Do We Really Value New Life That Little?

Zach D
Zach D
Aug 28, 2017 · 3 min read
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Some very concerning conversations have reared their ugly head in my life over the last couple of weeks. You may have gathered I am a passionate advocate for women in tech and high level positions of any industry. While diversity may be a hot topic, very little is being done to correct the disparity. I now know why.

I sat in disbelief as some of my colleagues and friends tried to explain to me why women could never be relied upon to hold important positions. They had the audacity to claim the argument of biology to me, an obsessive bio and performance hacker. Their claim was that there is always the potential for women to get pregnant and that is a huge risk/expense that employers are adopting. Apparently if the women are put in important positions the risk goes up even more because of their inability to work during their ‘motherhood’.

First of all… no. Time again, studies have shown that having flexible schedules improve productivity in the workplace. Studies suggest the average american only gets about 3 hours of work done in a single workday. We idolize the 80 hour work week and believe the executives and technologists who put in 14+ hour days must be conquering everything in their path and are going to be wildly successful. Chances are rare they are actually getting much done in those 14 hours. Unless they have mastered the art of optimal performance, much of that is wasted time.

So if you try and argue with me that it’s a risk to lose productivity during a women’s pregnancy you’re simply wrong. It’s simple fact that women who are taken care of during that time and feel supported will be far more productive than their peers putting in 80 hours. They may not be present, but do you need them to be if they’re getting their job done?

Now to the most important part, even if it were true that women were somehow unable to be productive because of their pregnancy, they’re bringing life into the world. I want to make sure you see the absurdity of putting a $ sign on a child. Last time I checked, us men haven’t developed this ability, yet we treat it as some unfortunate incident that affects our bottom line. Mother’s should be held in honor, not seen as second class citizens. I plan on building the type of company culture that if one of our own makes the decision to have children, you won’t find us in the office looking for her replacement, we’ll be in the hospital waiting room with champagne in hand.

Lastly, can we stop generalizing women? Some women don’t have or are unsure of the desire to have their own children. Are we going to withhold them from their ambitions on the chance that they may or may not get pregnant. Many young women today are very driven and getting a husband and having kids is not on their list of priorities. True, that may change but even if they decide down the road they would like children, they are fully capable of weighing those options themselves. Even if a female CEO makes the decision, if she doesn’t have an organization that will support her, well that’s just a shitty organization.

My request to you is to stop using biology as a scapegoat to address difficult issues. Yes, adjusting to women in the workplace requires change, but lack of change means lack of innovation. It doesn’t mean less productivity or success. Even if you are one who doesn’t desire children, life wouldn’t exist without them, best not forget that.

The Ascent

A community of storytellers documenting the journey to happiness & fulfillment.

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Zach D

Written by

Zach D

Creative Coder, Student of Human Behavior, Living for the Light Bulb moment

The Ascent

A community of storytellers documenting the journey to happiness & fulfillment.

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