Jen,
Your argument is interesting. I never regarded the bipolarity that working women suffer (i.e. the growing conviction that they must choose either ruthless corporate climbing or getting walked on) as self-imposed.

I’d like to disagree. That may be because I’ve never seen women interact in the workplace, or read articles about it. But I also don’t believe in the existence of a thing called “Autonomy” against which one can evaluate individual choices or judgments. It's male-gendered capitalism that's defined competition as virtuous, and choosing not to compete as ignominious; it's our male-gendered fetish with free markets that's making our "choice" starker every year.

So women (and effeminate men like me) don’t have “autonomy;" we have a Hobson’s choice. You observe rather that we're behaving like Buridan’s Asses. That's fine, because it's the same thing -- IF you acknowledge that Males are responsible for creating our dilemma, and that Males like you are perpetuating it. =)

-- AndrewGradman - 05 Apr 2008