The Republican candidates
I recently came across a great piece of advice from the inimitable Mindy Kaling: Your image in high school, she observed, usually has very little to do with your success later in life. In fact, they’re usually inversely related. “Do what I did, which is stay in school and be a respectful and hardworking wallflower,” she wrote.
I completely agree with this and wish more young women strove toward lofty career goals rather than popular prom dates. To be fair, nerdiness has evolved quite a bit over the last few decades and it seems that popularity is no longer completely incompatible with being an honors student or valedictorian. But we can still progress, especially when it comes to leadership. The truth is, as much as feminists and other activists attempt to create change on a grassroots level, there is also undeniable potential to create change from a position of traditional power.
Consider who currently has power in America. Look at the latest Republican debate, for example. The picture of the candidates lined up says it all: Out of eleven candidates, only one is female and another a person of color. And this is considered relatively groundbreaking. Not that the potential Democratic field looks much different, at this point. Yet a number of other nations have managed to elect women as leaders of their countries — like Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany; Laura Chinchilla, president of Costa Rica; and Dilma Rousseff, president of Brazil just to name a few.
What about the face of corporate America? We should encourage women not to fear economic power. We could do this by encouraging young women to start their own businesses, as doing so gives young women valuable experience and helps them build confidence. Not every woman need start her own business, though: Considering that although 30% of the world’s privately-owned businesses are run by women, only 5% of CEOs of America’s 500 most powerful businesses are women it’s clear we need to do better on this front. Doing so will only benefit everybody: Companies with more women in positions of power experience higher returns on equity, sales and invested capital, for example.
This is not to say that gaining a leadership role is easy for anyone, but rather that women should the same opportunity to work hard to achieve this position without the additional barrier of gender factoring into their attempt. In many parts of the United States and the rest of the world, women are not provided equal opportunities to attend school or live free of violence and domestic abuse. These experiences not only hold women back from opportunities for traditionally powerful jobs, but also may compel them to go into fields like social work, healthcare, or education in a way men aren’t.
Ultimately, it’s a cycle: The more women who are visibly in leadership positions, the more young women realize the option to start their own businesses or become CEOs is even a possibility for them. Women of the world: Think about what you want to do, fearlessly pursue it and, importantly, encourage your female friends to follow suit.
