For better or for worse, men tend to place more emphasis on attaining status through career. At the end of the day, career and education attainment is not a completely fair thing in the sense that there are systemic inequities within society that disadvantage certain groups over others. However, your career status is fairer than, say, your height, which most people have no way of improving because it’s inherently genetic. I’ve written previously that I think men tend to value fairness and career attainment is one of those things that is established as being fair within the eyes of the general population.
Yet, I think there’s a cost to putting one’s career first, whether you’re a man or a woman. It’s easy to place your worth on something that’s relatively arbitrary and, sometimes, vain. The medical establishment does not recommend doing this as it is not the psychologically healthiest way to approach life, and I sort of get that. In spite of all this information, however, men still do it anyway. I think it’s that competitive drive in them that I’ve alluded to in an earlier post that keeps them going at it.
I think about all the sacrifices I’ve made for my career and am continuing to make in spite of all the signs to tell me to settle and they are vast. I’m in the process of seriously contemplating returning to architecture school and the decision will definitely affect my income in the immediate future. I will have to take a pay cut. I don’t really know what to say on this front, to be honest. It is a risky gamble that I hope will pay off, but who knows what the future holds. I simply can’t turn that part of my brain off. Maybe it’s the man in me.
The Ivory Tower 
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