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Back to Subjects - Social Issues

Father Knows Best

Father Knows Best My audience is women and men who do not understand the issue of the glass ceiling and how gender discrimination affects women in today’s society. I feel that Corporate America does discriminate against women, unknowingly. My purpose is to inform my audience of how gender discrimination affects women and what needs to be done to help prevent discrimination in the future. I am writing a position and proposal paper. I am using emotions, logic and statistics. I feel there are some areas of ethics in my paper. The ethics part will have an effect on a person’s feelings of discrimination toward women. Does Father really know best? In Corporate America, men seem to want full control. Our organizations have been created by men for men and they have great opposition to women infiltrating their management positions. Men have created glass ceilings for women in the workplace. A glass ceiling is an artificial barrier that allows women to see the top of the corporate ladder but at the same time denies them access to the higher rungs of that ladder. Women keep hitting their heads on the glass ceiling until they develop so many knots on their heads that eventually they give up on their goals and ambitions. Father knows best! I don’t think so! More women today have higher education with higher grade point averages than men do. In 1999, women earned 57% of all bachelors’ degrees. The sad part is that more women today choose to receive degrees in law or medical careers than in corporate business careers. This is due to the lack of female role models in Corporate America. As of March 1999, women only represented 11.9 percent of corporate officers in America’s 500 largest corporations. Men have these jobs sewn up. Most of the 11.9 percent of the offices that women do hold are in positions in human resources or public relations. According to the Glass Ceiling Commission in a report published in 1995, women are frequently routed into career paths like customer relations and human resources because these jobs usually do not lead to a top corporate job. With the glass ceiling in place, women’s hard work and degrees do not pay off. Even with equal education, executive women earn $187,000 average where men, in the same job, earn $289,000 annually. Women do most of the invisible work in Corporate America. If this work were made visible, men in Corporate America would not receive all the glory for the jobs they have. As you see, educational attainment is a key ingredient to shattering the glass. Women are beginning to see that the best way to get to the top of any type of business is to create their own business. In women owned businesses today, the women seem to accept any business background shortcomings and seek education and training before they take the leap. Women try to base their decisions on logic and on sound business decisions. They do not seem to “shoot from the hip” the way many men do in the business world. In corporations that have dared to hire today’s businesswoman, it seems these women officials are easier to work with in a consensus team building environment. Women tend to offer higher wages to their employees and fight for better benefits for them as well. Women know the need for flexible hours, childcare, and better insurance. All in all, it seems that women understand the problems of their employees. They work hard to be number one and in turn make their employees feel like they are number one to them. In most corporations today, the glass ceiling goes unnoticed and certainly unquestioned. Corporations boast of being a great place for women to work, but women are always middle management, not higher management. Women are only 2% of the top wage earners in Fortune 500 companies, according to the Department of Labor. Of these women executives, 60% of them are sexually harassed by male counterparts. Women hold only one seat in ten on boards of directors of companies. There are only two women CEO’s in America. Ironically, women comprise 45% of America’s workforce. The Glass Ceiling Commission reports that even though women do make up nearly half the workforce they only hold 5 percent of the senior level jobs in corporations. The Commission also states that stereotyping and prejudice still rule most Corporate Executive Suites. It seems to be much easier for women to break through “The Glass Ceiling” in small to medium size companies than in the big corporations. Surveys show that in companies with 500 or fewer employees, 26 percent of their senior executives are women. This is more than double the 11 percent in larger companies. Another survey by The Economic Press shows that women constitute 35 percent of middle management in small to mid-size companies as compared with 20 percent in larger firms. In Fortune 500 companies, the survey found even fewer women in top management. The glass ceiling is forcing women to launch their own businesses because they are unable to break through the manmade obstruction. According to the National Foundation for Women Business Owners, between 1987 and 1999 the number of women owned firms increased by 103 percent nationwide. The employment in these firms