The Rise Of Women Leaders

Although we are not where we need to be, it feels to me that we are entering a period where women will be increasingly the choice for leading our companies and our countries.

The rise of Theresa May in the UK is the latest high profile example of a woman being selected to occupy an important leadership position.

In the US, Hillary Clinton is currently the odds-on favorite to win the Presidency.

Imagine the power of the imagery of Angela Merkel, Teresa May, and Hillary Clinton meeting at an important event. That picture will tell a thousand words about the rise of women leaders.

In the tech business, women have rarely been in top leadership positions. But that too is changing. Women hold the CEO positions at IBM, Oracle, HP, Yahoo, and a number of other leading tech companies.

In the largest companies I work with, women hold many of the top leadership positions and these women are extremely talented executives and are likely to end up running companies someday soon.

So from where I sit, I feel we are on the cusp of a new era for women.

None of this changes the specific challenges that exist for women, the conflicts between family and work that are still more acute for women than men, the societal biases that still exist, and the muscle memory that will take time to unwind.

But as a husband and father of three amazing women leaders, it’s a great feeling to see the promised land emerging over the horizon. I am quite confident we will see real gender equality in the workplace in my lifetime.

#management

Comments (Archived):

  1. panterosa,

    It would be awesome if those women lead by example AND begin the reforms so needed for other women to follow them. It would be the tipping point we both hope for.The childcare solutions, in 0-5 especially in the US.The gender neutral or shifting roles in couples rhythms of breadwinner-caregiver that need support from male feminists (like you Fred), who value the equality of your partner and daughters.The support those women will need for Real flextime hours and other rights will come from other women, from men like you and your son.I imagine you and GG would be as pleased to see your daughters work when they have kids as you would to have your son take time to support his partner when they have a child by caregiving. Because that’s the future we are talking about.

    1. Ana Milicevic

      We must have been writing at the same time! Couldn’t agree more.Slight tangent: I was so very disappointed when Marissa Mayer chose to wave off both of her maternity leaves. While I respect her choice (even while I struggle to understand it), I feel like she missed an opportunity to highlight how big of a challenge maternity and ingrained perceptions around it can be at any level. I’d like to think that under the same circumstances I would have made a different decision but it also highlights the fact that so many of us who do make it to leadership levels only want to be treated like it’s normal and no fuss that we’re there. It’s lonely when every decision you take has the potential to be interpreted as representative of your entire gender (or race, etc) by those around you, simply because you’re the only one of people like you they interact with.

      1. panterosa,

        Ana, I totally agree the Marissa missed an opportunity to set a modern, tenable maternity leave, while I simultaneously agree it should not have to be so representative of all women. The caveat is the US sucks at maternity rights and attitudes, which is a core underpinning of losing women in their prime to the off ramp of family and hence having less women leader. Especially considering how many educated women we have….

        1. Anne Libby

          I think that we have to take care when we talk about losing women to family. It’s a nuanced situation; we don’t lose them because they quit.We push people out of the leadership pipeline because???There’s a dangerous meme that that some women have the option to “stay home with their kids.”This is simply not a truth for most women, in the US at least, where something like 40% of women are the primary breadwinners in their families…

          1. panterosa,

            Anne, of course it’s not always an option in the US for a parent to stay at home, although that has many reasons at different economic levels. Europe manages this better, and I have just visited two families I know for decades who managed this for a variety of reasons. I agree with you, and see solutions we are not using or not insisting on implementing.

          2. Anne Libby

            Or insisting on not implementing! Have you seen 9 to 5 (Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin)? I watched it recently with my dad. Every single innovation that they talked about in that movie — job sharing, flexible schedules, co-located childcare options — still not here.And to the point of co-located childcare options, @aexm:disqus recently tweeted about the wisdom of hotels co-locating with Drybar. (There;s also the real estate folks who have seen who Whole Foods in or near a building increases property values.)Our corporate office buildings in business districts are emptier and emptier. Why don’t we see Kindercare-like childcare providers in business districts?

          3. pixiedust8

            That is so interesting about 9 to 5. I totally agree about childcare, although here in NYC, I would never want to be on the train in rush hour with my child. However, other people might not have such a commute and it would be easier. We should have options.

          4. Ryan Frew

            Source? It feels like there are so many bad numbers floating around on this topic, it makes my head spin. If 40% of women are the primary breadwinners in their family, the indication exists that there is almost no income or position inequality at all. If we can agree that men represent more high-paid C-level positions, which sways the average, then it would be obvious that women represent even more than 40% of primary earners among households that do not contain an executive. The math doesn’t add up. How can we say “Men earn more than women and it’s unfair” and then say “40% of women earn more than their male counterparts” in the same conversation?

          5. Anne Libby

            Google the Pew survey. I also linked it elsewhere in comments.Given the crowd here, I never quote a number I don’t feel like I can back up with a solid source.Also, I said, 40% of women were primary breadwinners, which is what the Pew survey points out. Not that women earned more than men.

      2. JamesHRH

        I wish, as do most Yahoo stockholders, employees and users, that Marissa had a single clue as to what she was doing.Based on her performance, she is likely mentoring the HyperLoop execs that are being sued. She has perfected what they are only alleged to be up to.#CompetenceMatters

        1. Ana Milicevic

          I’m also disappointed in her overall tenure as CEO.How crazy is that Hyperloop thing though?! I’m increasingly having a hard time believing that’s an actual real company.

      3. leigh

        I get you would be disappointed but I do think it’s very difficult to take a significant mat leave when you are at that level. I only stayed home for six weeks with my son but have always found ways to ensure I am present. I sometimes think they way we think about Maternity leave is very narrow and flexible schedules, bringing babies to work and many other aspects of modern motherhood can bridge the gap and help redefine our own preconceptions.

