“I've yet to be on a campus where most women weren't worrying about some aspect of combining marriage, children, and a career. I've yet to find one where many men were worrying about the same thing.
Gloria Steinem

 

Women have gained a lot of rights in the last few decades, however it is still far from the so dreamed equality between genres.  The progress in the professional sector is clear among my generations and my grandmother. But the news is not so good, and in many situations the data shows that there are still positions that there are not woman at all. In top position women are barely representative. In politics, CEOs or directives positions in organizations, women occupied less then 30% of these positions in UK (Sex and Power 2011 - Equality and Human Rights Commission). And the worst part is that the progress is poor.  It is more difficult to progress in the career if you are woman, which implies choices, between family and work. I really don’t know, why in the 21st century this is just a concern for the women, why the man don’t even ask themselves if they have to choose between family and work.

 

This situation is worst when women are leaders in their field.  Unfortunately, most of them have to learn “play” as man to succeed and highlight in their sector. Even though some studies have shown that woman leaders are in many situation better leaders than man, there is a long way to break barriers for the woman in the top positions or in front of groups. And it is not just change how the men think, but it is how the women were raised and how they evaluate themselves as not so suitable to those elite positions as men think about themselves. It needs a change in the society, which usually impose a stereotype on the women that some characteristics are believed to be not compatible to leadership positions.

 

“I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves. “
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

 


 

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