increased by 320 percent and sales have continued to grow to 436 percent. The Foundation also reported that in 1999 there were 9.1 million businesses owned by women in the United States. These businesses employed 27.5 million people and generated $3.6 trillion in sales. Men in Corporate America feel that women are responsible for home and family. Women have more demands outside the office than men. Women are responsible for childcare, care of elderly relatives and even situations that arise in the home requiring the need for electricians, plumbers, and others. Men should applaud a woman’s ability to juggle all these situations and still maintain a high level of performance on her job. Surveys show that most women are more organized, committed and loyal in their jobs than are men. Yet, women’s paychecks continue to be smaller with fewer opportunities for advancement provided to them. Father knows best. I don’t think so! Men have stereotyped women for years. Most men in Corporate America today still expect a woman to make coffee and bring it to them every morning. Men see women as child bearers, waitresses, traditional secretaries or chain store clerks. Children and family are reasons for missed time for women, creating an appearance of non-commitment to their job. Women that speak up in Corporate America are labeled as troublemakers, while men in the same situation are said to be in control. Some men in Corporate American fear being accused of an affair if they dare to promote a woman to a high position within the company. The plain and simple truth is that for a woman to be promoted and to break through the glass barrier, she will have to out perform men, in every aspect. Is this enough? No. Women have to make sure that the right people in the right positions know their skills and capabilities and then it seems to become a political game. Father knows best. Does Father know how to shatter the glass ceiling? The problem, as well as the solution, lies within the corporation itself. First, Corporate America must admit to the problem – plain, simple discrimination. Gender discrimination is embedded in organizations. Men do not realize they are discriminating. Top management must look at women’s pay and raises and realize these are not equal to men’s. Diversity must be valued. Corporations must emphasize women’s differences. They must stop stereotyping. Corporate America must accommodate the unique needs of women. Examples are extended maternity leaves, flexible hours, in-house day care centers, and even job sharing. Another approach may be to teach women to adapt to masculine attributes. Men should be mentors to women. Sometimes this could mean teaching women how to be a “tough guy” or even to play golf. Women are going to have to learn to “Toot their own horns”. This may be their only port of recognition to break the barrier to the upper rungs of the corporate ladder. When women in the business world today feel that they can never reach the top, it has an affect on their daily work. There is no motivation to work for a company that sees you just as an employee to do clerical work. They do not see you as a valuable, intelligent employee with lots of important contributions to make to the company’s success. There seem to be only four ways that women are able to crack the glass ceiling. They will have to be able to develop technical and managerial skills that are needed in their field. They must be able to exceed all expectations that men have of these skills. Second, women will have to let others know that they have these skills. This is where the “Toot your own horn” will come into play. You as a woman, must know what you want and go after it. Last but not least, you will have to help other people to help you. This can get to be a political battle, but to be able to crack the glass, there may have to be some rock throwing. Until the glass ceiling is shattered it will continue to be a “pocketbook” issue for women, but for Corporate America, if the glass ceiling continues unshattered, it will be a “bottom line” issue. So, does Father know best? For his sake, I hope he learns how to shatter glass! San Franciso Business Times, 02/04/2000, Vol. 14 Issue 27, p59, 3/7p. Online. Available: http://www.ehos.m=%22glass%20ceiling%22&fuzzyTerm=. 22 March 2000. The Glass Ceiling, Rene` Redwood- Human…/In Motion Magazine. Online. Available: http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/glass.html. 20 March 2000 Breadmakers to Breadwinners, Jeff Thredgold, Enterpise/Salt Lake City, 06/05/2000, Vol. 29 Available: http://ehos.m=%22glass%20ceilling22&fuzzyTerm= 19 Sept. 00 Bennett-Alexander, Dawn D. & Pincus, Laura B., Employment Law for Business. 2nd edition Copyright 1998, The McGraw-Hill Company, Inc. Women entrepreneurs have ability to shatter glass ceiling, Clark, Boston Business Journal, 01/07/2000, Vol. 19 Issue 48, p21, 1/3p, 1 bw Online. Available: http://ehos.m=%22glass%20ceilling22&fuzzyTerm= 19 Sept. 00 Businesswomen; Women – Vocational guidance, Bernice. L Guity, Business Journal : Serving Jacksonville & Northeast Florida, 04/14/2000, Vol. 15 Issue 25, p21, 1p Online. Available: http://ehos.m=%22glass%20ceilling22&fuzzyTerm= 19 Sept. 00 Bibliography:

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