        1. Ana Milicevic

          Exactly — that’s my biggest objection as right now the choice seems binary: either take disability and risk losing your job or take a significant chunk of time off. There’s precious little middle ground at any level when in reality and for most roles (certainly most professional and all executive roles) there should be a way to orchestrate both having a child and working while having a child.

          1. JamesHRH

            Have to run Ana, but you are dreaming in technicolour is you think all executive roles should prioritize parenting.Everywhere I have worked for the last 30 years has allowed any exec at any level to take any call at almost any time from a family member (there was a time when that was NOT COOL btw).The responsibly that is attached to the compensation requires sacrifice: family involvement and outside interests top the list (with maintaining health finally coming off the list).

          2. Ana Milicevic

            I don’t think all executive roles should prioritize parenthood – I certainly am not. We as a society seem to have concluded that having children in general is a good thing; I am arguing that we as that same society should in turn make sure that the choice to have a child doesn’t automatically negate one’s choice to work for a living (and let’s be honest: for many people working for a living is not a choice but a necessity to support said living).Seems to me we need to rethink how we build organizations that support work and life and not ask working people (and especially working women) who chose to have families to exclusively pick one or the other. Organizations who choose not to devote attention to this challenge will have a very hard time attracting talent.

          3. JamesHRH

            I agree with this comment wholeheartedly but it varies fairly significantly from your last one…..”There’s precious little middle ground at any level when in reality and for most roles (certainly most professional and all executive roles.)”

          4. Ana Milicevic

            Not at all. I was referring to the binary set of options that needs middle ground – e.g. if you’re lucky to have maternity leave you take all of it vs having options to tailor to your specific needs. If you’re an executive you often don’t have that option at all and this is a shame as it tends to push out and underutilize a lot of talent that would otherwise continue to contribute in the work front as well as the home one. Better organization design could solve this.

          5. JamesHRH

            Got it – agreed.

      4. pixiedust8

        My coworker emailed me from her maternity leave and I said, “I guess no baby came over the weekend, huh?” and she said, “Oh, I had the baby last night.” (She did take time off, but I was stunned that she was emailing me hours after giving birth. I feel like that newborn time is so fleeting and you need to physically recover.)

    2. TamiMForman

      I’d only amend this to add that childcare is a problem for 5-teen years too. It’s different, of course, but especially 5 through middle school. IN fact, some families find those years HARDER than the 0-5 years because childcare for babies, while very expensive, is available FT. It’s much harder to find solutions that address the weekday afternoons (does anyone’s FT corp job end at 3pm??), extended school vacations and, most especially, the summer. The fact that our school calendars are still predicated on a family ideal that hasn’t existed for decades coupled with the fact that more time in school (both longer days and longer years) would benefit nearly every child makes it baffling to me that we can find the political will to make a change. Alas, most municipalities can’t pass increases in property taxes that amount to dollars per home to make even small improvements, so hard to imagine there is a stomach for a bigger overhaul of the system.

      1. panterosa,

        Tami I totally agree on care for 5-14 year olds as a problem, having just finished that stage myself. The school day is long enough for home time or activities, but out of sync w office hours.The agrarian school year for children who have never even seen a farm IRL is idiotic, beyond the deep problem of 8-12 weeks off for parents then paying for activities for kids, which in low income areas is a total mess dragging in more tangential problems.Where do we petition to fix it???

        1. BillMcNeely

          Your school board election!

    3. JamesHRH

      I don’t think you could name 3 other jobs that scream “NOOOOO, flex-time is not the answer here.”You want to run one of the 7 governments of the free world?Sacrifice required.

  2. Ana Milicevic

    It’s beautiful to witness, as I, too, hope that with the very next generation women leaders will be business as usual and not newsworthy at all. At the same time it really puts into perspective just how much societal pressure and misaligned expectations still linger on women — best example is the idiotic attack Andrea Leadsom mounted on Theresa May attempting to classify her as less than human or unfulfilled because she isn’t a mother (never mind all of the things that she actually is and has achieved).I also hope this means we’ll see more policies at a global scale that address work/life balance (sorely needed here in the US), support for families, shifting priorities to education and scientific research, and ensuring that every member of our society has a path to success. While these should not be gender-exclusive notions I do firmly believe they’re easier to recognize and fight for if you’ve been in the minority. Hope, hope, hope!

    1. panterosa,

      Priorities in education by a western woman PM are key.The sign of a civilized society is how they educate their women, which extends to the clusters in society of class and religion.That discussion then leads to how those groups approach scientific research, especially women in science. It’s all connected, and yes, it would be Awesome to realign some of those connections to better suit this century.

    2. Twain Twain

      Madeleine Albright to Andrea Leadsom …Motherhood, like everything else, is an individual’s legal and DEMOCRATIC CHOICE.Women are not more or less amazing if we decide not to have kids and to focus on reaching top positions / changing world or if we decide to stay at home and raise healthy, intelligent kids.It’s called the freedoms of democracy and Andrea Leadsom should go and study her Milton Friedman.

    3. Kirsten Lambertsen

      Tied to this, I think, is the current evolution of workplace policies that make it possible for more people to work in roles that weren’t an option for them before. I’m thinking of remote work, flexible hours and PTO. Hopefully, this kind of thing will “trickle up” in the form of more enlightened policy from our government.I’m hopeful, too. In fact, I’d say I’m downright optimistic. I’m extremely encouraged by the new generation of business leaders and influencers who will be in a position to set an example and apply positive pressure on the government.

