Is the 'Glass Ceiling' still there?

Question

Just finished reading this very informative article in Newsweek about the treatment of women in Silicon Valley - which made me wonder, how many women still feel that they are not reaching their full potential at work simply because they are female.

What do you think?

The article is called: What Silicon Valley Thinks of Women

What do you think?

The article is called: What Silicon Valley Thinks of Women

Answer

Women are still paid less than men overall and have no structural functional support from most businesses or the government if they decide to have children and pursue a career. It's a glass ceiling and institutionalized discrimination is the reality and status quo of it.

Answer

The real difference why there are mainly men founders of the named companies is that men believe in their abilities and are willing to take risks (evolution) whereas women mostly underestimate of what they are capable of and act more risk averse! So as soon as women believe in themselves this is going to change! And this is only depending on us and not in men or how they treat us!

Answer

Well, I live in Italy, where 80% of men (and 60% of women) think that the right place for a woman is at home with kids. Here getting to the top is nearly always out of question, in every position, be it school teacher, nurse, manager or politician. I work for an American company and it gives me chances of growth I would never have in an Italian one. None the less, until there will be women thinking that we shouldn't be entitled to have a job life as well as a family one, the road to equality will be harder.

Answer

Karen makes an interesting point about the nursing field. I'm also in a female dominated field (social work), however, despite the disproportionate number of women you'll still find an alarming number of top positions (executive directors, professors & deans, supervisors, etc) are held by men.

Answer

Of course there is a glass ceiling. Sometimes it's overt discrimination, sometimes it's an ingrained thought pattern that may even be unacknowledged by the thinker. Saying there's no discrimination against women is like saying there's no discrimination against different races or skin colors. It would nice to think we've evolved that much, but sadly that's just not the case.

I think we are getting better as a society, but there is still a long way to go.

Answer

It's much different in the nursing field. My husband and I actually discuss this a lot because business in the nursing realm is almost exclusively female while business in his field (oil and gas) is almost exclusively male. I make much higher than the average nurse with my years experience basically based on connections but if I were in another field I really doubt that would be true...

Answer

I don't think so. I don't see it at all, and I have lived and worked in the Silicon Valley my entire life. Honestly, I think these women are not getting the response they expect because their product is unnecessary, and because they are getting pennies it's made a big deal because they are pushing a product that is about women, for women, made by women.

I know tons of women who are CEOs, CTOs, CFOs, on the board of amazing companies, etc etc etc. Is Silicon Valley a boys club? Of course. But can you name a successful company as large as google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, apple, etc worldwide that has a female founder? No. Why? Well, maybe this will sound sexist, but this is my honest opinion. Men have a very different mindset than women do. It's not bad, just different. What men do inherently women have to force into their personalities. Does that come along with making inappropriate jokes? Absolutely. That doesn't make it right, of course, but it's part of the culture. The men of Silicon Valley are, as a group, are farther on the autism scale than the rest of the country. They are anti-social needs who were beaten up on the 80s and have finally found a place where they are the cool guys, and they have no idea how to handle that responsibility. Do most women enjoy that atmosphere? No. Can they relate to their male coworkers? No. There are much broader reasons that women and men don't work well together in the Bay Area, and that is primarily because they have totally different mindsets. I am not saying the men are right or that they should be exempt from the rules, but the culture here is beyond different from everywhere else.

Answer

Of course it still exists, but is it worse in Silicon Valley? I'm not so sure. I've worked for huge multinationals and start-ups alike, the culture shifts in terms of policy but the divide between men and women in terms of hiring, promotion and pay is much the same from my experience.