...i'm OLD

ultimately you will end up

cynical,
cold,
alone,
and unhappy
and you will wonder...

why people no longer care.

but you will have no one to blame except yourself.
for you have willed this on your own...

Answer to Steph's Post on Women Executives in Corporate America

I'll start by attempting to answer steph's blog question concerning why there are so few women at the top.

yes, i would agree that for whatever reason most men dislike powerful women, and even more women dislike powerful women and that might have an effect on hiring practices,

and yes women have been a historically oppressed segment of society,

but no, the problem is more systematic then evolutionary (more on that later).

the bottom line is actually much simpler then any of the previous posters have suggested. ask any HR director of any company and i have a good feeling that if it were legal they would hire a male over female, all else being equal. I would even go out on a limb and suggest that they will still hire a male even if he is less qualified then the female.

all you business majors out there have had one idea drilled into your heads since you have entered the business school. your school motto should read something like this: do all that it takes to meet the bottom line for yourself, your company and your stockholders. the bottom line can be many things but what it is not is social justice. //end of diatribe//

all too often the bottom line tends to equal money. statistically speaking women are more of a financial liability then men are. in fact it might even be economically wise to hire a less qualified man and train him then it is to hire a already qualified women. the reason is simple men don't have wombs, they can't get pregnant. men aren't the primary caregiver of children (meaning, when junior gets sick its usually not daddy that takes time off work to care for him).

granted this is of no fault of the women. you are born the way you are and our patriarchal society has placed certain gender roles on certain activities, which both sexes have reinforced.

this tends to answer the question of why women are not as prevalent in corporate america as men. but fails to answer why women are not at the top.

the answer to this is also quite simplistic, maybe over simplistic.

the reason is most women do in fact choose to take maternity leave when the time arrives. many women choose to also place their careers on hold for several months to many years. consequently, among working mothers you will notice a significant gap within their resumes.

it is not a corporate ladder but rather a escalator going in the opposite direction you are going. if you were to stop you would be pushed back, and in order for you to reach the top of this backwards elevator it takes tremendous effort in the beginning but less effort at the end.

fortunately or not, most women decide (though not really a choice if you think about it) to have children at the beginning of their careers rather then the end. usually ending their chances of continuously climbing the backwards escalator like their male counterparts.

the cause is numerous but relatively simple, the difficulty is in the solution.

the problem is systematic. it is easy to blame evolution for the historical oppression of women rather then examine the system which has reinforced this oppression.

Yes, women can reach the top even in this system but…

Why should she have to choose between her career or her family?
Why should she have to explain herself when she decides not to have children?
Why should she have to take off her wedding ring before an interview?

And for men…

…Do you know what privilege means?

Privilege means you don’t have to ever answer or even think about those questions if you don’t want to because no one will ever ask you.

that’s a privilege women don’t have… but should

for more information: http://www.catalystwomen.org/