    4. JLM

      .This was woman-on-woman savagery. How does that strike you?We are entitled to “…life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”PURSUIT is the big take away. Nobody says we get to reach it. We just get to pursue it.We are not entitled to a “path to success.”Fair opportunity puts us in the starting blocks and we run the race we run. Along the way, nobody should be throwing cinderblocks at us.But, we are not entitled to the same outcomes or the same pathway. Just the starting blocks, nothing more.And, hey, that’s enough, isn’t it?JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

      1. Ana Milicevic

        The Leadsom-May spat was incredibly unfortunate. Savagery is right. What was excellent though is how quickly Leadsom was shut down (and this from conservatives).Re: pursuit – this image immediately pops to mind: http://interactioninstitute…We should all aim for the middle block while recognizing which crate we’re individually standing on.

        1. JLM

          .This is an excellent framework from which to evaluate and discuss the subject. Fair play to you. Thought provoking. The headings may not be right.One of the biggest lies ever told is — “All men are created equal.”That is fine from an intellectual perspective but as the REALITY crates show, it may not actually be true.What we all get is the exact same time. We each get 24 hours per day.Here’s the big thing — Don’t be a spectator on a crate watching the game, get in the damn game.To get to happiness, you must begin the pursuit and when you are in the game, it doesn’t matter which crate you were standing on once upon a time.That’s why it is fair to focus on the starting line.You run your own race. You make your own luck. You live with the outcomes you make. But, you get a fair shot at the starting blocks.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

    5. JamesHRH

      I would expect no less from a career, second rung politician – it was nice to see that remark put the nail in Leadsom’s career (do a little digging on her investment banking career….she was cashing the checks but appears to have been a total lightweight).It is much to May’s credit that the person she reminds me of is Churchill, not Thatcher.

  3. Vendita Auto

    Not before time (Marie Curie) gender equality starts in education

  4. Seb Robin

    I also hope that we see true equality in our lifetime. There is no reason, and there was never a reason, for it never to be a reality.However, I hope that women remain women. I mean they don’t feel as if they have to behave like men. There are differences between men and women and it is perfectly fine. For instance, as it seems it is recurring issue, pregnancy and maternity are not a problem. And whilst many women would take a maternity leave, many others wouldn’t. Women should make their own decisions without judgment or discrimination.Equality of opportunity and freedom of choice regardless of gender or race.

    1. Twain Twain

      This is how some men can behave in finance:* http://www.nytimes.com/2016…Yeah, we should hope women remain women and don’t start objectifying men in crude ways.

  5. Dave Lane

    Have to say I agree with this wholeheartedly. I also work in an organization with several strong leaders who are women.When I graduated from my Commerce program in 2005, 75% of us were women. That told me something important was really taking place, and as our demographic gain more and more experience and influence I would not be shocked if we actually saw the “gender pendulum” swing to a majority of women leaders (in business at least) in the next few decades.

    1. panterosa,

      I love the way you say 75% of us to describe your group.

  6. awaldstein

    Yup–great to see when culture changes in the right direction.I’ve been fortunate to work with and for some of the earliest women leaders in the tech sector so to me, this is something I’ve been involved with from almost my first day in the sector.Still think there is a ton of work to happen at the seed and early stage level but good progress nonetheless.

  7. jason wright

    is there equal gender pay legislation in the US?leaders are few. the layer below is where equality matters.

    1. Ana Milicevic

      Yes. President Obama signed it in 2009(!) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…As you can imagine it’s very hard to enforce or even discover that there’s a discrepancy. But at least it’s legally in place.

        1. Ana Milicevic

          Not ironic as much as systemic and indicative of how challenging this issue is to address across the board. Marc Benioff has shown good leadership here and it was fantastic to hear that their overall investment into payroll equality wasn’t huge all things considered: http://www.businessinsider….I hope more private sector leaders follow Marc’s example. It’s a topic in heavy rotation with the young folks I mentor.

    1. JLM

      .Haha, have you read this? It’s almost 900 pages. A friend of mine gave it to me in punishment for a 800 page book I gave him. It is a wonderful paperweight.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

      1. Tom Labus

        At the lake last summer. My first time with his thinking. If you follow the story all the way out it ls very women empowering. Also amazing tech. My mom worked, it was no big deal for me. I came home after the nuns and brothers and made a talyor ham sandwich and palyed pool

        1. JLM

          .Haha, a Taylor Ham sandwich.When I come north, my favorite breakfast is a Taylor Ham sandwich on a roll. There is no Taylor Ham in Texas. Perhaps, the only shortcoming I have ever detected in the Lone Star state.The first bite reminds me of my mother who used to make them for me all the time with a big pat of butter.It is amazing the little things that bind our common memories. I was schooled by the Sisters of Charity and the Christian Brothers and fierce Irish priests. Right from Ireland.I remember thinking when I was a Captain (paratrooper and Ranger) that if I could ever be as tough as Father O’Connor was, things would be OK. [I was pretty tough but I don’t think I ever was as tough as he was. When my father was overseas, he used to make me report to him on Fridays and he’d give me a slap on the head and say, “That’s for all the things you got away with this week.” He was in loco parentis and he was a Godly man.]Haha, Taylor Ham.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  8. William Mougayar

    When Canada’s Prime minister Trudeau got elected last fall, he formed an equal gender government with 15 women and 15 men in cabinet, which is still a rarity in the world, only to be equalled by Sweden who also has a 12/12 balanced government.Furthermore, at the UN, he said: “I’m going to keep saying loud and clearly that I am a feminist until it is met with a shrug.”Btw- in politics, Rwanda’s parliament has more women than men (64%). Cuba’s has 50%. Denmark 40%. Mexico 37%. The list is here http://blogs.worldbank.org/…. In 2010, Switzerland’s federal council had 4 women and 3 men. In Rwanda, it’s law that 30% of women get elected.Question is – what will Hillary Clinton do when she gets elected? I think she can send a message by having an equal gender government, and mandating that a certain % of seats be reserved for women in Congress and the House. Then we could see big progress on that front in the US…until that topic is met with a shrug.

