women, work, leadership, and the future

[miriam_e]

I heard a most interesting talk given recently by Wendy McCarthy about getting women into more of the company executive boards and government positions so that these populations can be more truly representative of the wider population. And while I agree with much of what she said, I feel she kinda bought into the whole old boy mythology of what is important.

She felt that we are defined by our work, which is nice if you have an important-sounding job like research scientist for the European Space Agency, but doesn't have quite the same ring to it if you are a cleaner, or you stack supermarket shelves, or you sort fruit on a conveyor belt. Defining yourself by your work has other unpleasant consequences, just ask the long-term unemployed, or the retrenched, or retirees. See what those who've lost everything thru some illness feel about self-worth being measured by a job.

Another way she seems to have bought the old boy bullshit is in thinking that women have to be aggressive and become like surrogate males to win their jobs because men just don't look outside the boys' clubs to take on new people. While she is right that the inward-looking, self-perpetuating boys only ring needs to be broken, I think she is wrong in thinking that we need to do it on their terms. I think we need to redefine success and failure. I see failure as being unable to negotiate and needing to crush others to get your way. I see success as improving the lot for all those around you. By this measure much of government these days is a dismal failure and the biggest companies are often the greatest blight on the planet.

The most encouraging thing is that I'm not alone in thinking this way. I've noticed a change rippling gently through society, where people are questioning just what success and happiness are. There are even some business leaders who have realised this and have started quietly taking on women. As Wendy McCarthy noted in her talk, companies who have women sharing top roles now consistently out-perform those stuck in the last century with strictly male executives.

What Wendy didn't notice is that a lot of people are abandoning the traditional idea of work and investing huge amounts of time and effort into charities and non-profit groups. This is a time of quiet, almost invisible revolution. People have become fed up with waiting for their boneheaded "representatives" to do something about the wrong things in the world and are simply fixing them themselves. I see this as something wonderful.

The leaders are gradually becoming irrelevant. They are marching up a blind alley, making lots of loud, self-congratulatory noises, with their big, brass band, and when they get to the end and realise they're boxed in and there's nowhere to go, they'll look around to find there's nobody following them -- that they're all alone. Everybody else will have left long ago to get on with doing the really worthwhile stuff.

Comments

[xxclovergrrlxx.livejournal.com]

i don't know about these high paying executive jobs, but i know that i work in a warehouse and in my department there is an upstairs and a downstairs. upstairs is all men and downstairs is me and another girl. we basically get shit on everyday and constantly outperform upstairs with no recognition (in fact, it often feels like we get punished because we're just left to do more work that upstairs should be doing because we get done first). these are facts that i know because we receive a list of how much work we have for the night and it makes no sense to me that when downstairs has a higher work load, upstairs would have more people. but that's what often happens. this wouldn't even bother me so much as the fact that my managers constantly tell me to smile and we are chastised 24/7 for "chatting"...but none of this happens to the men(and they talk all night, but you know, it's apparently important stuff.. we get yelled at for even discussing work details). and i've worked upstairs so i know this for a fact.

i don't know how much sense it makes w/o knowing the details of my job, but just wanted to say... yeah, sexism is alive and well. in fact, my roommate is a truck driver for the same company and when she wanted to apply, they flat out told her no because she's a girl. it took months for her to convince them to let her give it a try and now she hovers between 1st and 2nd best driver.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. Sexism is still rampant. Sounds like the morons upstairs in your place of employ are living far in the past.

If there is a head office then perhaps you could approach them to point out how much money they could save by redistributing the work and cutting a few upstairs salaries. They have everything to gain by opening their eyes and everything to lose by keeping them clenched closed.

Maybe you could start your own company and steal customers that might be interested in a more efficient service. Try to speak to women in the employ of potential customers -- they're less likely to laugh off a "bunch of girls". But even men might be willing to listen if they could see themselves saving money.

In any case, I'd keep on the lookout for any other job that might come along, because such an inefficient company can't hope to compete in the longer term. Sexism is not just wrong, and unfair, and stupid, it doesn't make good business sense.

Wendy McCarthy points out that companies that include women in important positions work better and make more money. Her talk is online at http://abc.net.au/rn/bigideas/default.htm as freely downloadable mp3 (for the next 3 weeks) and the transcript will be up there in a couple of days (I'm not sure how well you'll deal with the Australian accent).

[xxclovergrrlxx.livejournal.com]

this job is definitely just temporary. i'm actually a massage therapist but i wanted a 3rd shift job with a steady income so it leaves my days free while i build a clientele. perhaps someday i can do massage full-time...but it's a slow process. and actually, massage is one field where men have a MUCH harder time finding work than women. there are many men and women alike that would prefer a woman. *shrugs* point being though, i'm really not interested in stealing their customers and starting my own company. i prefer the "let me prove to you by example" route.

i think the hardest thing to compete with though is that there ARE girls in my warehouse that prove them right. we have had quite a few of those girls who don't want to do any hard work, will do anything to get out of it, and just want to talk and fight (with other girls)... BUT on the same note, we've had just as many guys who are completely worthless, but i'm sure i don't need to tell you about selective sight on these topics. the underdog always has a hard time because anything that proves a stereotype is "confirmation", but say, the fact that we've had worthless men as well is just "that one particular man sucked." and i think that's what makes the fight for equality sometimes seem nearly impossible. the problem as i see it, is more that many girls are raised to be dainty and feminine and that they should be taken care of and avoid physical labor. but now that women have the right to do any work they please, there's become a mismatch. and how to fix that problem... creating more feminist conscious women... is something i just don't have an answer for.