“For many, the comments were a painful reminder that no matter how much you achieve at work and in the world,”
The reality is, no one cares. Every man who has retired and watched his company fill his position with a person he does not believe is up to his standards knows this feeling. The thing is, men don’t usually have to give up a family for a career, so they have a support system to fall back to.
An old chief engineer described a test to see if you were irreplaceable on a ship. Stick your hand in a bucket of water and then pull it out. If the water flows back in to where your hand was you are replaceable.
“The thing is, men don’t usually have to give up a family for a career, so they have a support system to fall back to.”
Most “careers” are really just a job. Men have a job to support a family.