What a Feeling

One Times journalist went out of her way to pinpoint the issue of sexism in the City of London, which is known for its chauvinistic treatment of women, but had a hard time getting any senior female employee to contribute. It's a direct result of how the media attention sex discrimination in the Square Mile generously got in the past is now backfiring. The two female success stories the journalist managed to contact do nothing but solidify the reigning stereotypes of career girls.

One is a high-ranking manager in a bank who carries out a balancing act between professional and family life with amazing integrity and determination. She and her husband, who agreed to quit his job as a journalist and run their house instead, head a family with nine children, no small achievement in these circumstances, but at the price of extraordinary concentration and occasional bursts of emotional fragility.

On the opposite end, the other successful City woman who owns her consulting business is consciously brushing aside any semblance of family life, admitting that strains she has to put up with are not cut out for familial well-being. With blatant sincerity and calculation, she prioritises the world of multi-million deals and high-octane jobs over anything that a decision to settle down might bring along.

It's stunning how knowingly young financiers and bankers sign up to a lifestyle which is by any standards profligate and unsustainable and promotes values few ordinary people or communities could uphold. But greed, together with the promise of a flashy, spectacular life, keeps talented individuals flowing in and the vibrant after-hours scene, with mobs of stunning hotties determined to tap their resources or capitalise on their connections ready to lapdance.

Language to remember:
+ You can't have your cake and eat it.
+ I'd be unfair on my partner.
+ I'm a bitch to work for.
+ child-bearing age,
+ a health club = a gym,
+ They are cut from the same cloth.
+ Money is a draw.
+ a coin's flip from the Bank of England,
+ cannon-fodder faces,
+ a chat-up line,
+ a bevvy = a drink, We had a few bevvies last night.
+ dressed to the nines,
+ to sleep around to get ahead,
+ to sleep your way to the top,
+ be resigned to the fact that,
+ pinch somebody on the bottom, pinch somebody on the bollocks,
+ It's a bear pit.
+ The Square Mile