“Men should think twice before making widowhood women's only path to power.”
― Gloria Steinem
Today as I'm sure you are all aware, is International Women's Day. Congratulations to us. Being fabulous is something worth celebrating and I'm using this blog post as my champagne cork.
Gail Kelly, CEO of Westpac Banking Corporation, this morning said it best when she reminded us all just how far we the female of the species had come since the days when Banking Corporations required a woman's loan to be guaranteed by a male counterpart. That was 1950 and back then, if you were a woman on your own, you could kiss goodbye a home of your own. We'd had the right to vote for fifty years! Talk about baby steps. The '80s saw the rise of the female powerhouse, complete with power shoulders, power accessories and power hair. Think Grace Jones, Bonnie Tyler. Melanie Griffith. Hairspray. Women "had it all" and we were making our mark on the business end of town.
Gail Kelly, CEO of Westpac Banking Corporation, this morning said it best when she reminded us all just how far we the female of the species had come since the days when Banking Corporations required a woman's loan to be guaranteed by a male counterpart. That was 1950 and back then, if you were a woman on your own, you could kiss goodbye a home of your own. We'd had the right to vote for fifty years! Talk about baby steps. The '80s saw the rise of the female powerhouse, complete with power shoulders, power accessories and power hair. Think Grace Jones, Bonnie Tyler. Melanie Griffith. Hairspray. Women "had it all" and we were making our mark on the business end of town.
Here we are in the Decadents, where I can get my own bank loan, and a female is leading the country. And we still have so far to go. Why? Because our femininity is still the point. Let's take a short overview of stuff that just wouldn't be said if Mars, and not Venus, was wearing the power shoulders:
1. "He's a loyal boy" - if Joe Hockey had become Tony Abbott's deputy succeeding Malcolm Turnbull and Brendan Nelson.
2. "Bob Brown's Bastard" - if Kevin Rudd had struck a majority deal with the Greens to form Government.
3. Mr Yahoo! CEO back to work 2-weeks after the birth of his son.
4. Hypocritical Mr Yahoo! CEO bans working from home - as a father, he should understand the pressures on working families.
Unfortunately we still live in that world where a woman standing power shoulder-to-power shoulder with her male colleagues remains the point of interest.
We still live in a world where representation quotas are necessary to encourage some degree of equal opportunity for women seeking top jobs. In itself this concept fosters inequality as it covertly and inaccurately whispers of women supposing a guaranteed unfair advantage over her best male buddy for the same job. That is not what women want. It is my understanding that we just don't want IT to be an issue. We want merit to be the sole driving factor in our - and our best male buddy's - elevation to success in whatever form both of us want it to take. I believe we will not have truly "made it there" until neither the first nor the second question asked of a corporate leader with boobs has anything to do with gender. Because, when you really think about some of the blokes who are up there, even our boobs aren't always the unique advantage.
1. "He's a loyal boy" - if Joe Hockey had become Tony Abbott's deputy succeeding Malcolm Turnbull and Brendan Nelson.
2. "Bob Brown's Bastard" - if Kevin Rudd had struck a majority deal with the Greens to form Government.
3. Mr Yahoo! CEO back to work 2-weeks after the birth of his son.
4. Hypocritical Mr Yahoo! CEO bans working from home - as a father, he should understand the pressures on working families.
Unfortunately we still live in that world where a woman standing power shoulder-to-power shoulder with her male colleagues remains the point of interest.
We still live in a world where representation quotas are necessary to encourage some degree of equal opportunity for women seeking top jobs. In itself this concept fosters inequality as it covertly and inaccurately whispers of women supposing a guaranteed unfair advantage over her best male buddy for the same job. That is not what women want. It is my understanding that we just don't want IT to be an issue. We want merit to be the sole driving factor in our - and our best male buddy's - elevation to success in whatever form both of us want it to take. I believe we will not have truly "made it there" until neither the first nor the second question asked of a corporate leader with boobs has anything to do with gender. Because, when you really think about some of the blokes who are up there, even our boobs aren't always the unique advantage.
Stay Classy, Ladies. Keep truckin'.
Yours, Tits McGee.
Yours, Tits McGee.