[divya]

Nugget of truth buried in the [fun but not-too-novel] article:

"real progress in the workplace, for women and men, will come when more men forge flexible work schedules and wash dishes in front of their children, then turn those experiences into corporate policies."

Sure, in many industries and many parts of country/world, there are still lots of battles to fight to eliminate discrimination and bias against women in the workplace. But here in the SF startup circuit, I find this to be the most relevant issue facing working parents. Because I'm a mom (and a valuable, contributing member of my company), people don't hold it against me if I need to take an afternoon off, pick up my sick kid from daycare, and then get back online at 10pm. Pattern matching tells them that it's necessary "for a mom." But if a male co-worker does the same, I don't think there's as much leniency. Pattern matching kicks in yet again, and instead of being compared to me, he's compared to other dads (many of whom might have a stay-at-home wife, allowing them to put work first).

Still, we are lucky to be here on the bleeding edge of this issue. I almost feel like this complaint is the femninist equivalent to a #firstworldproblem, while women elsewhere being denied real opportunities.

[mansigandhi]

Are you kidding me? This is not a first world problem. I'm a female entrepreneur in India. I've lived long enough in Silicon Valley for my husband (and co-founder) and me to be acutely aware of how we handle gender issues at home and work. But I face sexism on an everyday basis in society and in the tech circles here. That in itself, is the reason the "real opportunities" are denied for so many women in tech.

[divya]

I totally agree - my point was that in many places outside of SV/tech, there are much bigger discrimination issues than the "men's work policies" issue. Sadly, it sounds like you've found the same to be true.

[paganel]

> I almost feel like this complaint is the femninist equivalent to a #firstworldproblem, while women elsewhere being denied real opportunities.

It depends on the setting/environment, but most important of all is that no matter how bad things may look at the moment they can change for the better.

Anyway, the comments in here reminded me of my childhood: both my parents worked full-time jobs, with my dad usually taking two-hour breaks from work to come home and feed me lunch. He then was going back to the construction site he was working on (he is a civil engineer) and would come back home much later in the evening because of that. If this could happen in a very male-dominated area such as a construction site from a former Communist East-European country, I hope it can happen in and around Silicon Valley as well.