Sharon Meers
  • Female
  • Palo Alto, CA
  • United States
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Sharon Meers posted a blog post

Our Washington Post Column: Maternal wall or mental gap?

In my late twenties, I asked my boyfriend how he thought having a family might work. Our standard weekday ended with dinner at 9pm, after 12+ hours at the office."I know just how it will work," my boyfriend gamely replied. He grabbed a pad and sketched out our future. He drew stick figures of himself, me and two hypothetical children. In the center of his diagram, he penciled in Mary, our housekeeper, who came in a few hours a week to save us from dust bunnies. "We'll do just what we do now,"…See More
Jul 16, 2010
Sharon Meers posted a blog post

WashingtonPost: Must women leaders dress like 'vanilla' to succeed?

What to wear to work? How much freedom do we really have - check out our new Washington Post "On Leadership" column.
Jul 3, 2010
Sharon Meers posted a blog post

Surprise! I want to work!

A recent article on The Bump highlighted the 10 Biggest New Mom Surprises (and How to Deal). Amidst noisy poop and bad breastfeeding experiences they mentioned this nugget: "Going back to work is hard."This is one of the top 10 surprises?…See More
Jun 8, 2010
Sharon Meers posted a blog post

How to add rare value to your female friendships

“Yes we can” was Obama’s great rallying cry – what happens when we girlfriends adopt it as our own? Marathoners Paula Radcliffe and Kara Goucher just reminded me. The New York Times tells how Goucher went to Radcliffe for advice – how to compete at the top while pregnant. Since Radcliffe herself was pregnant (2nd child), she had both tips and camaraderie to offer.In contrast, this weekend I watched Tooth Fairy, the movie about a proud hockey player who’s lost confidence in himself and throws…See More
May 25, 2010
Sharon Meers posted a blog post

Why Swords Are Good For Boys- And Girls Too

Yesterday, I got a message at work from my third child's nursery school: "Your son is making play weapons at school - light sabers, swords and shields. These are not appropriate for nursery school play. Please work with him to understand that these are not ok toys."This is my third child, and second boy so I've been through this before. When my older son was in pre-school, one teacher told me his George Washington picture book was verboten -- he shouldn't bring this book to school because…See More
May 8, 2010
Sharon Meers posted a blog post

Are Quotas Really The Answer?

In 2002, Norway enacted a law requiring that 40 percent of all board members at state-owned and publicly listed companies be women by 2008.Since then, Spain and the Netherlands have passed similar laws. Now Belgium, Britain, Germany, France and Sweden are considering legislative measures involving female quotas. And although Germany is also debating such a law, Deutsche Telekom, which is based in Bonn, announced last week that it would voluntarily introduce a quota aiming to fill 30 percent of…See More
Mar 26, 2010
Sharon Meers posted a blog post

Are we better than David Paterson?

David Paterson is keeping me up at night. Whether he remains New York’s governor is not my worry - I live across the country and even liked how he confessed his own foibles while taking office. Since then, the governor’s decline and alleged misuse of power have been sad. But what really troubles me is a more far-reaching sin: Paterson’s failure to stand up against violence. Asked about his girl-friend-choking aid, Paterson minimized, telling The New York Times that what happened was “like…See More
Mar 7, 2010
Sharon Meers posted a blog post

When you work on a vacation, is it really a vacation?

I recently went with my family on a wonderful trip to the Mayan Riviera, a beach community about 1 hour south of Cancun. A great adventure trip with snorkeling, kayaking, cave explorations and jungle ziplines. It was a perfect week except for one challenge: my blackberry. The red light was blinking. Messages were coming in. I felt a constant pressure to check to see if there was anything important. There wasn’t, but there was always that nagging feeling that I should be checking in.When is a…See More
Mar 3, 2010
Sharon Meers posted a blog post

Why Girls Need To Put On Their Running Shoes

Yesterday, I got an email from my high school track coach -- he asked if I’m still working on my 400 meter dash (let me tell you, it needed work.) I wasn’t a natural athlete. I was a bookish girl who liked ballet and chorus. For most of my childhood, no one seemed worried about my non-participation in sports -- I wasn’t a boy so, the message seemed to be, it didn’t matter so much. Thank heavens for track!I’ve always been grateful that my broadminded coach took weak raw material and turned me…See More
Feb 23, 2010
Sharon Meers posted a blog post

"It's the babies, stupid."- Find out what GigaOm has to say: http://bit.ly/chhHYL

“It’s the babies, stupid.” In this week's GigaOm peice,Silicon Valley Has a Woman Problem, But Women Still Have a Baby Problem,Stacey Higginbotham, points out that it’s our wildly-out-of-date ideas about women, men and babies that keeps leadership in technology (and elsewhere) skewed heavily male.Higgenbotham herself took a more demanding job after having a child - like plenty of women we interviewed in Getting to 50/50. She says that “women shouldn’t have to choose between raising a family and…See More
Feb 13, 2010
Sharon Meers posted a blog post

Never Enough Hours in The Day

I just finished reading "Equally Shared Parenting: Half the Work....All the Fun" by Marc and Amy Vachon, and I really enjoyed it, in large part because they say so many of the same things as Sharon and I. I especially love the fact that the book was written by a couple, and they seem so confident with their decisions.The main difference between the Vachons' and our views in Getting to 50/50 is that they strongly advocate both parents taking down their hours and becoming independent contractors…See More
Feb 6, 2010
Sharon Meers posted a blog post

