False Equality

For John, BLUF:  Maximize the value of women, but don't demand more than they are prepared to provide.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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The futile nature of gender equality: Column

The sub-headline is:

There will never be enough women who want to be executives — not as long as they choose to have children.

The Guest Columnist at USA Today is Ms Suzanne Venker.  This item is from way back on 14 Dec 2016, but the basic facts remain. Here is how it started out:

Last week was big for the pull between work and family.

On Wednesday more than two dozen executives at companies such as Bank of America Corp. and LinkedIn Corp. signed a pledge to get more women out of the home and into our nation’s boardrooms.  The goal of this initiative, entitled Paradigm for Parity, is to have women represent 50% of the “upper echelons” by 2030.  Only then, these advocates believe, will America have achieved equality.

But gender parity in the workforce is futile.  There will never be enough women who want that kind of life — not as long as they choose to have children.  Indeed, children are “a key factor” in how women choose to structure their lives.

And here is the wrap up.

It is simply indisputable that most women with children want their lives to revolve around family, not around work.  Money and power just doesn’t hold the same value to them as it does for a select group of women.  That is not where their identities lie.

In America today, equal opportunity for women abounds — and that’s as it should be.  But it will never result in equal outcomes.

As former U.S. Congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce once said, “It is time to leave the question of the role of women up to Mother Nature — a difficult lady to fool.  You have only to give women the same opportunities as men, and you will soon find out what is or is not in their nature.  What is in women’s nature to do they will do, and you won’t be able to stop them.  But you will also find, and so will they, that what is not in their nature, even if they are given every opportunity, they will not do — and you won’t be able to make them do it.”

I have seen this myself.  I gave an Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Personnel Officer a shot at being a "strategist" on the Joint Staff and she ended up a two star operations officer at No Such Agency.  On the other hand I offered a very bright leader of a small software operation a chance to move up, several times, and she said no, it would conflict with her duties as a Mother.  Smart people making personal decisions.

Even if we grant that men and women are NOT equal, but that women are further out on the curve of capability, that for every five men who are executive quality there are six or seven women, it is still not going to come out with equal numbers in the board room.  Unless there is someone with their thumb on the scale.  And that would not be equality.

And, how many men get to birth children?

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff