The following dialogue is excerpted from Chapter 16 of "Becoming a Technical Leader", by Jerry Weinberg (warmly recommended). It has been edited out of the post Kaj Sotala and I are working on, but I think it's worth having it somewhere around.

Some background: Jerry is interviewing Edrie, a (presumably somewhat fictionalized) senior woman engineer at a client of his. Edrie has just butted horns with a male peer over his conception of what makes a good technical leader: "we have nothing against competent unmarried women, like you, but...". But upon finding herself alone with Jerry, Edrie acknowledges that her colleague does have a point, taking Jerry somewhat by surprise.

• J: "Why do you think fathers are such good leadership material?" [...]
• E: "That's easy. It's a matter of power conversion".
• J: "Power conversion?"
• E:"Yes, you know. The ability to convert one form of power into another that you value more. Like converting water power from a stream into electric light for your house."
• J: "What does that have to do with married men being better leaders?"
• "Well, in this country, married men have an advantage over single men. They have power over a woman, which they convert into services that support them in their work. Single men have much more work to do just taking care of themselves, so they are at a disadvantage." [...]
• J: "A lot of men would see it differently. They would say that the married woman is converting her sexual power over the man into money power - a guaranteed lifetime of support." [...]
• E:"There's no contradiction in both people using power at the same time and converting it into something they both want more."