Impossible choices in a world of greedy work

Author

Abby Hartmann
June 14, 2024

Private doubts haunt many women, doubts that are shared in their intimate partnerships or relegated to private discussions with close friends. Should you date someone whose career is just as time consuming as your own? Should you put off having a family, even if you’re sure you want one? Should you freeze your eggs if you aren’t partnered by 35? Are you willing to walk away from an ambitious career (maybe one you’ve been building toward ever since you took your SAT) to raise kids? If you aren’t, who will pack the lunches, pick up your child from swim practice, and answer the panic-inducing call from the school nurse?

Claudia Goldin, “Career and Family”

We’re going a little off-piste today, friends, because this paragraph from Nobel Prize-winning economist Claudia Goldin’s book “Career and Family” hit me hard. Has Claudia been reading my texts?? They are the precise questions I’ve discussed ad nauseum with countless women, with increasing urgency and anxiety as we navigate our 30s… and no one seems to have satisfactory answers.

In her 2021 book, Goldin posits that while more women than ever before are pursuing college, advanced degrees, and high-earning professions, their aspirations (and earning potential) are now being thwarted by the ever-growing problem of “Greedy Work”. In short, high-earning professions are greedy of our time and efforts, but reward us with outsized earnings. Smart, highly educated couples are only being logical to have one person “lean in” to a “greedier” career and the other to opt for more flexibility, taking point on parenting and home duties.

The greediness of work means that couples with children or other care responsibilities would gain by doing a bit of specialization… Women will still pursue demanding careers. But one member of the couple will be on call at home, ready to leave the office or workplace at a moment’s notice. That person will have a position with considerable flexibility and will ordinarily not be expected to answer an email or a call at 10 p.m… The other parent, however, will be on call at work and do just the opposite. The potential impact on promotion, advancement, and earnings is obvious… The private equity associate who sees the deal through from beginning to end, who did the difficult modeling, and who went to every meeting and late-night dinner, will have maximum chance for a big bonus and the sought-after promotion.

The impact is obvious, and it’s large. As Goldin says, “Earnings at the very upper end of the income distribution have ballooned. The worker who jumps the highest gets an ever-bigger reward…” It’s a trend that’s been documented again and again. Wage data from the Social Security Administration shows that from 1979 to 2022, inflation-adjusted annual earnings for the top 1% and top 0.1% of earners skyrocketed by 171.7% and 344.4%, respectively, while earnings for the bottom 90% grew just 32.9% (source).

Goldin’s research shows that the woman (in heterosexual couples) is the partner who will opt for the more flexible schedule, the less greedy job — and the one with lower potential earnings. She’ll move to an internal role while he stays on partner track. She’ll prioritize local work, even though they’re less lucrative opportunities, while he’ll keep traveling four days a week. The disparity in their compensation will soon reflect those choices.

As we’ve careened as a society from heralding to rebuking the “girlboss” and from leaning in to leaning out to quiet quitting, it would be easy to point the finger at women themselves: maybe they just don’t have the same ambitions anymore. Maybe they never did.

But the argument doesn’t hold water. Echoing Goldin’s findings on more women earning higher degrees and starting ambitious careers, McKinsey’s 2023 Women in the Workplace survey (in partnership with LeanIn.org) showed, “Roughly 80 percent of women want to be promoted to the next level, compared with 70 percent in 2019 [comparable levels to men]… Women of color are even more ambitious than White women: 88 percent want to be promoted to the next level.” Meanwhile, we all learned last week that the share of women CEOs in the F500 has stalled. The data is clear: women are reaching higher than ever before, but something (many things) in the system is holding them back.

So what do we do about it? It’s a perennial issue in feminist thinking: change society, or help women navigate the rules as they stand? I like what Martha Gill, a journalist at the Guardian, suggests: “The answer to the conundrum is that you need both. Push for change and help women in an imperfect world.”

I’m curious, does this all resonate with you as much as it does with me? How has “greedy work” impacted your decisions?

Yours as we scream into the void together,

Abby

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