The playing field was never even, but we are hopeful, the numbers of women work in higher ranking/executive positions are more than what’s in the past, and more girls studying in the STEM and management field too.
It is a complete cycle to make sure that more girls studying in STEM results in more girls graduating with a degree in STEM then results in more girls working and staying in STEM fields and being recognized and promoted to decision-making roles within the fields, which will encourage even more young girls entering into the STEM learning field ... We all play a part in this :).
My husband called it, and I agree, it is the good old boy net work. You need to go out after work drink and party. You need to play golf how about following a football team? The socializing is what excludes women from consideration.
Thanks Karen (and Dan)! I wrote about how corporate socializing and "team bounding" a.k.a. bantering blatantly exclude women, in the earlier post of this series. I happen to be a woman who prefers a cup of tea or coffee over a cocktail, who would rather spend evening and weekend hours reading a book or going to a concert than following any game on TV, and who does not take any smoking breaks. So I can't count how many times I had to order a club soda at the bar and dig out my university football knowledge, just so that I could pretend I belonged. And once I was asked (by a man of course) why we were having trouble keeping women on the team ... I did not know where to begin!
Sharing the comment sent directly to me via email, from a reader who is a white male.
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Hi Yi, thanks for writing something that needs more press. I promoted the first female to our sales team at Whirlpool Corp. in 1981. It was long overdue and quite controversial. All the old men of that era wanted to punish me for going against accepted norms. Today, more than 50% of the team were women when I retired in 2012, but they are still grossly underrepresented in higher-level management positions. And just as you said, the higher you go, the fewer women are in positions of power.
I tried to change the discrimination that exists to this day in my former company, and even though I was in a position of power, I was never able to get my very qualified, numbers-oriented, high-achieving women and especially minority women, through that glass ceiling. I also agree with the bamboo ceiling idea, in most cases, it is impenetrable.
The playing field was never even, but we are hopeful, the numbers of women work in higher ranking/executive positions are more than what’s in the past, and more girls studying in the STEM and management field too.
It is a complete cycle to make sure that more girls studying in STEM results in more girls graduating with a degree in STEM then results in more girls working and staying in STEM fields and being recognized and promoted to decision-making roles within the fields, which will encourage even more young girls entering into the STEM learning field ... We all play a part in this :).
My husband called it, and I agree, it is the good old boy net work. You need to go out after work drink and party. You need to play golf how about following a football team? The socializing is what excludes women from consideration.
Thanks Karen (and Dan)! I wrote about how corporate socializing and "team bounding" a.k.a. bantering blatantly exclude women, in the earlier post of this series. I happen to be a woman who prefers a cup of tea or coffee over a cocktail, who would rather spend evening and weekend hours reading a book or going to a concert than following any game on TV, and who does not take any smoking breaks. So I can't count how many times I had to order a club soda at the bar and dig out my university football knowledge, just so that I could pretend I belonged. And once I was asked (by a man of course) why we were having trouble keeping women on the team ... I did not know where to begin!
Sharing the comment sent directly to me via email, from a reader who is a white male.
*** Begin quote ***
Hi Yi, thanks for writing something that needs more press. I promoted the first female to our sales team at Whirlpool Corp. in 1981. It was long overdue and quite controversial. All the old men of that era wanted to punish me for going against accepted norms. Today, more than 50% of the team were women when I retired in 2012, but they are still grossly underrepresented in higher-level management positions. And just as you said, the higher you go, the fewer women are in positions of power.
I tried to change the discrimination that exists to this day in my former company, and even though I was in a position of power, I was never able to get my very qualified, numbers-oriented, high-achieving women and especially minority women, through that glass ceiling. I also agree with the bamboo ceiling idea, in most cases, it is impenetrable.
Thanks for the thoughtful piece.
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