With a lot of fanfare a local bank announced that they had just installed their first female board director. In the year of our Lord 2006.
The fact that there are still women who are going where no woman has gone before them in the 21st century is giving me pause. I think everyone would agree that womanhood has the right to be celebrated, but by this time, I'd hoped that the walls and ceilings had already been shattered.
One can also notice it in election time. Four years a government is in power, and few are the times were there is any mention of better day care, addressing the difference in the pay scales, or the sexism that exists. Then election time hits and the female candidates are trotted out, as if to say "See, we love women. We even have women as candidates. How could you not vote for us?!"
What I would love to see is that women in politics is taken as a matter of course, not something that is an exception. I would love to see that when a woman is installed as a board director, her business sense and savvy dealings are praised more than that she is a woman. Yes, she is a woman, but she is so many more things than that. I long for the day that womanhood is not considered an obstacle to overcome when reaching a goal, but something that is a part of a person.
I took this picture on the first day I got my new camera. I took it because I loved how the sun illuminated the water around the surfer and the sky in the background. The fact that the surfer is female is not important in this picture. I suppose that's what I want to see happen in Aruba. The next time that a woman does something great, I'd like her accomplishments to be praised just as much as the fact that she is female.
I think you make an excellent point here. It is really a sad fact that when a woman achieves a place of prominence in business, it is still her gender that is most remarked upon rather than her qualifications and accomplishments.
Posted by: thebizofknowledge.com | September 05, 2006 at 02:31 PM