Women at work
Nov 15, 2003 00:00 am / 2 comments
It was just until a few months ago, I was lonely for friendship with women. When I went to visit Europe last June and met my colleagues, it was such wonderful discovery that my counterparts were mostly women! Then I came back to Japan, I felt so keenly that I was missing such closeness with women friends.
Then, something happened. In work, I have started working closely with more women then ever. Currently, two out of three projects I am now working on have women as my direct contacts for clients. The informal network of community of practice in strategic workplace consulting are made up of all women, 4 of us spread out over the globe. My previous training session was the same way. Only one out of six participants being a man, all of us from different parts of the world.
Wyuki commented when we were looking at my training session photos, wow, mostly women! Then we wondered, where are all the men? Is it the work that we do is better suited for women’s capability, temperament?
I am not saying no men around my work. In Japan, my best friend is a man, my day to day local contacts are mostly men. It may be something heppening just by chance. Or finally, what Tom Peter has been saying caught up? That half of the population is woman, and woman is at work outside of home that makes be best use of her talents, capabilities?
Possibly Related
- Professional Japanese Women
- Why people work late/why people don’t work out of home
- Mentoring
- Review of the year 2008
- Creating workplace at foreign companies in Japan
- Neighborhood Inspiration Between work
- Changing Style
2 Comments
You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.
Hi Miguel! Well, I was really, really lonely for friendship with women back about … oh, 8 years ago. All my close friends were American women, and all of them have left Japan by that time, mostly with affect of economy. After that, I just did not meet anybody that I could really feel close to. I could not meet any Japanese woman who shared neither emotional or mental state of life with me.
The phase lasted so long, I stopped hurting so bad, but then lately, things really changed. First of all, I now have Japanese lady friends who are in their late twenties. I learned that I feel close to many Japanese women in their mid to late twenties because our values are similar. Secondly, I am working closely with women of Western cultures whom I can share both values as well as emotional vives.
Well, as you say. You are probably teaching woman many things at the same they are teaching you?
Leave a comment
More
« What Foreign multinational companies in japan are seeking | Creating workplace at foreign companies in Japan »
Perhaps, as you said, you get what you need, not what you want. Perhaps you need the women in your life now (and before you needed the men) to progress to your next level. Certainly you can really appreciate them now in a way you might not have before.
I’m on the opposite side of the coin… I’m lonely for friendships with men. I miss the way I can share an understanding of the world that is sometimes difficult to share with a woman (though, like you, my best friend is a woman). Perhaps I will get what I need in due time.