Dear all,
I just want to share some of my views on the topic. I was born and brought up in Tamil Nadu, a state of India. We always believe in creating as well as welcoming a group of people (either man or women) with some gesture as well as food in our own cultured way. Smile always reduces people worries either old or young people. Inviting for food/treat occasionally with your teammates will increase the bonding between all kinds of people.
I always believe that trusting everyone is difficult. But, once you figured all the people before entering your group/team will help and make the workplace happy.
Indumathi Nainar
+61 469 814 041
Original Message:
Sent: 12/21/2020 5:50:00 AM
From: Donato FIRRAO
Subject: RE: How to Create a Welcoming Technical Workplace: Webinar tomorrow (11/12)
Hi, all,
I do not want to leave the issue to an all female community. Here in Italy, when I was a young father, let us say in the 70's, maternity leave was 2 months before the predicted chidbirth date and 3 months after the actual birth. Later it became 5 months in total, without any limit dictated by the childbirth date. Paternal leave was not existing at the time. Recently it became 3 days after childbirth; next year it will become ten days.
As it regards women in education, all my science teachers in the 50's were females, all my italian, latin and ancient greek teachers were males. My children instead had an almost completely female teaching staff. The change was due to the fact that most of the schools were open only up to late mornings, whereas afternoons were allowed to be spent at home both for students and teachers. Thus, women, on whom children caretaking is usually left in Italy, preferred to teach in schools to have the afternoon free, when children were at home. That also meant that female teachers had to spend evenings and nights on reviewing their students work. Often science graduate women were working in industry in the first years of their career and going to teach in schools after becoming mothers.
Thus, we can say that women careers were shaped by social needs more than by employers' choice. The situation has not changed much nowadays that school activity in elementary and middle schools prolongs up to the afternoons. The outcome is a childbirth rate very low in the middle income families, for women postponing the first birth almost up to the end of their fertility period. Male behaviour towards family caretaking is changing a little in latest years, but not enough to reverse the trend.
In the 50's many "illuminated" Companies put up some nursing and school facilities within the area of their plants. But, these undertakings faded away in the 80's due to financial reasons.
Public investements are badly needed to allow women to have other choices but than having partial time at home. Probably, smart work both for males and females will allow to partially reshape the situation. This can be a good outcome of Covid-19 induced needs. But, DAD is not a brilliant solution for children....
Let us to take complete consciousness of the burden that has been left on the shoulders of women! And let us go on the debate on this issue fundamental for the future of our society.
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Donato FIRRAO FASM
Professor
Politecnico di Torino
Torino
+393351494032
Italy
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Original Message:
Sent: 12-20-2020 15:04
From: Veronique Vitry
Subject: How to Create a Welcoming Technical Workplace: Webinar tomorrow (11/12)
Hi,
As Europe is not a country, but a lot of countries, maternity leave differs somewhat but most of us have 12 to 16 weeks paid leave and some countries even go up to 1 year.
But that's not the most efficient policy actually. The most efficient is mandatory paternity leave. In my country, it's now at 10 days but there's talk of increasing it. making it mandatory levels the field because employers cannot say anymore that women that are going to have babies will be more out of office than men.
However, some studies have shown that making the leave too long (one year or more) can be detrimental because they make women too much out of the loop at work.
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Veronique Vitry
UMONS
MONS
+32.496.89.71.94
Original Message:
Sent: 11-13-2020 07:38
From: Jennifer Kelly
Subject: How to Create a Welcoming Technical Workplace: Webinar tomorrow (11/12)
Hi Danielle,
I also found your presentation really interesting and informative. It's unfortunate that women still face barriers in corporate culture, not only the expectations we place on ourselves, but those others place on us as well. For 9 years I was a middle school teacher and for 3 years an education adjunct professor. It's very interesting to see the opposite effect in education--more females than males. There are not many men expressing interest in pre-k and elementary education. You gain a few more male teachers as you move up the K-12 rungs (late elementary/middle school have a little bit more, then high school even more) but there's still a gross imbalance. Often times, male teachers are also teaching things like math, science, and PE. I remember in high school that all of my science teachers were men. This resonates with your "flipped" example in your presentation. What can we do to get more men in "traditionally" female/women-based fields like education, healthcare, or other fields focused on "soft skills"? It's an interesting dichotomy. PS: I've been told Europe has 6 months of maternity leave. I don't know if this is accurate, but if so, it's definitely a worthy goal (this coming from someone who does not have children nor plan to have any–I've seen the pressures new motherhood and returning to work can place on women including friends and colleagues).
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Jennifer Kelly
ASM Employee
Novelty OH
Original Message:
Sent: 11-12-2020 15:01
From: Danielle Cote
Subject: How to Create a Welcoming Technical Workplace: Webinar tomorrow (11/12)
Today I presented a webinar on How to Create a Welcoming Technical Workspace that generated a lot of conversation and questions. Let's keep the discussion going! What do you want to know about creating an inclusive, profitable, and productive environment? Do you have any anecdotes to share?
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Danielle Cote
Assistant Professor
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Worcester MA
508-831-6020
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