    1. Ana Milicevic

      This remains one of my favorite explanations ever of why representatives reflecting the people they represent is important: https://youtu.be/LLk2aSBrR6UI am jealous of Canada’s government.

      1. JamesHRH

        This clip will come back to eat his government alive……unless each one of these people is competent (no one up here holding their breath on that one.)FYI – opinion polls already showing that CDN public is tiring of unprecedented in office PR attack by PM (he has a ‘hug someone in pain’ photo op more than once a week).Classic example – went to Ukraine, apologized, consoled and hugged people, got photo up on front page of national papers…….then refused or delayed every Ukrainian request for substantive aid against Russian aggression.Colour me embarrassed.

        1. Ana Milicevic

          I generally have very low expectations of competence in government but strongly believe that it should try its hardest to reflect its people. If 50% or thereabouts of the population is severely underrepresented how is that fair? We may be at the stage where quotas are necessary to get to parity; it’s only after parity is achieved when considerations of meritocracy have merit (pardon the word play). I will happily give the Canadian government the benefit of the doubt that each or its members meets a basic competency requirement (whatever that may turn out to be for this type of public service).

          1. JamesHRH

            Sorry, I disagree with all of this:- first, sentence 1 & sentence 4 contradict each other (low expectations and then an assumption of competence, which , come on, really? Government is too important to be disregarded in this way)- second, symbolic fairness is a completely superficial and unimportant thing to focus on: substantive fairness and system effectiveness are important (see, Feels v Reals, elsewhere). What they do is way more important that what they look like, no?- We just fundamentally disagree on the question of competence. People who get the job done should get the job. Supporting people who have historically not been able to access certain jobs is one thing (and a good thing), giving them a job they cannot or will not do is entirely something else.

          2. Ana Milicevic

            I’ll simplify:” – first, sentence 1 & sentence 4 contradict each other (low expectations and then an assumption of competence, which , come on, really? Government is too important to be disregarded in this way)”No contradiction at all. I have low expectations of government competence in general especially compared to private sector; this is due to a combination of factors but mostly because of my perception of the capabilities of career politicians vs the extremely talented industry professionals I have the pleasure of working with daily. That said, seeing how the most relevant qualification for occupying elected office is citizenship of certain country (and we can’t control where/when/to whom we’re born) it’s natural to both assume that 1) the level of demonstrable competence required is low and 2) that all people who end up in government meet that criteria. I’ll jump one step ahead and draw distinction b/w elected and appointed: since appointments are mostly made by elected officials it’s implied that by trusting (e.g. electing) them we implicitly agree w/ their appointments. We could continue here on minor points, but let’s not. I agree that government is important and I’m not disregarding it.”- second, symbolic fairness is a completely superficial and unimportant thing to focus on: substantive fairness and system effectiveness are important (see, Feels v Reals, elsewhere). What they do is way more important that what they look like, no?”I don’t see what’s symbolic in requiring a government representative of its people to truly represent those people. I don’t see how we can gauge efficacy of government if it’s not capable of accurately representing its constituents. Truly representative surely means reflecting a country’s demographics too. We’re likely to be surprised and delighted by what underrepresented people can do given the chance. This has certainly been proven many times during my career and has heavily influenced whom and how I hire.”- We just fundamentally disagree on the question of competence. People who get the job done should get the job. Supporting people who have historically not been able to access certain jobs is one thing (and a good thing), giving them a job they cannot or will not do is entirely something else.”I don’t think we disagree on competence and I’m not sure why you think I’m arguing for giving jobs to less than competent people. We’ll probably disagree on what constitutes getting the job done and what that job is. In Trudeau’s case I get the benefit of commenting from the sidelines and reacting to what I’d perceive as positive signals from him. If I were Canadian I would certainly exercise more scrutiny towards his policies but I think I like the view from the sidelines better in this case 🙂

          3. JamesHRH

            You have substituted ‘represent’ for “representative’. Big diff.Representing is a series of choices & actions. Representative is numerical & superficial.Symbolism is the new opiate of the masses.

    2. Anne Libby

      Justin!

      1. Girish Mehta

        Interesting chap.

        1. SubstrateUndertow

          The guy hidden by his feet is next up 🙂

          1. JLM

            .You are guilty of first degree murder. Call the ambulance now.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

        2. JamesHRH

          Here is a remote diagnosis based on his public history: he is an empathetic narcissist. This stunt is his adult version of dancing on bars in Montreal discos.He will sense how you feel and do anything for your attention / approval. Comes from a broken home with a famously aloof / cold father and a bipolar mother.He is the yin to the Hideous Orange Yam’s yang. We have no idea how he will make important decisions……and, as I have put in other posts, he does his very best to avoid them (which does not bode well for the future).He is a politician’s politician, in the worst sense of the word.So, yes – interesting.He believes that he has a role to play on the global stage, there is a NYT magazine article form last fall that details all this.He’s popular as hell with international media outlets, but when he went to the last G8 summit promoting deficit spending for all other nations….he got his head handed to him by the US & UK.He made big news while he was there by taking a day off with his wife to go to a resort to celebrate their 17th wedding anniversary though.Image master. Not looking so good on the substance side yet.

