Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!ames!pasteur!agate!carols%drilex.uucp@BBN.COM From: carols%drilex.uucp@BBN.COM Newsgroups: comp.society.women Subject: Re: Working at Home Message-ID: <11234@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: 21 Jun 88 16:11:49 GMT Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: Data Resources/McGraw-Hill, Lexington, MA Lines: 45 Approved: skyler@violet.berkeley.edu (Moderator -- Trish Roberts) Comments-to: comp-women-request@cs.purdue.edu Submissions-to: comp-women@cs.purdue.edu Bcc: Message-Id: <8806211611.AA25321@drilex.UUCP> Date: 21 Jun 88 16:11:49 EDT (Tue) From: carols@drilex.UUCP (Carol Springs) In article <11144@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> skyler@violet.berkeley.edu writes: >It was supposed, when computing firms starting expanding wildly, >that computing would be a great field for women. Ideally, one >did not have to be in the same building as other people to be in >the same firm and working on the same project. This was supposed >to mean that women could work at home. It was supposed to mean >that computing would be a particularly inviting field for women. >This doesn't seem to have happened. Has it? If not, why not? One problem is that, while hours for programmers are generally far more flexible than for those in other fields, supervisors aren't ready to relinquish face-to-face contact or to believe that employees will put in their hours at home. When I was working in Tredyffrin, Pennsylvania (for a corporation that shall remain nameless), it was common for women programmers to take maternity leaves of varying lengths and return to their jobs after several weeks or months. One woman wanted to work part-time at home during this period, and, I think, briefly did so, but eventually the setup was nixed by a higher-up because he didn't want to set a precedent. For better or worse, it's easier for a lot of managers to credit (in both possible senses of the word) an occasional few hours put in at a home terminal than to live with the idea of projects undertaken largely at home with occasional visits to the office. And women haven't yet taken in droves to independent consulting. It'll be interesting to see what the next few years hold in store. A side note: As a new employee at the company referred to above, I asked my officemate, out of curiosity, whether Company X had a paternity leave policy. "Not officially," she replied, "but the fathers always take a day or two off when the baby comes--nobody minds." :-( -- Carol Springs "Uncover the secrets of the Solar System and Data Resources/McGraw-Hill receive a FREE FM radio..."--Time-Life Books 24 Hartwell Avenue carols%drilex@bbn.com Lexington, MA 02173 {bbn, ames!ll-xn, harvard}!drilex!carols