This past weekend I went to SAND (Student-Alumni-Networking-Day) in the Science Center (it was really great by the way and I would definitely recommend it for anyone to attend next year!).
There were a lot of alumni (mix of men and women) there and one thing that I noticed when I was in two of the workshops, when the alums had to introduce themselves, was that it seemed to me that all of the women worked for someone else (they worked for a company, had a boss, etc.), while most of the men that were there WERE the boss of THEIR OWN company. Not everyone fit this category, as one woman was a psychologist and she owned her own practice, but every other woman that I met there worked for someone else!
I am curious if you all notice this in your daily lives. I feel that most companies are not headed by women and that men are the ones who are the bosses and own those companies. Why do you think this is? It really baffles me, especially for the day-and-age we live in. I find it odd that there are not a lot of women who are "at the top" when it comes to business and owning companies, being CEOs, etc.
Maybe women are too busy working, being married, and having kids to be CEOs or to own their own companies, but that can't fully explain this unbalance, can it? More women are graduating college now than men, so wouldn't it make sense to see more women become bosses, and company owners?
Can someone shed some light on this for me?
I do see this pattern as well. Of course there are exceptions to these cases as you point out (there are women CEO's and entrepreneurs, it just seems to be on a much smaller scale than men). I also would point out that women (at least in my community), were very involved in things such as PTA and other school/community boards. In my town, the mom's do a majority of the planning, fundraising, and overseeing of school functions, most of which goes unnoticed. While this is not exactly in the same category, I think it may show that women (whether they are stay at home moms, or working) put a lot of time into their kid's school functions/education, while not as many men fit this category. Of course this is a generalization, but I think it helps explain some of the themes we've discussed in class (mainly public/private sphere, roles of women/men, etc.).
ReplyDeleteThe pattern is there for sure. Men seem to have a lot of positions at the top of the pile in many situations. When looking at franchises, the owners are almost always men, although there are numerous counterexamples, what we can say is that there is a pattern to this. Perhaps it's related to a style of business. It would be interesting to see the different ways in which men and women approach running a business if there were any difference to speak of.
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