Yea, right.
On the contrary, men at Fortune 100 companies commonly complain that due to diversity goals, women actually have an unfair advantage. “Every company I’ve worked at goes out of its way to hire or promote women to senior level positions,” says an upper-middle manager at a major food company. He adds with a sigh, “It’s not easy being a ‘pale male’ in today’s corporate world.”
Where do these guys get these impressions? Not from the stats:
Yet recent research and statistics tell a different story, suggesting that the glass ceiling remains firmly in place. It’s been 10 years since the U.S. Government’s Glass Ceiling Commission released its findings that while women had 46 percent of America’s jobs and more than half the master’s degrees being awarded, only 5 percent of all senior manager positions were filled by women. What’s more, female managers’ earnings were on average a mere 68 percent of their male counterparts’.
And, some reasons for it, which I see everyday here in Grande Latte Enema Land:
– Different standards are used to judge the performance of women and minorities.
– Their corporate culture assigns lesser value to women and minorities.
– The “good old boy network” is the biggest discrimination barrier to career advancement.
– Because women and minorities are less willing to play the political game, many choose to leave the corporate world entirely.
Not really new stuff, but fascinating that men’s impressions of women’s levels of seniority in the workplace are a lot higher than the actual levels women achieve. It’s that old 1/4 rule. Anytime a room is composed of 1/4 or more women, people will say that at least half the room is “full” of women.
