Likewise, while I'm not a huge fan of my husband's company culture (lot of old white men),
I'm inspired by the freedom being attained. But I see no need for this race/gender/age stereotyping. Could someone point out to me what negative culture I am carrying around as an old white man?
You personally? Maybe nothing.
However, the first few years of company picnics and holiday parties at his company? Let me count the ways.
"How's the baby?" Great. "Must be hard." Yes, especially with a full time job. "YOU WORK FULL TIME??" Yes.
"We need your husband to travel in April". No. "He needs to be dedicated to his job." Our son is having surgery, fuck off.
"What do you do all day?" Engineering, same thing he does. "What, WHY? You have kids!" And a mortgage, and by the way we didn't buy a house for $250k in the 1990s bud, they were $750k by the time we bought a house.
On travel: "I'm going to need you to stay through the weekend in case something goes wrong." Husband: nope, I'm leaving tomorrow (Friday). Can't stay, wife will kill me. "I am going to talk to your BOSS, you need to be DEDICATED." Husband: I've got 2 kids, one of whom is SIX WEEKS OLD.
It's simply the expectation that times are the way they were when these men started work.
- They had cheaper homes (California was easier back then).
- Their wives were at home, or still are, or work part time.
- They could do all the travel they wanted while the little woman held down the home front.
- No need to bother daddy with school holidays, sick kids, or doctor's appointments.
Are all men like this? No.
Are a good 80% of the men in management at my husband's company like this? Yes. (Well, a couple have retired, but still it's a high percentage.)
Only a small percentage of the men at my company are blatantly like this. Most of the older men have children (but their wives didn't work) HOWEVER they've worked with working mothers before.
Most of the men at my company in their 30s and 40s take on equal child care duties - a few have even taken their FULL paid family leave, if you can imagine (6 weeks, state leave).