Oh, No! The IBM CEO Is a Girl!

Now what?

Wed, 04/11/2012 - 10:10

During the 1940s, it was commonplace for boys, during their formative years, to spend their days girl-free. In fact, my pals and I zealously maintained girl-free territories so that our game playing, bike rides, and hours of comic book reading were devoid of girls. We even had a clubhouse that was none too friendly to members of the opposite sex. After all, they had “cooties,” whatever those were.

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But those days were numbered because there was a movement to abandon discriminatory practices, as evidenced by the Our Gang movie series, which notably put boys, girls, whites, and blacks together in a group of equals. Such a thing had never been done before in cinema, and it broke new ground. Whether viewed as a portent of things to come or a hopeful future, it was change in motion.

Turning the clocks forward to the present day, that groundbreaking movement continues. Women are now in positions of authority at many Fortune 500 companies. Presidential campaigns, which used to comprise men exclusively, have included women. Both of our daughters have MBAs. The world has changed. Well, almost. There are still vestiges of that 1940s attitude in several places.

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Comments

#1 I think certain organizations have the right to choose their membership.

#2 Can that be discriminatory or just plain sleazy?  Yes, and see #1.

I can't imagine a male human would care if a female organization closed itself to men unless membership in that group held more than superficial value.  Why would a woman want to join a group of wealthy, narrow-minded good ole boys?  She should form a club for high-powered women.

Thanks for responding to my column about The Masters. Perhaps when you get an opportunity you should review the Baldrige Criteria and ascertain how the outdated policy at the Augusta National Golf Club does not reflect in any fashion the requirements of a performance excellence organization. Category V discusses Workforce and asks questions about the diversity of the workplace making sure it reflects the community. You and I can agree to disagree but companies banning any segment of society continue to live in the past and I think you know that. I don't suspect that we will see the Augusta National Golf Club winning the Baldrige and I suspect that the Club will also never be on a FORTUNE magazine list of "The 100 Best Companies To Work For", nor will it be on the FORTUNE magazine list of "Most Admired Companies". But heck if the Club wants to remain in the Dark Ages, I guess that is their choice but we as quality professionals don't have to support that policy. For me, I just chuckle at their infantile, comedic position and I think there are many others who do the same! Thanks again for writing. Bill

Submitted by CGleason on Tue, 04/17/2012 - 09:21

I recall many decades ago as a college student, a job interview brought me to the Augusta GA area. As part of the interview day, I was taken to the Augusta National Golf Club for dinner. It is certainly a stunningly beautiful location in the springtime! From the informal conversations during the day, it was obvious that membership in the club and the ability to use it as a business entertainment venue was considered a crucial asset for local industries. It was equally obvious to me as a female engineer that by taking me there, the company was undermining their efforts to enhance the hiring of women and minorities - a crucial busines objective at that time, especially as the business was a federal contractor.

Frankly, there was nothing else in the region that provided the business and social status of this club - and probably still is not. I decided to look elsewhere, rather than be limited in my potential. If the top managment considers you unacceptable to socialize with due to gender, how much certainty is there that this attitude doesn't rub off in their corporate workplace? Unfortunately I think IBM needs to seriously consider where they spend their marketing money - the attitudes of those entities a company chooses to associate with, incorrectly or not, will be attributed to the company.

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