The
way to the boardroom
小荷作文网 www.zww.cn With the development of the economy, more
and more skillful and creative elites are needed in the society. Women, as a
part of this group, have been playing a more and more important role in all the
daily works. It seems doubtless that women should weight a large part in this champion
group, however, people found that only 11% of Fortune 500 senior executives
women. 《Nemko, 730》 It seems like there is an invisible barrier between the
female employees and the boardroom. It’s called the glass ceiling. In my point
of view, the answer to this question is mainly base on the nature.
Why would it be preferred to promote a
male? Well, the first reason is really simple: Efficiency. Although females are
also hard workers, they are naturally led to care more about their families.
Louann Brizendine, as a neuropsychiatrist who studies brain gender differences,
claimed that”… women in childbearing years undergo changes that intensify their
focus on the viability of offspring. It’s a passing phenomenon, but ill-times
for those with career ambitions” 《Brizendine, 36》. This is reasonable since
women are often unconsciously taught to take care of their families from
childhood, through play house or some other games. Because of the nature, many
women choose to accept part-time work or to quit the competition of promotion
in efforts to balance the career and their families.
Another point is about the stability.
While the males become more rational and manful during their education, females
are rather fickle and sensitive, this sometimes trouble the business a lot. In
Susan M. Kochanowski’s words, “…women’s leadership styles to be more
interactive and transformational whereas men’s style has been identified as
more directive. “《Kochanowski, 721》.Additionally, the bosses may hesitate
whether their female workers are trustworthy and reliable enough or not, while
hundreds of thousands of females also hesitate whether they should engage for
the shiny boardroom or not. In this case, many females gave up trying. From the
employees’ view, a research by Frank Newport and Joy Wike shows that 29% of the
male workers prefer a male manager and 18% prefer a female while 40% of the
females prefer a male manager and 27% prefer a female. This is a quite
conclusive result because it shows that even women themselves prefer male
leaders, which means “Yes, both of us think it’s better to have a male leader”。
Although this theory has no theoretic support, this mind as a stereotype has
been planted deeply in everyone’s’ heart that leaders should be males.
Another
point is people always price being strict as “good” only when it’s a man, but
when it’s a woman, people might just think “she’s a bitch”。 It’s a natural problem
that in common sense women always have to be warm and nice to everyone instead
of being strict, or even ambitious. Any man-like behaviors are considered to be
a “bitch”。 In the article written by Jessica Bennett, Jesse Ellison and Sarah
Ball, this phenomenon is clearly stated “Young women hold themselves back,
saying, ‘I shouldn’t say this, ask for this, do this-it will make me unlikable,
a bitch, or an outcast. ‘” 《Bennett, Ellison, and Ball, 727》. Due to the fear
of being negatively criticized, females chose to fall back and act like what
“they should be like”。 Although it sounds really sad, it is actually acceptable
because no matter males or females would expect their female leaders have
motherhood emotion and can provide a rather relaxing working environment, even
though people know that the work is real, when they finally face such a woman
who always acts like a man it’s doubtless reasonable for them to feel
uncomfortable. This is the deadliest point why the glass ceiling exists.
Some people may argue that there are many
outstanding female elites in the society, and they are doing pretty good job.
But just calm down and think, if these minority of the women elites can
represent the situation of the whole female group, what about the male elites? What’s
more, those who are now considered to be the “elites”， did they work just like
the male workers or much more hardworking? Or did they ever suffered from the
invisible barrier between them and the boardroom? Yes it’s possible for women to
step into the boardroom and start a new life, but freedom is not free. For me,
I don’t need to worry about marriage, pregnancy and the following babysitting
stuffs. But for women, they do, especially for those who prefer breast feeding.
Although it’s legal to ask for a maternity leave, women need times of energy
and work to catch up with the same work male workers did. Thus, it’s really not
wise to ignore the mission of vitalization and having a warm family.
In conclusion, there is actually no glass ceiling
at all, it’s just about the nature and gender differences. Women, as a free
group of humanity, absolutely can choose their own way of living and working.
But it cost a lot for them to work as hard as men, which made more women chose
to accept a supporting position in their career and make it a balance.
Works
cited
1: Nemko, Marty.
“The real reason so few women are in the boardroom” Practical Argument: A Text
and Anthology. Ed. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011
2: Brizendine, Louann. “One Reason Women Don’t Make
It to the C-Suite.” Harvard Business Review 86, no.6 《2008》
3: Susan M. Kochanowski. “Women in
leadership:Persistent problems or progress?” Practical Argument: A Text and
Anthology. Ed. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011
4: Frank Newport, Joy Wike,” Americans Still Prefer a Male Boss” Gallup
economy, Gallup economy, Nov.11.2013, Web. May.28.2014,
5: Bennett, Jessica.
Ellison, Jesse. Ball, Sarah. “Are we there yet?” Practical Argument: A Text and
Anthology. Ed. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011
ZHH9595 点评