Alice Vol. 1 No. 1

“It won’t surprise you to know,
traditionally, women have had higher
graduation rates [than men], women
have had higher GPAs,” he says.
“Clearly that’s a huge percentage, and
a large percentage of companies would
be foolish to ignore that talent pool.”
Floyd chose to apply for a co-op
position, and was selected to work at
Eastman Chemical Company for three
semesters. When Floyd began applying
for co-ops, she said UA advisers
pointed her toward Eastman because
the company is known to be respectful
of women in the workplace.
“[Eastman] made it very hard [to
know what kind of company I’d like
to be at], because I know that there’s
probably not going to be many companies
like them, and I think they kind
of spoiled me,” Floyd says. “I definitely
think that I thrive in that type of
environment, so now I know what to
look for.”
While some companies boast a family-friendly
work environment, others
expect a career-centric lifestyle, at
least for the first few years of employment.
Either way, Railsback says companies
are usually upfront about their
expectations when hiring.
In addition, women appear to be
utilizing career preparation resources
more than men at the University of Alabama,
Railsback says. Out-attending
men at almost every career fair and
event, except for the Technical Career
Fair, women seem to be more keen on
taking advantage of opportunities afforded
by the University. With a power
system in place that has historically
favored men in the job market, women
see that they have to work even harder
to prepare for future careers.
“I can say that other students might
be too confident and not think that
they need to take advantage of those
[resources], and that doesn’t necessarily
happen along gender lines,”
Railsback says. “But other students,
women included, may realize, ‘Hey, I
should put in the work here and really
do everything I need to do [to start
my career].’”
$40.0/1.00 = 40 years
$40.0/.815 = 49 years
Alice November 2015 [49]