Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!ucbvax!agate!drilex!carols@husc6.harvard.edu
From: drilex!carols@husc6.harvard.edu (Carol Springs)
Newsgroups: comp.society.women
Subject: Re: Working at Home
Message-ID: <11344@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 21 Jun 88 20:07:26 GMT
References: <11144@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
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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."  :-(    
 
-- 
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