The Myth of the Level Playing Field
September 9, 2010
by Lynn Harris
|The opinions expressed herein are those of the author, and not necessarily those of The New Agenda.
Why we still don’t have a woman in the White House or Chairing the Board.
During a recent speaking engagement at a well-known business school I was proudly informed by a university executive that he had recruited mainly women to his team. He clearly expected a pat on the back. I asked him how many women there were on the university executive committee – the answer was none. I was told not to worry, things were getting better and it was just a matter of time.
Because we see women running large companies and leading governments it’s easy to believe that women in positions of senior leadership is a non- issue. The playing field is now level and it’s just a matter of time before we get a balance of men and women at the top of organizations.
A level playing field is a concept about fairness. Not that every player has an equal chance to succeed, but that they all play by the same set of rules and have an equal ability to compete. In post-feminist 2010 many think that women and men have an equal ability to compete for the top jobs. If that’s the case, how come we still have so few women setting strategy and making decisions at the top of organizations?
Currently, whether it’s government, academia, non-profit or for-profit organizations, men are making most of the decisions. In North America around 85 percent of board and corporate officer positions are held by men in the top 500 companies. In the top 300 European companies, men hold around 90 percent of board director positions. The picture is little different in government and academia.
If the organizational playing field is level, why are the numbers of women in top jobs growing at a glacial rate, or not growing at all? The old arguments of not enough women in the executive pipeline, women not being genetically programmed to lead, and men being more committed and ambitious for power, no longer hold water.
Research reveals a global trend in the growing educational advantage of women achieving qualifications that should position them well for senior positions. Research also shows that men and women differ little in the traits and abilities that are most relevant to good leadership. And further, that there is no difference between men and women being committed to their companies, and that the desire for power is equally strong between the sexes (even though men and women may manifest that power in different ways).
As to it being simply a matter of time – Catalyst, a research organization that works to ensure women’s advancement in the workplace, estimates that at the current rate of change it would take women at least another 47 years to reach parity with men as corporate officers of Fortune 500 companies. If the playing field is level, why must it take so long?
It’s true that women and men who compete for positions of senior leadership in organizations are subject to the same rules. The reason this doesn’t create a level playing field is that women do not have an equal ability to compete within these rules.
I am confident that one day we will see a woman in the White House and see more women chairing boards. But not before we either change the rules to create a true level playing field or become even more skilled at recognizing the rules and succeeding within them.
I was stunned watching this interview recently with Zhang Xin by Fareed Zakaria. She was commenting on how women have achieved true equality in China—yes, China! I wish I could be more optimistic about the U.S…..
ZAKARIA: “One of the things I’ve noticed, Zhang Xin, about China, when I’ve come, is that women work here at every level in the society. First of all, is that just my impression, or is it true that there are many people, maybe not quite at your – at your level, but there are many female entrepreneurs, businessmen, people in all walks of life?
ZHANG: I think that is certainly true. You know, in China, you know, if I were to say that compared to many other countries where I lived and worked before, this is the country where women have, at least in the urban area – you know, if we take away the rural area, urban area women have — are enjoying very high level of equality, if not completely equal but at least high level of equality compared to many other — you know, compared to European countries, for instance. You know, you don’t see so many women in – in, you know, boardrooms.
And here in China, I think you see many. You know, top CEOs are actually women.”
The thing is once it becomes equal, the paycheck goes away.
it’s that, in America, the pay and prestige follows what the men are doing, not necessarily what they are doing itself. When women do it, the prestige goes away along with the living wage. This is part of the reason why we have such a problem, with a new women underclass; women simply aren’t paid a living wage, and jobs that once paid a living wage, now populated by female employees, no longer are considered important enough to be paid a living wage. A lot of middle management squeezes by in urban areas on 50k. Atleast, the females do.
SO how do we address sexism and make this a part of our discussion. Is it some kind of attraction men have for one another that makes what they do seem important, even though the same work by a woman is largely ignored, or is it misogyny? It’s one of the two.
