The medieval advisory coming from E&Y only demonstrates how very hard it is for women for consolidate gains they have made over decades.
Organizations built and run by men tend to exhibit entrenched biases that value confidence and assertiveness in men while penalizing those traits in women; judge men based on their potential, while assessing women on what they’ve already accomplished; insist on work hours that cater to men with wives at home taking care of everything else; and, of course, ignore when women are sexually harassed ― far more often than anyone was willing to admit until very recently.
The part about requiring women to have accomplished things before they can be promoted often ensures that the brightest women with the greatest potential divert most if not all of that energy into channels that result in better more guaranteed outcomes. They stop wasting time trying to prove their value to men who are ill qualified to "evaluate" them. As a result the company never gets any real value out of these women- which is their loss entirely.
I have seen a few of my female clients go on to start their own businesses very successfully. These ladies have proven they are way better than any man in their former place of employment that sat in judgement over their potential or lack thereof.
In the bitter irony of fate, one such woman T, is now a highly paid outside consultant to the very organization that decided she was not leadership material and iced her out in middle management for many years. She used that time to build a solid network, get her seed group of customers and fine tune the concept she wanted to make a business out of. All while the men around her dismissed her as a grunt only fit to manage projects and provide status to leadership. Today, her name is well known in the community as are her accomplishments, which is more than most of those male "leaders" could say for themselves.
As women we can feel beat up and outraged by the system or take the path that T and others like her have taken. Have the last laugh at the ridiculous pomposity of those who would try to fix us.
Organizations built and run by men tend to exhibit entrenched biases that value confidence and assertiveness in men while penalizing those traits in women; judge men based on their potential, while assessing women on what they’ve already accomplished; insist on work hours that cater to men with wives at home taking care of everything else; and, of course, ignore when women are sexually harassed ― far more often than anyone was willing to admit until very recently.
The part about requiring women to have accomplished things before they can be promoted often ensures that the brightest women with the greatest potential divert most if not all of that energy into channels that result in better more guaranteed outcomes. They stop wasting time trying to prove their value to men who are ill qualified to "evaluate" them. As a result the company never gets any real value out of these women- which is their loss entirely.
I have seen a few of my female clients go on to start their own businesses very successfully. These ladies have proven they are way better than any man in their former place of employment that sat in judgement over their potential or lack thereof.
In the bitter irony of fate, one such woman T, is now a highly paid outside consultant to the very organization that decided she was not leadership material and iced her out in middle management for many years. She used that time to build a solid network, get her seed group of customers and fine tune the concept she wanted to make a business out of. All while the men around her dismissed her as a grunt only fit to manage projects and provide status to leadership. Today, her name is well known in the community as are her accomplishments, which is more than most of those male "leaders" could say for themselves.
As women we can feel beat up and outraged by the system or take the path that T and others like her have taken. Have the last laugh at the ridiculous pomposity of those who would try to fix us.
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