I worry a bit that the movement toward “just get every researcher with a big brain a personal assistant” is exacerbating this dynamic. And it’s even grosser when you consider the typical gender dynamics
I’m curious as to whether these opportunities will actually make who take them worse off in this regard. It seems quite plausible to me that many PA positions would allow people to make connections within the community and build skills that would prepare them for general operations roles (which I would guess to be higher status, except perhaps for the PA’s to couple of most famous people in the movement). And I know you’ve said that operations roles aren’t considered particularly cool, but I’d guess it’d still be cooler than most roles outside of EA and it was my understanding was that there’s a reasonable pathway from operations to management or to founding your own projects.
One way I could see this being an issue is if there was some kind of stigma preventing people from transiting from PA roles to ops or ops to management, but I would be surprised if this were the case. Another way would be if a massive expansion of PA’s meant that a transition from PA to ops were much less viable. This is plausible to me, but I still expect that the transition from PA to ops would still be much easier than breaking into ops directly.
So even though my expectation is that the short-term impact of the expansion of PA roles may be a greater number of women in junior roles, my expectation is that the longer-term impact will be a greater number of women in senior roles or as founders of projects. Once you’ve got a foot in the door, it opens up a lot of opportunities.
Stepping back, there’s a limit to how much we can redistribute social rewards as people are going to hang with the people they want to hang with and admire the people they naturally admire. One way to do this, however, is to highlight the contributions of people who do their job well. For example, I could imagine someone creating a website highlighting how particular ops people were able to dramatically increase the impact of their organisation which would make it easier for people to appreciate the work they do.
Another way to do this would be via providing funding to attend events like EA Global or EAGx as this funding would allow people to form and deepen connections that they otherwise wouldn’t.
“the short-term impact of the expansion of PA roles may be a greater number of women in junior roles, my expectation is that the longer-term impact will be a greater number of women in senior roles or as founders of projects”
Is the norm in EA that personal assistants tend to be women?
I worry a bit that the movement toward “just get every researcher with a big brain a personal assistant” is exacerbating this dynamic. And it’s even grosser when you consider the typical gender dynamics
I’m curious as to whether these opportunities will actually make who take them worse off in this regard. It seems quite plausible to me that many PA positions would allow people to make connections within the community and build skills that would prepare them for general operations roles (which I would guess to be higher status, except perhaps for the PA’s to couple of most famous people in the movement). And I know you’ve said that operations roles aren’t considered particularly cool, but I’d guess it’d still be cooler than most roles outside of EA and it was my understanding was that there’s a reasonable pathway from operations to management or to founding your own projects.
One way I could see this being an issue is if there was some kind of stigma preventing people from transiting from PA roles to ops or ops to management, but I would be surprised if this were the case. Another way would be if a massive expansion of PA’s meant that a transition from PA to ops were much less viable. This is plausible to me, but I still expect that the transition from PA to ops would still be much easier than breaking into ops directly.
So even though my expectation is that the short-term impact of the expansion of PA roles may be a greater number of women in junior roles, my expectation is that the longer-term impact will be a greater number of women in senior roles or as founders of projects. Once you’ve got a foot in the door, it opens up a lot of opportunities.
Stepping back, there’s a limit to how much we can redistribute social rewards as people are going to hang with the people they want to hang with and admire the people they naturally admire. One way to do this, however, is to highlight the contributions of people who do their job well. For example, I could imagine someone creating a website highlighting how particular ops people were able to dramatically increase the impact of their organisation which would make it easier for people to appreciate the work they do.
Another way to do this would be via providing funding to attend events like EA Global or EAGx as this funding would allow people to form and deepen connections that they otherwise wouldn’t.
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Thanks!
“the short-term impact of the expansion of PA roles may be a greater number of women in junior roles, my expectation is that the longer-term impact will be a greater number of women in senior roles or as founders of projects”
Is the norm in EA that personal assistants tend to be women?
I don’t have stats, but I’m assuming this is what Cristina meant by “typical gender dynamics”