My response is up!

Answered this question here

When I was in my mid-20s and just starting my first "real job" - I lived as though my job did define me. I worked long days and weekends for little pay because I wanted to succeed and move up the so-called ladder (not a corporate ladder though). But after a few years of intense work w/ only intermittant positive feedback, I started to feel frustrated. Compounding this issue was the fact that my job often put me in the public eye so many people pretty much identified me with my job and little else.
Now I'm in my 30s and working a similar job and although I still work hard, I also haven't fully invested myself in my job. I try to lead a very separate life from my job. I don't think about it too much when I'm not there and I'm striving to define myself in other ways by pursuing grad school and other hobbies that have nothing to do with what I do for a living. It's tough sometimes - especially since I like my job and, perhaps ironically, I make more money and actually get more positive feedback from my boss than at the previous job - but I know that it's a fundamental part of living a balanced, healthy life.

hi! this is my first topic. it's here!

I think a fortunate flipside to womanhood is that we don't have to define ourselves by our jobs. I am looking at this rosecolouredly of course, the truth of the matter that women are often not expected to succeed careerwise at all and tend to be left behind, as many corporations are not flexible in terms of family-friendly hours/facilities and sabbaticals etc. HOWEVER. The advantage to this (if there is one) is that it is not so unusual to make our lives broader than work. Because to be honest, who *really* wants to spend their life working to a boss and deadlines etc. for a faceless corporation? As women, I think there is more of an acceptance of being creative in what we do, perhaps based upon traditional woman's work in crafting and sewing. Many of women's business endeavours often begin as homebased enterprises. There are also more opportunities to be in touch with our communities through our roles as mothers and through the stereotype of caring humane womenhood and many activists are able to begin grass roots work there. The same ideal of the "provider" isn't there for women, and so there is more space to be flexible and do what is important to you.
Of course the reality is that this flexibility is met with an expectation that you find a man to provide for you sadly. But all the same, I think women are much less likely to be defined by their work. If they choose to be so...
(PS- I rarely get on the internet and I miss this site terribly!)

I liked this question, and I look forward to reading people's responses. My own response is here.

My response is up here

These collab topics always make me wish I had more time to do something with them. I always feel what I write is wholy inadequate to what I really want to say.

My response is up here. I have yet to start on my career path, however, so it deals more with my hopes for the future...

And one from me - here. I'm slowly getting through the past month or so.