
How She Does It EP 71: Tradwife Or Career Woman: Corinne Low on On Ambition, Kids & Equality
“I don’t sweep the floor with my uterus,” asserts Corinne Low, Associate Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania. It’s a stark statement, but her underlying point is to urge men and women to re-examine gender roles around the work needed to maintain a home and family: cooking, cleaning, making the kids’ doctor’s appointments, and so on.
Low was on the tenure track when her first marriage fell apart. She was overwhelmed with her job, a bad commute, a new infant, and housework. She was the higher earner of the couple, and the division of labor at home felt way too lopsided. So she used her know-how as an economist to study the data on how men and women divide tasks at home and develop strategies for how couples can create a system that’s fair.
Today, Low is a tenured professor and is remarried to a woman. (She notes that it is not a prescription for everyone, but it works for her.) She writes about her research and her experience in HAVING IT ALL: What Data Tells Us About Women’s Lives and Getting the Most Out of Yours, which is a USA Today National Best Seller and an Amazon Best Nonfiction Book of the Year.
💬 In this episode, we explore:
- How to approach a conversation with a partner about re-allocating work around the house
- Why parents today are feeling “the squeeze” - when time pressures and money pressures hit at the same time - more than previous generations.
- What concerns Low about the “tradwife” trend
- Questions to ask yourself about your career path to determine if it’s compatible with the life you want outside of work
- Why a job with “boundaries” is better for women than a job with “flexibility.”
🔗 Visit Corinne Low’s website
📕 Find out more about Corinne Low’s book: HAVING IT ALL
📸 Follow Corinne Low on Instagram
📸 Follow Corinne Low on Substack
📸 Follow Corinne Low on LinkedIn
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