    3. Twain Twain

      Saw a guy wearing a T-shirt with “feminist” on it at Data Science Summit in SF yesterday, so I shared President Obama recently said he’s one too.Me, I’m a humanist. Everything I make is human-centric rather than machine logic-first.

    4. LE

      I think she can send a message by having an equal gender government, and mandating that a certain % of seats be reserved for women in Congress and the House.In my opinion not a good idea and not possible. And there shouldn’t be a system of quotas in representation where you already have elections where the people decide who to vote for (in theory in practice of course it doesn’t happen exactly that way).

      1. William Mougayar

        Well, currently the ratio is about 19% for women representation in the House & Congress. If you’re happy with that, that’s fine. I’m not sure how a quota mechanism would work equitably.

    5. JamesHRH

      Holy smokes what a terrible idea William: a quota system is ridiculous.More than any other area, governments everywhere suffer from a competence issue more than anything else. What is needed is a compensation model that attracts talent and rewards performance.Remember the maxim ‘top line is vanity, bottom line is sanity’?For politicians, the top line / revenue measure is popularity & the bottom line is the state of the country (‘its the economy, Stupid’). For Millenials, its ‘the Feels versus the Reals’.All this symbolism BS is the tail wagging the dog. Here in AB, the premier is very bright, progressive and excels at handling the media.She has the Feels down pat.She is also driving almost all remaining energy investments into the neighbouring province of Saskatchewan. Not with restrictive petro regulation, but a corporate tax, a higher minimum wage and a huge tax increase on higher earners.The Reals are raising their ugly heads on her.

      1. William Mougayar

        How come Trudeau was able to find 15 capable women for the cabinet. They are there.

        1. JamesHRH

          There is no evidence to support your statement.At some point, there may be, but, as of now, there is not.I think Freeland is horrible publicly, who knows how she is w her Dept.Innovation Minister Navdeep Singh ( male, but a minority ) is clearly incompetent.That’s why I am so against quotas.

    6. JLM

      .Hillary suffers from low esteem as evidenced by her allowing her hound dog husband to cheat on her like an alley cat. She is a meanspirited, vengeful woman.She both enabled him and punished the poor women who were his victims. She engaged in the “nuts and sluts” defense which attempted to discredit and ruin the women who fell prey to her husband. Some were willing participants, some were not, and at least one alleged rape.One more time. She knew exactly what Bill Clinton was doing. He’d been doing it for years. She did not discipline her horny dog.When he besmirched a woman, she developed the strategy to attack and discredit the woman — not Bill, the women. This was the nuts and sluts defense.She did this with Sidney Vicious Blumenthal.She defended, as a lawyer, a rapist who stood accused of raping a 12 year old girl. When the girl proved unstable and emotionally overwrought — a not unlikely impact on a 12-year old, no? — she used this fact to the benefit of her client who was a convicted, scumbag felon.There is no evidence she has been good for women and there is ample evidence she is an enabler, a vengeful tormentor, and a liar.She has solicited and accepted support both politically and for the Clinton Foundation donations from some of the most barbaric regimes — as it relates to women — in the world. These are countries which are the worst in the world. She has accepted their baksheesh and done their bidding both politically and professionally. The work of butchers.None of these things augur well for women.Not to pile on but her campaign and her Senate office routinely paid below male wages to women staffers.Other than that, she’s been a peach.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

      1. JamesHRH

        She realized 20 years ago that the ‘ Bill can be Pres & I cannot ‘ belief of her youth had bagged her a nasty surprise.He is her validation stamp. I imagine she hates his guts but can’t see how to dump him.Ugh.

        1. JLM

          .He is that old bathrobe which you cannot throw out, so you pretend t like it. I wish everyone would recall it was Ross Perot who put him in the WH in 1992/6.He should be a trivia game question.If what we actually know about them is an iceberg, who knows what is really beneath the surface.The Clinton Foundation is a RICO slush fund used to fund their lifestyles and sycophants. It is one of the best scams in the history of US politics.Of course, Goldman Sachs doesn’t want anything in return for their $625K. Would you? Nah, big time philanthropists.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

    7. JLM

      .The Constitution sets out the number of seats and how they are allocated. There is no gender control over those seats. Right now, approximately 20% of the Congress (House and Senate) is female.The President, as the head of the Executive Branch, exerts no control over the Legislative Branch under any circumstances.It is modestly complex as a Democrat Senator (as an example Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts) is vicious to a Republican Senator (as an example Joni Ernst of Iowa).The friction between Ds and Rs is not particularly gender based or neutralized.Once upon a time (right after the 1992 election, the Year of the Woman election) there was an attempt to make a female caucus but that didn’t work.At the caucus level there is an opportunity to develop priorities other than strictly party politics. As an example, there is a Texas caucus (includes both Rs and Ds who support Texas initiatives only such as oil and gas), a black caucus, a Tea Party flavored group (not likely to include Ds).Congressional districts are currently apportioned (2010 census) over approximately 710,000 citizens (not voters, citizens) and are proposed by states after each census. This injects a certain sense into how the districts are represented and they are often solidly R or D. Certain states have a clear majority of one party or the other.It is a modestly complex issue and the danger of gerrymandering is real and prevalent.Senators run statewide with two per state regardless of the state’s population. Wyoming has fewer than 600,000 people so they get two Senators and a Representative.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  9. TamiMForman

    I hope you’re right and the trend line looks good, but I still worry. The cultural pressure on women (and men!) to conform to prescribed gender roles is really strong. But I also never thought I’d see marriage equality in my lifetime, so clearly there is good reason to be optimistic.

  10. pointsnfigures

    I am the parent of two daughters and have a wife too. Glad women are on an even footing. I want the choice of a women to be based on merit, not a fill in the blank diversity standard.

