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Why Women Entrepreneurs Can Have It All

Via Young Entrepreneur Council
Jan. 9, 2013

 

When I graduated from Barnard College over a decade ago, my class was not treated to the uplifting feminist message we had come to expect from our feminist professors.  Joyce Purnick, the first woman Metro editor at the Times, contradicted the feminist-era message that women could have it all and be the equals of men when she stated that women with children simply could not compete with women who did not have children and, of course, with men.

Essentially, she told us to have children or have a career. We couldn’t have both.

Last year Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s COO, chided Barnard graduates not to “leave before you leave.” As soon as women decided to have children, she observed, they checked out and stopped trying.  She exhorted the next generation of women to hang in there and not give up the fight, despite the male-dominated culture.

But her pep talk was remarkably empty in light of the facts. Many years after the feminist revolution, women occupy few positions of power.  The numbers are discouraging: women make up just 12 percent of governors, 2 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs, 6 percent of top earners, 8 percent of top leadership positions, and 16 percent of board directors and corporate officers (although the newly sworn-in U.S. Congress is the most diverse in history, with 20 female senators). Similar statistics apply to academics, religion and other top professions.

Neither of the Barnard commencement speakers addressed the problem as well as Anne-Marie Slaughter, professor and member of the Obama administration under Hillary Clinton. Slaughter argued that the problem is very simple — women can’t have it all. In a world created by men, where people are “time macho,” competing to log the most hours in the office, and where spending time with one’s family is seen as a weakness, there is no reason that women should strive for equality with men.

The rules of the game are not fair to women entrepreneurs — we have known this for years.  We need to take charge of the culture, but not by becoming like men. We need to set our own rules. Read full article>>