Greer (another neuroscientist) and I began talking after I posted something on facebook about how I wanted to honour the female brain. She replied to my post with something like “YES!” and so we planned a conversation without any idea of where it would actually go. We went around and around and covered much ground including: 1) what does a woman leader looks like?, 2) valuing women in the workplace, 3) the female stress response of “tend and defend”and the maternal brain, 4) the difference between rearing boys' and girls’ brains and emotional brain development, 6) women’s intuition, and 7) the validation of #MeToo and #TimesUp. We wrap up with asking what are the characteristics of a female brain? We probably should have started with that, but we didn’t. We even tie in cryptocurrency. It ends a bit abruptly mostly because I deleted about 12 more minutes where we come up with a women's circle plan, which was interesting but a bit TOO much of a tangent. ;)
Resources
Women more efficient after coming back after mat leave: https://www.bustle.com/articles/48477-working-moms-are-more-productive-at-work-than-all-of-their-colleagues-so-there
The Invisible Labour Still Asked of Women at Work: http://money.cnn.com/2017/10/18/pf/women-emotional-labor/index.html
The Emotional Labour of Women in the Workplace: https://theoutline.com/post/2514/the-emotional-labor-of-women-in-the-workplace?zd=2&zi=7gtn3mnv
Parenthood and Productivity of Highly Skilled Labor: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/93460/1/cesifo_wp4641.pdf
SHE venture capital: https://sheeo.world/
Reflective Questions
What is YOUR female brain doing in the workplace undercover?
Are female-led start-ups now different than men-lead start-ups?
Do you support other women in a meeting, by acknowledging their points?
Has the #MeToo or #TimesUp help validate any experiences you had?