, on the other hand, is perfectly happy to drive, listen to the radio, hold a conversation with her passengers and send a text message at the same time, and all those additional activities won’t be a distraction.

Okay, the quality of her driving might be total crap to start off with, but that’s beside the point.

She will probably be really good at all those other things and doing them or not doing them will have very little… impact, on her driving.

Like I said, I’m not going to go overboard with the praise, and I’m not even going to encourage more women to pursue careers in our modern economic framework that suits them so well.

No, while I’m all for equal rights and equal pay for women, and for superior pay for women who do their jobs better than their male counterparts I’m actually not a big fan of the women’s liberation movement that has lead many women to believe that having a successful career is more important than raising a family and being a good mother.

I think that kind of thinking has done everyone a great disservice.

Raising kids, taking care of a household so that your children are health and feel safe and just being there when your kids need you; what job could be more important or more satisfying than that?

Yeah, dedicated doctors and teachers do good work, but it’s far less personal, and there are many failures; and many of them, as well as many lawyers, politicians, accountants and other highly respected professionals, are just in it for the money.

If you want to do it, raising kids can be incredibly satisfying work and it’s definitely a multi-tasking job; having said that, men can be very good at it as well… if they put in a little extra effort.

I guess it’s kind of like women and driving.

Botswana-Mum