This editorial is part of our GREAT DEBATE feature ‘Why Aren’t There More Women In Positions Of Power?‘
Recently, while in car with my husband and me, my six-year old saw a road sign for “Manchester,” and commented that she would not want to live there because men would be the boss in a place with a name that like that.
Fortunately for her, the world she’s growing up in is one in which she sees both women and men leading, even if not in equal numbers. Although women make up 51 percent of our population, they are only 16.8 percent of Congress and just 15.7 percent of seats on Fortune 500 boards.
Explanations and excuses for this appalling gap in leadership abound, some of which are not only inaccurate but also help perpetuate the gap.
The most pervasive and damaging of these are that women voluntarily opt out of the work force, women don’t help advance other women, and women lack ambition.
Categories: gender, Women Rights