Comments on: Industry wants girls to stick to knitting

Upon her retirement, Autodesk's Carol Bartz remains that rare exception, one that's becoming more rare all the time: the female CEO.

[nrambeck]

Most Women Don't Want to be Executives

As surprising as it may be to liberals, most women actaully would prefer to stay home and take care of their children. A task that men are considerably underqualified for. If women do work, they usually prefer part-time jobs or jobs that are not as demanding on their time and energy.

How many women CEO's are married with children? 2 out of 10? How many male CEO's are married with children? 8 out of 10? Amazing isn't it? When women vey for power in the corporate world, they usually have to give up any normal family life.

Most women are smarter than that.

[sadchild]

ape

what a ridiculous comment.

1. have you surveyed women? most women i've spoken to strive for a career. many take a few years off in the early childhood years of their offspring but then avidly pursue careers afterwards. my wife has a bachelor's degree. i have a GED.

2. what makes you say men are not qualified in raising children. the only men not qualified to raise children are lazy ones. it's not that tough. it just takes patience, love and brains.

3. the reason there are so few married women with kids vs. men is history from the days when our "antediluvian knuckle dragger" forefathers took the bible so seriously and held women back with their whole "women are less than men so you stay home and cook me dinner slave" mentality. women are just starting to overcome that stupid mentality. to make your stats look even stupider, compare how many women CEO's are married with kids in 2005 vs. 1985 vs. 1965 vs. 1945.

4. women don't have to give up a normal family life to have a good career. there are many women who run small businesses and manage a family well too. we have a support vendor for our MAS90 accounting software who OWNS a company and still has plenty of time for her family while her male employees do all the grunt work.

think before you post.

[c3galaxia]

Interesting, but much truth...

Actually Nathan, I know many liberal women who would agree with you. To comment on a few points:

1.) In various companies where I have worked there seems to be about a 5-1 ratio of employmed men to women. Looking at the college graduation rates for IT related degrees, there are simply an overwhelming majority of men entering the work force in IT. This isn't necessarily the IT industry or the colleges keeping women out. The entrance into college IT programs by women are not as high as men. This is not a knock on women, it's just women have different interests and priorities than men and are not as willing to become corporate ****** as men.

2.) Being a father myself and knowing many fathers, women just do a better job at taking care of kids needs. This doesn't mean that men don't do a good job. It's in the genes as a result of thousands of years of evolution. Science has shown evidence to back this.

3.) Working as a parent in any field that takes up most of the day means not spending as much time with family and the kids. Sacrifices have to be made by parents who want to work. There is no debating this. Again, this comes down to priorities. Which is more important: work or kids?
This is why the family model of one parent (mother or father) working and one parent (mother or father) staying at home has worked well. When both parents work, the children do not get as much time with parents and these children often have issues.

But, back on topic to the original article. There are many more reasons than "the system keeping women out" that are far more relative.

Chuck

[Earl Benser]

Ah yes.....

.... fundamentalist drivel. But he does make a good target.... ;-)

[Earl Benser]

Ah yes.....

.... fundamentalist drivel. But he does make a good target.... ;-)

[lindacarola]

yes, most women are definitely smarter than you

Oh this was hilarious, thank you! A refreshing foray back to the 50s sitcoms. Oh, but you probably still think "Leave it to Beaver" is still producing new episodes....

But seriously, while I agree that women do have to make more sacrifices than men to achieve senior position, this empahatically does not mean than some men are very well qualified to bring up children. Why not judge each person based upon their own merits and not on their genitals?

[sadchild]

maybe if i use big words....

i dislike the acumen of interlocutors and antediluvian proliferation too.

oh and antidisestablishmentarianism too.

[nicknow]

Old-fashioned, closed-minded thinking

Cooper's comments are typical of those boys who were trained by man-hating feminists in the seventies and eighties. He religiously adheres to the standard (deluded) feminist approaches to reality and appears to be incapable of accepting the fact that 1) men and women are different and that 2) our society's strength is based not on equal percentages of sexes in all jobs, but on our society's giving everyone the ability to compete on an equal basis.

