In this informative study, anthropologist/journalist McBroom sets out to determine not only how the lives of the new breed of professional women have been affected by their careers, but what impact they have had on the fabric of the family and society. The author interviewed, and quotes extensively, 44 female and 12 male executives in the male-dominated field of finance. Women today, she found, are still subject to traditions of a 19th century European patriarchal society not unlike those of many tribal cultures. As several of the women testify, corporate value systems and pressures have forced them to renounce or hide their feminine identity at work and have led most of them to delay or decide against child-bearing and marriage. To overcome this split identity, the author asserts, women must learn to value their female strengths and the gender spheres must be integrated both in the workplace and at home, where men must expand their parenting role. (April 23)
In 1981-82, anthropologist McBroom conducted interviews with 48 women financiers from New York City and San Francisco. From these conversations, which form the basis for this study, she concludes that most of her subjects found it necessary to develop ``multiple identities'' in order to effectively wield power in their professional world. Because men are ``marginal'' to society, Broom speculates, their humanity can be sacrificed on the battlefield or in the boardroom; they cannot afford the luxury of ``feminine nurturant virtues''; and the women who would join them in the competitive sphere must make similar sacrifices (though they are well rewarded, in contrast to nurturing women). However, she also finds that these women usually give up having childrena sacrifice not expected of the ``marginal'' men. Her conclusionthat men must become part of the nurturing processdoes not adequately deal with the structure of our society. For larger collections. Beverly Miller, Boise State Univ. Lib., Id.