The top five reasons to deny women roles of leadership!

 For what seems like forever, women have been denied the opportunity to take on the most senior levels of leadership in our society.  People have postulated any number of reasons to deny them of this privilege. 

The following are the top five, not in any particular order of importance.  Once you fully understand the rationale, it’s hard not to agree that we are fortunate indeed to have kept them out of offices of responsibility and influence.

 

1.   Women lack experience.  While that is true, the reality is that it is not for lack of trying but for lack of opportunity.  Men have successfully blocked attempts for women to infiltrate the upper echelons of the hierarchy. Private clubs or golf courses have historically been the ideal networking venues for men.  Women, on the other hand, have been serving in soup kitchens, supporting women’s shelters and aiding charities.  The disparities could hardly be more startling and the preparation for leadership more succinct.

Women continue to be under-represented on Boards of Directors, with North American numbers being under 25%.  Even worse, the number of women in executive positions is under 20%

The deck is stacked against them, and other minorities.  At current rates, it will take 50 years before boards and executive ranks reach full diversity.

2.   Women are underqualified. The reality is that almost 40% of MBA graduates are women and almost 50% of new enrolments are women.  These numbers have continued to grow over the past 20 years.  Interestingly the gender split in law and medicine is 50/50 and we have seen no degradation in the quality of service provided in either occupation. 

It is not that women have been tried in positions of responsibility and influence and been found unfit.  Rather it is a case that their fitness represented a threat to men and so it remains untried.

3.   Women are too emotional.  To this I have one word…testosterone. Case closed. 

4.   Women lack strength.  Tried childbirth… 

Leadership has nothing to do with physical strength.  Leadership is about character and mental fitness and women score higher in both categories.  Like all minorities, they have to work twice as hard as a man to be recognized in the workplace while continuing to carry an unequal burden of responsibility in the home.

The reality is that most men would revolt if they were expected to assume the weight of responsibility that most women endure every day.

5.   Women are poor negotiators. When all else fails, create a lie and keep repeating it.  In time it will become your truth.

The reality is that in order to even be considered for executive positions, women have had to navigate the minefield of male egos.  That has taken much more subtle negotiation than any male could achieve.

You need to understand that for women it is not an ‘either / or’ proposition.  More often it is a ‘both / and’ compromise that accomplishes more without destroying the other party.

 

The definition of an idiot is one who continues to fail doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result.  On that basis we must all count ourselves idiots as we have perpetuated the myth that only a man can lead effectively.

I, for one, am done.  I am prepared to support a woman to lead a company, a city or a nation. It has been a century or more that most countries liberated women with the right to vote.  It is well past time that we move out of the way and support their right to lead.

A message to the unvaccinated

 

For much of the past two years we have individually and collectively endured one of the worst pandemics in the history of mankind.  Hundreds of millions have been infected. Tens of millions have died.  Few have been untouched. This has been a shared tragedy.

For much of the past year vaccinations have become available to provide a significant level of protection to those fortunate enough to receive one of the several formulas that have been developed.  Over 6 billion doses have been administered around the world with remarkable efficacy and with fewer negative consequences than any vaccine against any disease in history. 

The vaccines provide protection for the recipient and by extension, for those with whom they come in contact.  The vaccines are free and save lives.

Yet a remarkable number among us have not been vaccinated, by personal choice.

For those with medical reasons for exemption from vaccination, I hope that you are able to remain safe by following health guidelines and associating with others who practice likewise.

I understand and appreciate that there are some who have chosen to exercise a personal religious decision against vaccinations.  To those of you in this category I commend you for honouring your god above the state.  But will you change your mind if you become infected and seek treatment at over-crowded hospitals or retain your beliefs in private and trust for your recovery?

There are those who have determined that this is a matter of personal choice and will therefore not be forced by the ‘state’ to be vaccinated.  It is true that in most jurisdictions you have a right to refuse remedies such as vaccinations.  And personal rights should not be lightly ignored.  But as a member of society you also have responsibilities and obligations to a ‘greater good’, that is, to work and behave in a manner which serves to benefit all of us.

We obey laws which are intended to establish normative behaviour that we can all expect from others.  We have customs which respect and perpetuate our personal histories and heritages. We engage others with ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and other societal graces that are neither rights nor obligations but which make society ‘work’.

It is to these practices that I appeal to your higher nature of good to set aside your rights.  Choose to contribute to the betterment of society by joining with it rather than standing apart, and at greater risk to yourself and those in your company.  Choose to do that which your rights do not require you to do but which your responsibility to society begs you to do. Choose to lead by example and not by becoming a statistic.

Many places are now firmly in a fourth wave of this infection.  Vaccination rates are very high in many areas, yet some remain well below the average. This only perpetuates the situation. 

If you yearn to be able to fully exercise your rights again…going to the restaurant or bar, taking in a movie, attending a concert or game…then the rest of us need YOU to join forces.  Consider it enlisting for the battle that has come to our shores and which requires all of us to be activists, not pacifists, in the battle none of us foresaw but in which all of us are needed.

Your participation is needed and urgent. 

Thanks from the rest of us.