    1. Ana Milicevic

      It’s hard to discuss meritocracy when not everyone is playing or able to compete. Would be like saying let’s pick the best, most meritorious Chicago Bulls line up but only consisting of people in the Chicago area. Is that a meritocracy then or following an arbitrary set of rules that heavily favor in this case a single group?

      1. JamesHRH

        Nope, its more like the NBA actually has become in the last decade: if you can ball, you will get a call.Check the 2016 draft:#1 pick is Australian via LSU#4 pick is Croatian via Maccabi Tel Aviv#7 pick is Canadian via Kentucky Wildcats#9 pick is Austrian (yes, Austrian), via Utah Utes#10 pick is South Sudanese via HS near Toronto ON (and a lot of other points, odd story)#11 Lithuania#13 Greece#15 Spain#16 FranceOver 50% of the first 16 are non-US. Unthinkable 20 years ago.Talent rules a dynamic capitalist system (please step out of the line South America).Women with the will (most important) and the skill will not be held back in NA.Now, there are some other places…….

  11. pointsnfigures

    I would also add, women that freely choose to opt out of the workforce and stay home with kids shouldn’t be penalized or frowned upon.

    1. Anne Libby

      It is simply not an option for most US families to have a stay at home parent, male or female…

      1. pointsnfigures

        It all depends on your income level and the lifestyle you choose to lead.

        1. Anne Libby

          Right. I would hypothesize that families with stay at home parents are in the top 5%, income-wise.

          1. pointsnfigures

            It all depends on where they live etc. In urban areas that is probably true. In suburban areas less true. In rural areas, not true. The most important thing to me is that a woman is free to choose her own path, and not derided or marginalized for choosing it.

          2. Anne Libby

            We could all do with a lot less deriding and marginalizing all around.And one way to do this, at work, is to question the widely held belief that “stay at home parent” is a career option for most of the people who we encounter in our workplaces.

          3. JamesHRH

            Yep – there is usually just a ‘domestic lead’.Like a farm wife who works in town in days of yore.

          4. Anne Libby

            (And I’m not pounding on you about this for your “sake,” we’ve discussed this more fully elsewhere.)But more to make a more public point: when we’re thinking about hiring, funding, or promoting someone, they usually doesn’t have a “better option” that involves being out of the workforce.

          5. BillMcNeely

            Lots of right wing independent fundamental Baptist women stay at home to the family’s detriment financially.

          6. JLM

            .I’ll take that bet. Come visit the Heartland and you’ll see different. Much of America is still traditional, stay-at-home-Mom families.The top 5% ones are the ones who spend more of their time patting themselves on their own backs.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          7. Anne Libby

            I grew up in the heartland (northernly, upper-middle-class suburbs) and still have family there — most of what I see in this group is two income families.It’s important to look outside of what we see around us, though:http://www.pewsocialtrends….

          8. JamesHRH

            Mostly what I saw – in SW Ont rust belt – was 2 income shift work families: lots of flexibility and the priority income was the husband (again, generalization).

      2. sigmaalgebra

        Then our culture is fatally flawed and will die. Sorry ’bout that. Send all complaints to Darwin.

    2. Ana Milicevic

      Couldn’t agree more. It’s also important to understand when people are opting out of the workforce because of insufficient support (e.g. childcare costs too high vs wages low, inadequate flexibility allowed in workplace for parents, limited part-time work options, etc) over free will, choice and preference.

      1. pointsnfigures

        Agree. In many cases public policy incentives are set up that penalize women who work. The marginal dollar they make above a certain point isn’t worth the cost.

        1. LE

          Agree. The tax system doesn’t encourage those extra working dollars, especially when the main breadwinner (man or women) already earns a good living.

      2. JamesHRH

        People like me opt out of the workforce because my spouse has a career that requires sacrifice from our family…..unless the 14 & 11 year olds are not a priority.Its easy to point at these things and say they are the missing pieces. But, in reality, parenting is a time investment and the time required increases as children age.Anyone can change a diaper….very few can intercede, on a timely basis, to build life skills for future success.

    3. LE

      women that freely choose to opt out of the workforceWell under the theory that society gives social capital to people who have achieved something (money, fame, intelligence), it’s not so much that staying at home is a negative as that it isn’t viewed as a positive.If you are Bill Gates (or Carly Fiorina) someone will take your call because of what you have achieved or who you are. However if you are a stay at home mom, who could have been Carly, or Dad who could have been Bill Gates, nobody will do that.Same applies to men who choose to be a stay at home Dad.

    4. JLM

      .Such women, in my view, lead richer and more meaningful lives. Their wealth is accumulated in a different currency.Some of the best years of my life were a 5 year stretch when I had a non-compete and my real endeavor was driving the car pool — no Ranger outfit ever operated as smoothly as my car pool — and coaching my kids in everything.I was the big winner and to this day it yields a dividend.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  12. andyswan

    We have had some pretty heated discussions about this at the patriarchy meetings.

    1. Ana Milicevic

      The matriarchy thanks you for your service.

  13. lisa hickey

    In the US….just imagine for a moment if there was the standard illustration of all faces of the 43 Presidents lined up, with their heads turned in three-quarter profiles in the ovals on a piece of paper the size of a placemat. Now imagine if all of those images were of women. If every President had been a woman. Wouldn’t you think that was…abnormal? Perhaps it would make you uncomfortable, if every one of our leaders had been female?I worked in advertising for a long time, and was the first female creative director in all of New England. I had to do that very strategically, by taking a job of Creative Director at an agency that no one else (male or female) wanted, and then making a lateral move to a well known agency. More than a decade later, when the first ad agency in New England chose a woman as their President, I was surprised at how many people emailed me to say thank you for having forged a path they hadn’t been able to see.But I don’t want that to be an “accomplishment”, just like now, as a 2x CEO, I work very hard to be just a CEO and not a “female CEO.” It should all be just so very normal. Happy for the progress despite that it took so much of my lifetime to get to where we are. We are still pretty far from having it be the norm. But today, I will celebrate progress.

