Ideal Workers Of The World Unite

Also, on the subject of Women and Work (see blog entry below), one of the clearest, hardest-hitting books I've read lately is Unbending Gender: Why Work and Family Conflict And What To Do About It by Joan Williams.

Williams is a lawyer and this book is not the gushy feminist momist stuff you might expect, but rather a labor lawyer's cold and hard-headed analysis of why work and family just don't mix.

She describes the concept of "the ideal worker" who subordinates all other concerns of family or personal life to the greater glory of the corporation. Her ideal worker can travel at the corporation's convenience, relocate at the drop of a hat, stay late, wine and dine clients 'til all hours and usually sets the tone for how all other workers are measured.

Of course, this means the ideal worker is usually a man, not as often a woman and rarely a mother (or working parent with bottom line responsibilities at home), but she leaves the conversation open about how destructive this kind of life is for women as well as MEN.

The ideal worker is essentially a robot. And when men, especially younger men, wake up to the brutality of the workplace, then all of us will benefit. I think many men ARE waking up. I think many men are sick of being absentee parents. I think men will demand more and more humaine treatment (they are treated far worse in a corporate setting when they ask for flex-time or parental accomodations). I think we're entering a neo-humanist world.