Skirts and Ladders 'Computing is too important to be left to men' — Karen Spärck Jones

“Girls just need support, encouragement and mentoring to follow through with the sciences.” – Sally Ride

There's a really nice article on BBC News, continuing the story of four women in space. The focus is on Naoko Yamazaki, the second Japanese woman to go into space. Her story embodies what the fight for equality is about for me, because she isn't a woman that 'has it all'. She doesn't do space training and then go home and care for the kids. Nor does she do her exciting job while her husband does his and the nanny takes care of the rest. No, Yamazaki's husband stays at home with their seven year old daughter.

That's a concept that doesn't seem to have caught on yet, especially in a country where the women were referred to as 'birth machines' not so very long ago. Oddly enough, the Japanese are calling her Mum Astronaut.

So many people are focused on why women aren't reaching the tops of their professions - be it IT, finance or politics, and consequently there's a lot of effort on making things look exciting for the school kids, recruitment from universities, mentoring for young professionals, and awards for women on their way up. But none of that addresses the main reason women leave or don't progress up the ladder: family.

I've written about the 10,000 hour theory before, and the The Glass Hammer had an interesting article a few days ago specifically looking at the familial issues surrounding women in investment banking.

I am not a fan of 'outsourcing', as the terminology goes these days. Part of having children is raising them, and I strongly believe that the best way to instill values and behaviour is by exemplifying them whilst spending time with them. Whether that interaction occurs from the mother or the father is up for debate, but the fact remains that it simply isn't a choice right now.

The focus is on maternity policies, childcare opportunities and flexible working arrangements. None of these will ever be good enough. If anything, they encourage frantic running around and the myth that women can have it all. What we need is a change in culture and mindset. We need to believe that children are important, and that mums aren't the answer to everything.