My mom died of ALS when I was 25. My sister and I took care of her for the last three years. My sister went to college locally, so her junior and senior year were consumed by caretaking until I left my job and moved home. It was horrific and heartbreaking and all of the things you would imagine it to be when your…

Exactly!

Yup, my sister does the same thing when arranging a get-together. She wants the party to begin at 7, so I’m told to arrive sometime between 6 and 6:45 (I’m ADD and have a terrible concept of how much time anything takes. I am always extremely grateful when folks either lie to me about start times, or just start…

Growing up down in Southern MD, my 14-year old self hung out at the brand-new Taco Bell and the old bowling alley. Once a year, we’d do big exciting two-hour drive up to Iverson Mall for school shopping!!

Yes, I’m seen as too soft and it drives me nuts. I was once leading a customer service training in our thrift store, and I was role-playing with a fellow manager about how to calm a customer down while holding up our policies. We went back and forth for 10 minutes, with my manager a.k.a. “loud customer” trying to get…

WOW.

Yeah, I’m finding myself getting quieter in meetings as my organization gets more masculine in ratio and culture. I have to pick what I say a lot more carefully.

Yeah, I have heard this too. And it’s maddening because I DON’T LIKE being a bitch! I like to be myself. And my basic personality is “camp counselor.” So I hate that I have to turn myself inside out to be respected.

That drives me nuts! I have been at a startup since we opened 10 years ago. The first five years or so, I was listened to and felt like I was a good communicator most of the time. I was able to be myself (kind of dorky, eager to please, self-effacing, thoughtful), yet somehow I was pretty powerful and known as the…

Well I think my choices were made at the age of 11, when I came home crying every week from being condescended to and laughed at in my Algebra 1 and honors science classes. It was my first time in a majority male environment and I was horrified and convinced I was an idiot. Put me off STEM permanently. I wish I’d been…

My sister is a social worker who specializes in elder abuse issues. She tells me it is very common for a person to abuse their spouse for decades in secret, but it finally comes to light when one member of the relationship develops dementia. Either the abuser forgets where they are and does something violent in…

Well it’s been in the news that many trainers are more concerned with exploiting or raping the female trainees than actually teaching them, so yeah, you may be right.

Well, you may be right, considering the scary situation that many women face during training http://jezebel.com/unhappy-trails…

The only places I can find plain clothes at non-Talbots prices are Kmart and JC Penney, but you have to sort through a ton of polyester, bedazzled, and ugly-print crap to find the few decent basics.

Talbots Plus!!! The casual stuff is a little dowdy, but I’ve gotten some amazing work basics there. It’s certainly a bit more expensive than Ann Taylor but the pieces are high quality, and they do have good in-store sales. I can also occasionally pick up Talbots stuff at Marshalls and TJ Maxx.

Actually, I thought more about this and wanted to add some nuance. I was making the point that it was my experiences in school that discouraged me from STEM, despite how my family tried to raise me. However, you are are right that there is something that could be changed at home: the parents of BOYS could raise them…

That is certainly true in some families. But in my personal experience, that was definitely not true. My parents and big brother tried really, really hard to get me interested in STEM stuff. They got me some awesome toys, and my dad led our 4-H club in some really interesting natural resources projects. Then I got to…

It’s interesting you mention the depression. I have other mental health issues - ADD and anxiety, with a genetic disposition towards hoarding that I try hard to fight. I’ve always felt like a loser because while I’m excellent at taking care of others’ feelings, I’m terrible at the organizing & planning stuff like…

That may be possible in some parts of the country, but if you are an ordinary middle-class or working class couple in the Washington DC area, it feels darn near impossible to live on one person’s salary. It’s tough even for a single person to live on one salary. Among my crew of nonprofit employees, teachers, retail…

Wait, I’m confused - so the women would be required to meet only men at least 5-10 years older than them? Where do you live? This sounds awful (I’ve always dated my own age or up to 5 years younger. I’ve never been into older guys, even a little bit older than me - I hate the built-in power difference/condescension).