[Deborah Mitchell]

Difference is a good thing

And I agree men and women are different. But it seems to me
that men spend a lot more time trying to define what women are
good at and what they are supposed to do, than women spend
trying to define what men are good at and are supposed to do.
I think men ought to start spending that time figuring out what
men are good at, and let women get on with figuring out what
women are good at.
How about we don't dictate to you and you don't dictate to us?
How about we accept you as equals, and welcome you to try out
our traditional areas of work and you accept us as equals, and
welcome us to try out your traditional areas of work?
Maybe, if we accepted each other without prejudice, men would
bring new and valuable insights to childcare and other
"womanly" areas, and women would bring new and valuable
insights to "manly" areas.
Maybe then we could truly become partners, as we need to be.

[jmanico]

My wife liked your article

Charles, you wrote a great series of articles that I'm sure gave you points with your wife, just like it did with mine. But you continue to fail to see one main point: That the gal could not save HP and she alienated most of the top HP brass. This has nothing to do with her anatomy, she was just not the right fit. I'm shocked you have failed to see this key point!

[swwg69]

Numbers game

Only a folks want to go into tech fields.
Only a few techies are able to rise to CEO levels.
Some of those will prefer to have a life.
(CEOs must live for the job)
So of the small pool of tech savy, hard drivers
Some can get pregnant.
That will take a 6 weeks+ out of a career.
Few CEOs can take 6 week leaves.
Let alone really care for children.
I write this with my wife as a stay at home
mom, and eagar to go home and play with my kids.
I won't be a CEO.
I pity the children of a CEO, esp a CEO mother.

[sadchild]

doesn't have to be like that

it doesn't have to be the way you put it. a good CEO, even in a tech company, can lead a wonderful family life. it is helpful that they can draw up their own schedule and change it on the fly. a regular staffer can't do that. our CEO leaves whenever he wants and the company is doing great.

[Shakingmy head]

The problem with Carly

The issues Carly faced prior to her dismissal were not about gender. The emails making references to the Xitch were from those who lost their jobs and the negative comments would have been made regardless if the CEO were man or a woman. The reality is if she had hired a right hand man/or woman (i.e. COO) as she been asked to do time and time again by the board - to fill the gap in her operational skills (which she paid little attention) she would be at HP today. Carly's strengths were in her marketing/sales ability not operations or number crunching. Now that HP has an Operational Manager (number cruncher)in CEO Mark Hurd the stock has been the best performing stock on the Dow Jones Industrials in 2005. Not because Mark Hurd is a better strategist or leader than Carly but simply because he executed (i.e. announced 14,500 layoffs and executed) to achieve a better bottom line and satisfy Wall street (by the way the employees are just as unhappy today). This is something that Carly could have easily accomplished with a COO instead of trying to go at it alone. The lesson learned here is not necessarily gender specific it is leadship 101 - surround yourself with good people or else.

[lingsun]

The title is offensive and moronic.

The title is offensive and moronic. By saying that because there is "a lack" of female CEOs that the tech industry "prefers that women stick to their knitting" is illogical and inflammatory. When someone uses language like that it means they're trying to use emotion rather than reason to convince people. Using emotion is the "cheap shot" of persuasive writing.

[sadchild]

but he used such big words...

yes the title was intended to stir up controversy. and the big words were to pretend he knows what he's talking about.

[erixgirl86]

emotions

actually, in order to write a sucessful persuasion, it must appeal to the reader's emotions, it just can't be overbearing or giving a hint of "there's no arguing with me, I'm right."

[erixgirl86]

Everybody's Different

About this whole thing, everybody's different. I'd prefer to stay at home with my family, but yet I wouldn't want them to go without a roof over their heads. I wouldn't want my children emotionally deprived either, hence why it's best to have one parent figure close to the children while the other's away. Look and see how children have grown with one parent at home, and see how they did with none(unless you count a babysitter). If women want to work part time(or not at all)so they have more time with family, go for it. If they do want to persue larger careers, go for it too. some people are built where they can balance many things at once. Again, Everybody's different.