“The thing is once it becomes equal, the paycheck goes away.”
This is a good point. In any given field, once some parity is achieved, suddenly the wages drop and the value placed on that occupation declines. It works the other way, too, when men become interested in a profession wages go up as well as the value we place on that skill. Chefs are an example, women have been cooking for free since the dawn of time and working in restaurants as low paid cooks. But when men take an interest in cooking, suddenly they are chefs, well respected artistes.
yttik,
Men have garnered most (if not all the power) by supporting each other and making certain that men and not the more qualified woman “get the job” even if they are totally incompetent (hillary & obama are a good example of this male strategy).
Women will NEVER get parity by waiting on the men to play fair. This will only come when women stop attacking other women in hopes of placating the men and being invited into their club. That ain’t never going to happen and the sooner women accept this reality, the quicker we can move out from underneath the male power thumb.
We have to recognize that unless and until we start respecting ourselves and other women, no matter what their political affiliations, the sooner we can become a real power unto ourselves and have the leverage necessary to get the attention from men, we could never get otherwise.
They don’t respect us because we don’t respect ourselves enough to stop taking their bullshit and calling them on it.
Yttik it’s so frustrating. It’s like playing wacka mole. Now watch the salaries for construction and electrical engineering (something I have a personal interest in) increase. The ones where women gain parity either stay the same or decline and eventually it’s not a living wage. It lacks prestige etc. Just look at the JD’s trying to find meaningful employment. It is clear that it doesn’t matter what the work entails. If men were secretaries it’d be a specialist position.
This discrimination effects the strength of the entire economy. Women have freedom now, access to jobs and divorce. You can’t have equality and discrimination at the same time, especially not 50 % of the population if you want a strong and stable economy. We are still a rich world power, but you know what? Sweden and Monaco, where men do half the chores and men and women combined have 12 months paid family leave, have the world’s most stable economy. On top of that, they also have Prince Carl and Prince Andrea, respectively.
Nice piece Lynn.
Come on women. Men don’t even make sense to look at. Why are we letting them do this? Is it really herculean to expect people to analyze and confront their own biases, cowardice, and subjective desires for a more objective world in which -things matter.- Because right now, nothing matters. It’s like, you can only win by tying up the hands of your opponents and then you claim to be a champion. Alright you won. You only make sense when everyone else (55 percent of the population) shuts the f((( up and the other 45 percent has a latent desire for you. Men claim to come up with the world’s technology when actually it was women. Men claim work is important except when women do it. THe same, same exact words and ideas that were first put forth by a woman, the woman is nothing less than mutilated, but when put forth by a man becomes an orgy. What do we do about this? We have a world of appearances, where things seem to have meaning and matter but which do not because of non-objectivity, bias in motive, lies, and pretending, because of sexism, basically, or we have one where things matter. Can males (and females) confront their preference? Can cowards become less afraid of being objective despite what the masses say? Can we make the human filth part of an open discourse, out in the open air where it can’t be filth? Otherwise we have a world that is less than truthful, wherein men take all the credit, and women all the blame.
Leave your Response Want an avatar? Get a gravatar!
Community Room
February 22, 2012 at 11:22 am
February 17, 2012 at 2:39 pm
February 6, 2012 at 4:25 pm
January 30, 2012 at 2:36 pm
January 26, 2012 at 4:38 pm
January 23, 2012 at 1:04 pm
January 15, 2012 at 11:37 am
January 9, 2012 at 6:36 pm
BUILD your NETWORK
Our Network of College Women
Protecting our Teenage Girls
We’re in the Media »
Click to see our latest stories in the media
More Stories »Recent Comments
The Latest from our Blog
Archives
Pioneer Mentors
Blogroll
Find us Online
Subscribe Entries (RSS) | Comments (RSS)
The New Agenda is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls by bringing about systemic change in the media, at the workplace, at school and at home. More...