The Biggest Lie About Women in Business

Biggest lie about women

For most of my career I’ve listened to this prevalent lie about women in business. Every time I hear or read about it, I want to just scream.

I don’t know who came up with it. Obviously that person has never been a woman in business.

What’s the lie? ​

The Woman Card

What a flippin’ bunch of hooey.

The idea that a woman gets a promotion, or a job, simply because an organization is responding to diversity numbers in their workforce is a total lie.  Absolute hogwash.

I’ve never gotten anything  because I was a woman in business. In fact, I haven’t been hired by a number of potential consulting clients because I was a woman.

There’s no company in the world promoting women to meet some kind of magical balance between men and women.  If that was the case, we’d have more women in management. DUH.

And there’s surely no company in the world hiring women just because they are women. What company is going to hire a lesser qualified candidate just because they are a woman. None that I know.  Maybe as the pretty face at the front desk to greet the male visitors, or as the booth person at the trade show. You know, the woman who lures the male attendees into your booth?  By the way, diversity is NOT what that’s about. At all.

The Truth About Women in Business

Every woman knows the truth about that supposed woman card.

If you’re a woman, here’s what the Woman Card means:

  • We work more hours than men in the same position.
  • We are paid less than those same men.
  • We are expected to do things that no man would be asked to do.
  • We will get special hiring treatment; as the pretty face at the front desk or as the booth person at the trade show. You know, the woman who lures the male attendees into your booth? By the way, those roles are not about diversity. Not even.
  • We are actually be judged by a higher standard and have to provide more evidence of our accomplishments and our competence to be seen as equally qualified as a man.*

I can just see all the men lining up to get their version of the Woman Card.  Uh Huh.

The Bottom Line

We women have come so far from my first career days. We’re taking control of our careers, moving into leadership roles faster than ever before. At younger ages than ever before too.

Which is why I cringe when I hear women complaining about how poorly treated we are. I will tell you right now, women are light years ahead of where we were when I started in business. I broke my head on that damned glass ceiling and trust me, today’s world is a cakewalk compared to what I went through. What my peers went through.

Yes, we still have a  way to go. But our next generation sees the world so differently. Millennials don’t see male and female. They see people. Millennial males have been programmed so differently from the good old boys I had to deal with. Yes, we are on our way to big changes.

In the meantime, let’s focus on reality. Which is this.

The biggest lie I know about women in business is the woman card. Anyone who uses it is obviously grasping for an excuse for their own discriminatory selves.  AND YES, DONALD – THAT MEANS YOU TOO!

How do you respond to the lunacy of the Woman Card? 

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