Closing the Gender Gap- 4 Ideas That Make Sharing Easier

At 2AM last Friday, Roseanne Roseannadanna (1) was keeping me company. My head keep trying to sooth itself with her famous SNL mantra: “If it’s not one thing, it’s another“ followed by her wonderful laundry lists of foul items. Mine: fluids of many sorts -- gallons of liquid from our burst water heater into my son’s room, spare room, walls (leaving the flood refugee sleeping with his parents); then, geysers from my daughter’s stomach sending partially-digested dinner all over the place, all…See More
Feb 2, 2010
Sharon Meers posted a blog post

Inclusion: The Next Frontier of Freedom

My daughter came home from kindergarten reciting “I Have A Dream” so we decided to watch the YouTube. Her 8-year old brother Max furrowed his brow as MLK talked about the day to day ugliness of racism. “What kind of people could be like that?” Max wanted to know. We’ve talked about the horrors of slavery, the brave people who stood against it and the segregation that followed. “It’s all better now, right mom?” Humm.Is it a sign of progress that my kids can think this chapter of…See More
Jan 18, 2010
Sharon Meers commented on the blog post 'It's not so complicated- communicate more, assume less'
"Glad you liked it... yes, hard to remember in the moment... I'm going to have to paste a reminder on my bathrom mirror... or something!"
Jan 14, 2010
Louise Gallagher commented on the blog post 'It's not so complicated- communicate more, assume less'
"That when your work heats up, when things get frustrating at home -- that’s exactly the time to talk more (and not less) with the people you love. -- thank you for this -- I just got an Aha! moment."
Jan 10, 2010
Sharon Meers posted a blog post

It's not so complicated- communicate more, assume less

As I resolve to be a better person in 2010, I think about a poignant bit of paternal wisdom -- one I received from my dad via his holiday letter. My father, a retired shrink, is now 82 and closed out 2009 by shipping 1400 pounds of psychiatric texts to an institute in Beijing. Packing up this weighty load, my dad reflected on his professional lifetime and felt inspired to update his resume. My father’s CV now lists 25 pages of journal articles “documenting for the family what he did when he…See More
Jan 10, 2010

Profile Information

Who I am:
www.gettingto5050.com
Books I've written, anthologies I've contributed to, and any scripts or plays I've authored:
Getting to 50/50: How Working Couples Can Have it All by Sharing it All*

*And Why It's Great for Your Marriage, Your Career, Your Kids... and YOU
Media outlets that I currently write for:
Have written for BusinessWeek and Cookie magazine
My writing is:
Nonfiction
Outlets where I review books, TV, or film:
I blog about them
I'm part of these writers' groups or salons:
No
My professional associations:
- Stanford Graduate School of Business Women’s Initiative Network – Head network committee

- National Women's Law Center – Board Member

- Clayman Institute for Research on Gender – National Advisory Council member

- Council on Foreign Relations – Member

Sharon Meers's Blog

Our Washington Post Column: Maternal wall or mental gap?

Posted on July 16, 2010 at 6:12pm 0 Comments

In my late twenties, I asked my boyfriend how he thought having a family might work. Our standard weekday ended with dinner at 9pm, after 12+ hours at the office.



"I know just how it will work," my boyfriend gamely replied. He grabbed a pad and sketched out our future. He drew stick figures of himself, me and two hypothetical children. In the center of his diagram, he penciled in Mary, our housekeeper, who came in a few hours a week to save us from dust bunnies. "We'll do just what… Continue

WashingtonPost: Must women leaders dress like 'vanilla' to succeed?

Posted on July 3, 2010 at 11:54am 0 Comments

What to wear to work? How much freedom do we really have - check out our new Washington Post "On Leadership" column.

Surprise! I want to work!

Posted on June 8, 2010 at 1:58pm 0 Comments



A recent article on The Bump highlighted the 10 Biggest New Mom Surprises (and How to Deal). Amidst noisy poop and bad breastfeeding experiences they mentioned this nugget:… Continue

How to add rare value to your female friendships

Posted on May 25, 2010 at 8:33am 0 Comments

“Yes we can” was Obama’s great rallying cry – what happens when we girlfriends adopt it as our own? Marathoners Paula Radcliffe and Kara Goucher just reminded me. The New York Times tells how Goucher went to Radcliffe for advice – how to compete at the top while pregnant. Since Radcliffe herself was pregnant (2nd child), she had both tips and camaraderie to offer.



In contrast, this weekend I watched Tooth Fairy, the movie about a proud hockey player who’s lost confidence in himself… Continue

Why Swords Are Good For Boys- And Girls Too

Posted on May 8, 2010 at 4:28pm 0 Comments

Yesterday, I got a message at work from my third child's nursery school: "Your son is making play weapons at school - light sabers, swords and shields. These are not appropriate for nursery school play. Please work with him to understand that these are not ok toys."



This is my third child, and second boy so I've been through this before. When my older son was in pre-school, one teacher told me his George Washington picture book was verboten -- he shouldn't bring this book to school… Continue

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Karen Szklany Gault commented on the blog post 'A Tasty 10-Step Recipe for Creative Success'
"This is awesome, Becky. A very delicious combination worthy of being baked over and over. :0)"
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Karen Szklany Gault liked Becky Green Aaronson's blog post A Tasty 10-Step Recipe for Creative Success
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Karen Szklany Gault posted a status
"Here's a link to my second recipe hub from "The Kitchen Goddess": http://seafarermama.hubpages.com/hub/DivinelyComfortingBakedApples"
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Becky Green Aaronson posted a blog post

A Tasty 10-Step Recipe for Creative Success

By Becky Green Aaronson  Ingredients1 Open Mind1/2 cup Inspiration3/4 cup Talent1 cup Originality1 cup Authenticity2 cups Motivation2 3/4 cups Passion4 cups Belief4 cups Commitment6 cups Perseverance8 cups Grit1 lb. CourageStep One: Preheat…See More
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