Hi, Ashley here. In the last podcast, I told you the next one would be about women, men and

communication at the office. And that show is coming up in August. But in the meantime, I'm re-releasing

a show from last year that most of you won't have heard before. It's called Killing the Ideal

Woman. And it deals with some of the ways women see themselves and their roles in society and how

that can limit us on the career front. Also to let you know, in addition to that upcoming show

about communication, I have other shows in the pipeline about executive presence and about how

single professional women without children often feel left out of the whole conversation about

women and work. Now, here's killing the ideal woman.

Welcome to the broad experience, the show about women, the workplace and success. I'm

Ashley Milne Tite. This week on the show, perhaps one reason so few women are in positions of power is that we're too busy trying to live up to a stereotype.

Women were making career limiting decisions consistently based on this ideal woman.

And the ideal woman does it all.

She looks really good.

And she is very nice.

Coming up on the broad experience.

Jody Dechen thought her career as a consultant was still going pretty well after her first child was born.

But then she had her second son. He had colic and she was exhausted, overwhelmed and depressed. Then her husband started

travelling a lot for his job. Suddenly she was doing everything house and child related and working

less. Still, she told herself being the perfect mother was more important. But she spent five years

feeling miserable as home responsibilities took over, competitive

parenting practices set in, and her career dwindled.

I had kept putting it away, sacrificing my career for my children, using that mantra, and it

...