    1. JamesHRH

      There are a lot of sociological arguments that say that the majority of women are not interested in the sacrifice required to be CEO of a major company,Arguably, the norm will be 70-30 men to women…which, seeing as the average woman is likely more than twice as productive as the average man, should work out pretty well.

      1. JLM

        .There is a lot of experience that suggests fewer than 10% of men are cut out to be CEOs. While I think I could teach anyone to be a CEO, there are a lot of people who would be much happier passing on the opportunity.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

        1. karen_e

          We do love the wisdom of the campfire around here. Happily in training here at AVC, sir!

        2. lisa hickey

          I like what @JamesHRH said about “The culture is pressuring men and women to do more things well.” I think that is a good thing. Maybe there could be a class—“Be a CEO…or just act like one.” That would be much better than the message that was hammered into me as a teenager —“Be a model…or just look like one.” That is what girls were taught to do back then, sit around and look pretty. It was ridiculous and somewhat horrifying….The skills that a CEO needs to succeed are awesome. Truly. Having those skills is life-changing. (And like you, JLM, I believe them to be learnable). I wish more people had those skills quite frankly.

          1. JLM

            .I wonder how we can get folks to aspire to be CEOs, which is, in part, a journey of aspiration and self-esteem nourishment and then, potentially, tell them when they arrive — haha, none of this was really worth it. Sorry.I was always a six in the morning until six at night guy and worked on Saturdays. That was shorter hours than the Army.If I had taken every Friday off for my entire life, the outcomes would have been identical.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          2. JamesHRH

            I disagree that it is a good thing to ask people to do more things well.The better answer is to be the person that your nature and personality says you should be…..and just drop the gender stereotypes.The friction of going against your own grain either wears your will down or flares your temper. Neither are positive.Walter Ostanek (3 time Grammy winner) is 81 and still plays polka gigs, even though his wife is no longer there to share the joy with him (dementia).’Why keep playing Walter?'”Because I love it.’If his name was Wilma, I would hope her answer would be the same.

        3. pixiedust8

          True–but I think it also depends on the opportunity and the person. Would I want to be CEO of a huge corporation? No. To me, that just indicates bureaucracy, etc (with a few exceptions). Would I be interested in being CEO of a smaller, interesting company? Yes, quite possibly. I have friends who do that, and seems challenging but meaningful.

      2. Anne Libby

        Where do your numbers come from?

        1. JamesHRH

          Experience. I took my long favoured 80-20 rule and reduced it a bit. Upon second thought, 80-20 could work too, as women are likely more than 4x productive ;-)The culture is pressuring men and women to do more things well, even things that they may not be interested in or good at, given their personalities / natures.There is a reference to E. Fromm today that states: “Men and women deserve equal respect as persons but are not the same.” think that is a nugget of truth….which today’s discussion highlights rather well (fairly different PoVs shown b/t genders).To be super clear: Its an opinion. First sentence starts w ‘arguably’, punchline starts w ‘likely’. Covered my bases 😉

          1. Anne Libby

            Actually.

          2. JamesHRH

            me no get. 🙂

          3. lisa hickey

            I think that men and women have some biological differences, and are undoubtably socialized differently. But…the promise of the world today is that none of that matters for the most part. Is there anything you shouldn’t be able to do if you are interested in it enough? Gender may exist, but it shouldn’t be a barrier.

          4. JamesHRH

            Agreed on the individual level, as stated above.I cannot imagine a gig my daughter would want that we would not support – nor would the other strong female role models that surround her.But I can imagine that she would have few female peers willing to be CEO of Tesla or YouTube, b/c they just aren’t that many women (or, as JLM points out, men either) that want to do that (let alone do it well).

      3. lisa hickey

        One thing I have always thought was that women will not truly break the glass ceiling until men start taking paternity leave.

        1. awaldstein

          I think it is a questionable tactic to decide that women = motherhood by definition.I know a lot of women entrepreneurs, some mothers some not.This idea that these are connected at the hip and that supporting culture should focus on that is not a great one.I’m all in and have been since day one of my career on gender equality but your statement is not how I would approach this.

          1. lisa hickey

            I see your point, and it is valid. Thank you. But part of the problem in the workforce has always been that women were *assumed* that they were going to eventually become pregnant and have children and then fall off the fast track. Even if that wasn’t true. The other piece of it is….men were historically the financial providers for their family. And not often the day-to-day caretakers, the emotional providers, the nurturers. I think my statement, in retrospect, was too simplistic. But what I want is a world where people (of any gender) can float in and out of those roles seamlessly and effortlessly. Maybe for men it is not “paternity leave”, but time off to care for their elderly parents. What I’m looking for is permission for men to show up for relationships when needed, and still be able to succeed in whatever way they want to in the workplace. And ditto for women.

  14. LE

    In the US, Hillary Clinton is currently the odds-on favorite to win the Presidency.I don’t think Hillary is a good example of progress for woman for a few reasons. First although she is quite capable, she most likely wouldn’t be in contention if she was not anointed by the party leaders. And most importantly hadn’t been first lady. Take that out and you wouldn’t be talking about her. Most likely. That is not to take away from her capabilities in any way (her positives) but this is not exactly a pure play as a woman. [1] She is also being helped greatly by the fact that she is running against Donald Trump. And you can’t ignore her disapproval ratings either. You know there are many people that don’t want to vote for either candidate (almost unheard of) and it’s not because Hillary is a woman either.Party leaders choose someone they think has the name recognition to win and is capable enough for the job. They didn’t pick the best person nor did they pick the best woman for the job.[1] Of course Jeb Bush was anointed as well and he fell flat on his face.

