Career Taxidermy

Here is an interesting one for educators and workforce developers to mull over.

Lately, the media has been fascinated with women who have "opted out" of careers to care for their children. These stories read like close-ups of someone dripping wet without revealing that she's standing in a hurricane--all symptoms, no cause. Let's talk hurricane : Highly trained women leaving work aren't opting out. Torn up by conflicts between motherly love, inflexible career structures, and substandard child care, they're being "squeezed out" of organizations that have quietly but determinedly resisted their presence by not adapting to their needs.

How has this happened? Career taxidermy. Taxidermy is the art of taking something dead and making it appear alive, forever. A century ago, managerial capitalism was invented along with the template for the modern career. It reflected the biology and sociology of employees then. Biologically, they were men. Sociologically, they had wives caring for home and family. Careers followed the inverted "U" curve, starting out in early adulthood and progressing to retirement, and career advancement was an exercise in moral development. The men who suppressed their individuality to conform to the organization got promoted.

This template has been stuffed and mounted. The inverted "U" is the universal gold standard. Conformity remains essential. Individuals have little say over the structure, pacing, or content of their careers. The big difference, of course, is that the way of life expressed in the old template has vanished.

More here.