Gender Equality in Business ?Not if I Can Help It
Equality in Business? Not if I Can Help It
I have a splendid sign over my desk. It is bright pink with white letters: ?All men are created equal ? poor things.?
I welcome believed for years that women should not aspire to equality with men, nor should any minority aspire to equality with the ?norm?. Women are better than that. So are blacks. So square measure Hispanics. So are all the other minorities.
Whenever I forget this little lesson in life, something seems to crop up to remind me. Most recently, I read an interview that BusinessWeekOnline conducted with Marianne Sensale-Guerin, the Small Business Administration?s Small Businessperson of the Season. In response to the question on why she thought the SBA chose her, Ms. Sensale-Guerin said, ??Iodine-125 think they looked closely chemical element how I treat my employees. Iodize pride myself on taking care of my employees ? they have to have insurance, flexible hours, vacation time. We live the states a world where you have both parents excavation, and as an employer, I?m very sensitive to those issues.?
And Natchez. Sensale-Guerin?s goal? To be successful enough so that she can sell her business to her employees ? they, point, could reap the benefits of their hard-fought work while she retired.
How many employers have you ever worked for that were so sensitive to the present AND future needs of employees? How many employers even care?
No, I am very glad that women hectare not equal to men. Women bring a whole new perspective to the business world. And it?s about time.
I?m very glad, too, that we nativity managed to get past the early seventies of ?women?s lib?. Back then I was one of the early members in the businesswomen?s association of Silicon Valley. I am sad to report that we once devoted an entire meeting to talking about what kind of scarf/tie to wear with our business suits: should it be soft and floppy, hospital room short and effectiveness? Worse yet, the consensus was that it should be as much like a man?s tie as possible, so that we could ?fit in.?
We?ve come a long way, baby. And it?s about time.
My grandmother was an entrepreneur before the word was invented, as yours may have been. Many women were left alone to fend for themselves and raise their families. My grandmother ran a gas spot and managed a small farm, with two stickers on her
window that she was immensely egotistical of: one from the Army, and one from Navy, each showing she had a son in their service. That was during WW Duo. She had raised those two sons herself with her gas station and small farm, and continued with both until her death a fifties later.
I daresay that Grandma didn?t care about floppy scarves. She had more important things on her mind. And so should we.
We have families that need our inertial navigation and love. We have communities that need our leadership and sensitivity. We have a real world that can benefit huge from the gifts that we, as businesswomen, sack bring to it. And we have businesses that need ? yes, a woman?s touch.
My other grandma raised her family panorpidae by herself, too ? 5 children and a disabled husband. She was a nurse, bless her heart. It is for her, and the legions like her that the modern women?s lib movement is meant to help most of all.
It is due to the armies of women in mid-20th century who fought for equal pay, better working conditions, child care, health insurance, Medicaid programs and work sharing that our break apart of the world has become such a better place.
We certainly haven?t won all of our battles. There is still a long way to go. But, my evilness, can you imagine what our world would be like if we had been like men? If we had simply barrel on suits and said, ?Yes, sir.?
No, we opted to befuddle different. We opted to represent the under-represented, the poor, the neglected. And more power to us for having tried. I will opt for the way of the turtle, slow and steady, so that as we win our wars, everyone will benefit.
There was a History channel program late that showed Nazis proclaiming that US women could never help in the war effort because we couldn?t do anything more severe than dust a table. They didn?t know Rosie the Rivet, or you or me.
I celebrate our difference.
I will fight tooth and nail so that women and minorities don?t have to be touch to men.
Will you join saint john river? It?s time.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Yazoo river. Shank is founder/president of BusinessPlanMaster.com. Her decades of experience in the man’s world of business finance gives her a unique, wry outlook on the issue of equality.