We still find companies that have women on their boards, but generally it is one or two against a large majority of men, which shows a totally failed attempt at supposed equality. Parity is still far away for various reasons but, above all, because of the archaic vision of the role of women in terms of home and motherhood.
And this is not only seen at the corporate level, politics also makes it clear. In this sense, as Julia Gillard and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala say in their book “Women and Leadership”sexism is not going away anytime soon.
The authors explain that many times women leaders are strongly judged by their appearance. This is clearly seen with what happens with the Prime Minister of Finland who is always more news for their outfits than for their actions. Another proof that, unfortunately, women in politics are not as valued for their actions as for their looks.
In the world of politics, women also have to be prepared to be judged for how they exercise their motherhood. Thus, while fatherhood increases the positive perception of male leaders, motherhood seems to be a more problematic experience. This was seen, for example, when Jacinda Arden won the elections and the intense scrutiny by the media on how she would carry out her role as leader with her baby daughter and not to mention now when she announced the resignation of her position because she did not feel with enough energy to perform it and He prefers to spend more time with his daughter. In politics, women also have to be ready to face talk about their reproductive choices. On this, Gillard recalls in the book the respectful treatment received by the former British Prime Minister, Theresa May, who had no children as opposed to the one she was given, as Prime Minister of Australia, in the same situation. But there was a difference: May wanted, but could not, have children, while Gillard did not have children by choice and that seems to be frowned upon, much less in politics where the traditional family image seems to guarantee a good mandate.
Of course, these lines are a quick look at a question that deserves a much deeper debate, but it is interesting to observe that it occurs in all areas beyond those mentioned here. Without going any further, it also happens in the field of PR. Along these lines, two well-known colleagues, Luz Canella Tsuji and Carolina Carbone, they have been carrying out an investigation on the glass ceiling in our profession in Argentina for some time and the conclusions reflect what I said before, it happens in all countries and in most areas. According to his research, in our country, in the three professional development segments: consultant/agency, communication directors, and academics, hierarchical positions held by women represent 42%, 19%, and 31%,” respectively, but As one advances towards positions/ranks that hold more power, men gain space, even those who are not public relations professionals but still cover that role, to the detriment of women and, especially, of women who are public relations professionals. public relations.
The phrase says, “the places that one does not occupy, will be occupied by another”, but I rescue the hopeful look at the beginning of this note. At least we are talking about it, which is not little.
