Dear CWL,
I just finished Robert Allio's article in Strategy & Leadership on "Helping More Women reach the Top Jobs." What
backgrounds (i.e. training, experience, and knowledge) would be best for a teenage girl to prepare herself for the climb up
the ladder? I have my own ideas but I would prefer hearing yours first. Thanks for any assistance.
K.C.
Dear KC:
As to your question about teenage girls, we don't know that there is a "best" background for teenage girls. Nonetheless,
research does show that teenage girls are subtly discouraged from math and science, beginning in the middle school years;
and this is something that we believe should be actively countered by parents and teachers. Proactive role-modeling is often
the most effective way as it's often hard to simply tell a teenager what is good for them! Perhaps your company has female
and male volunteers working in math and science activities in school systems? This would be a powerful set of role models
for kids! Giving young women responsibility for their own money and teaching them how to think about saving, spending
and investing is another important avenue to get them comfortable with financial decision-making.
Independent Means, Inc. is a company that provides summer camp experiences and other products targeted and increasing
teen girls' economic literacy. You can find them at www.independentmeans.com.
Regards,
CWL
This advice surprised the crap out of me. The first thing that surprised me, based on the advice that I read, was that CWL
does not stand for "Cingle White Lesbian". CWL actually stands for Center for Women's Leadership (not Ctealing young
Women's Lyouth).
The second surprising fact: the anonymous advice-giver admits in their first sentence that they have no friggin' clue how the
answer the question but decides to give their "expert" advice anyway (i.e. Question: "My child was crappy at ice skating and
gymnastics, how do I push my child to be a CEO?" Answer: "I have no idea. Perhaps you should labotomize them with an
icepick, they might get smarter...") Center for Women's Leadership my ass.
The third suprising fact: There is no way to tell whether this is one of the parents writing or the teenager themselves. The
appropriate advice for either entity are worlds apart. The correct advice for the parents is as follows: Just because you made
poor life decisions and are now forced to work in a sewage treatment plant for a living does not mean your kids will make the
same stupid mistakes (even though they probably will). Further, incessant pushing of a young woman that is worried about
strange physical changes and social problems does not need your loser ass to tell them they have to go to some stupid camp
where she can meet kids that also have pushy asshole parents living vicariously through them.
The advice for the teenagers? It goes like this: Start worrying about strange physical changes and social problems! Stop
worrying about becoming the CFO of General Electric or you will get burned out and have to go work at the sewage treatment
plant with your mom and dad! (Okay, so the advice isn't that different).
The fourth surprising fact: The idiot giving the advice knows nothing about the person in question, so what do they do? They
make a composite of all the young women in the country and assume they are talking to that fictious child. Who is to say that this
girl is lacking in math and science? If she is thirteen, she has not even begun to learn anything. Further, I don't know about you
guys, but Rebecca Flaugh sat next to me in algebra. Apparently, she was ditching "How to get knocked up class" just to sneak
into algebra and kick my ass grade-wise. Whatever. And what the hell is the deal for the call for PARENTS and TEACHERS to
counteract young women from being "discouraged" away from math and science? If not parents and teachers, who is is
discouraging these women? The Nazis?
Tall people are supposed to play basketball, short people are supposed to be jockeys, fat people are supposed to be chocolate
makers or something, Asian people are supposed to have a natural talent for math and science, women are supposed to be
negleted in terms of math and science. Has anyone ever heard of overcoming adversity and proving stereotypes wrong?
The only part of this "advice" that doesn't surprise me? The fact that the advice-giver used the word "proactive". A good rule
of thumb that I learned from The Simpsons is that anyone who regularly uses any of the following words or phrases has
absolutely no clue what they are talking about: proactive, paradigm shift, any reference to their location relative to "the box,"
benchmarking, explaining a situation as "a disconnect," and countless other phrases used by stupid people to sound intelligent.
I guess the only fact that I need to prove that this is horseshit advice is that fact that the only thing these people are "leading" is
the Center for Women's Leadership. Perhaps they should open up branches to give all these math and science enriched young
ladies a place to work.
Love,
Metten