The Modern Glass Ceiling

This article discusses a statement made by this year's two female medicine Nobel Laureates, in which they urged scientific institutions to make higher positions more accessible to women.

It got me thinking about the glass ceiling in general. Although many fields are becoming less gender-discriminatory, the obstacle of having children still remains. While it has traditionally been fairly easy for men to have a full-time job and spend time with his family on weekends and evenings, women who want to work full-time need to figure out childcare and come to terms with their degree of involvement in their children's lives.

I think we as a nation are losing a lot of quality workers and thinkers if we don't allow women a decent place on the professional ladder. However, this work doesn't necessarily have to be full-time, as Elizabeth H. Blackburn states. She maintains that, ''You can do really good research when you are doing it part-time.''

With the eternal struggle for job creation, it might be a good idea to have more women doing part-time jobs, or pairing up to do what might traditionally be a full-time job. This way, more jobs are created, women get to contribute to the workforce and have a family, and the nation benefits from more diversity in entrepreneurship.