    1. JLM

      .Party leaders — the at large, super delegates — have been courted by the Clintons for a quarter of a century. The Clintons began when they worked on the 1968 McCarthy campaign. Let’s be fair here — they worked their deal. Worked it like a Tijuana whorehouse.At every step, they have paid out favors with an expectation the bread upon the waters would come back to them. And, it has.They formed the Clinton Foundation (which pays out less than 10% of what it receives while housing all the Clinton Machinery and operatives and paying for the Clinton grifter lifestyle) to fund their efforts and to be a cash-and-carry diseminator of favors and graces in a matter that would make the Vatican blush.What HRC is is a great example of how crooked the system really is and to what extent the Democrat party is willing to go to protect her flawed person and politics.One moment some Socialist named Bernie is saying she’s totally unqualified and the next, he’s endorsing her. [That’s just politics. I know that.]There is no convincing evidence that she is capable of effective leadership. Maybe it was burned up in the remains of Benghazi or it’s in a missing email. Could be, no?JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

      1. LE

        One moment some Socialist named Bernie is saying she’s totally unqualified and the next, he’s endorsing her. [That’s just politics. I know that.]What do you think? Is she snowing him with the “we will do your progressive agenda” in getting him to fall in line? I say he is either falling for it or simply saving face by being able to claim that he got at least part of his agenda taken care of. He has no stick to make her do anything later after the fat lady sings.So to reiterate the question I am asking:a) She is snowing him, he is gullible in accepting her at face valueb) He knows she won’t do anything she is promising now, but it saves face and he has no stick, so he is folding his hand with the best possible outcome.”a” means he is stupid”b” means he is just like the rest of us, acting in his own self interest.

        1. JLM

          .Everybody who goes through a losing campaign thinks their demise is somehow going to be different. It never is. He was never more than a sparring partner. Just to make her look good while she got to pretend she’s battle hardened.Quick — who did Romney beat in 2012?The VP picks will be cautious and vanilla.The parties will both coalesce around their candidates. Though in Trump’s case it may be better if he still has a few GOPe dinosaurs throwing stones at him.Everybody is going to have a great, ambitious platform and other then me and 63 other people, they will never be read. Ever.Both candidates will get a slight bump from their conventions.This stuff doesn’t get serious until after Labor Day and it’ll be a sprint to the finish line. It has been this way forever.It is likely to get “ugly on an ape” and the media will soil themselves in their haste to help Hillary.Trump will pillory Hillary and she will return the favor. We will all be sick of it by 15 September.In the end, it will be Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Colorado, Nevada and New Hampshire.The national polls mean nothing. The swing state Electoral College votes are the locus of focus.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  15. LE

    Imagine the power of the imagery of Angela Merkel, Teresa May, and Hillary Clinton meeting at an important event. That picture will tell a thousand words about the rise of women leaders.So from where I sit, I feel we are on the cusp of a new era for women.When seeing the headline in the paper yesterday and photo of Theresa May I couldn’t help but feel the same way. It’s quite a Trifecta.

    1. JLM

      .Total eyewash.Can these women govern effectively?The Titanic was the best ship ever, built by the best engineers ever. Calling out the Titanic is a dog whistle for — “Only results count.”It is difficult for any fairly discerning observer to be excited about elevating HRC’s game from Foggy Bottom to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue based on performance.So, it’s just eyewash. Nothing more.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

      1. LE

        “eyewash” Interesting. I actually didn’t know that definition of the word.

        1. sigmaalgebra

          Let’s define political correctness (PC) as high determination and sensitivity to be sure no one feels any pain or offense.Somehow, such PC has become a high priority norm, especially for females. Maybe one reason is that the media is always looking for some way to get ad revenue from eyeballs from headlines that scare people by saying that something is wrong so has a strongly vested interest in PC being a high priority norm — PC is a grand source of ready-made headlines for eyeballs.So, this PC norm is a supporting pillar of feminism that wants to provide sympathy for every negative emotion that women can have — and that’s a LOT!So, now we have nearly all of AVC today and much of our society chasing some PC and feminist objectives that will strongly via Darwin guarantee far too many weak, sick, or dead limbs on the tree.This PC-feminism stuff is writing checks on our social capital and economy that on average our society can’t cash. Meanwhile, the media is getting eyeballs.Darwin is strongly on the case and making sure that this whole PC-feminism nonsense is plucked from both our social norms and our gene pool.We are likely in the fastest change in the human gene pool in at least the last 40,000 years: In the past, woman had children heavily just because of a combination of circumstances. Well, now, some of those circumstances have changed, and too many women don’t consciously and strongly want to be good as wives and mothers. So, from Darwin, what will be left are the women who are strongly immune to the media nonsense and to PC-feminism and very much — consciously and strongly — want to be good as wives and mothers, know it, and DO it.These CEO-feminist women are on average at best weak, sick, or dead limbs on the tree and removing their norms from society and their DNA from the gene pool. They are on a long walk on a short pier. In the meanwhile, this PC-feminism stuff is causing enormous waste, pain, and suffering and seems to be an example of an old principle I guessed at: Too commonly people and societies go in bad directions until finally they are stopped by hard constraining walls of disaster.Do not be misled: Darwin is always willing at each generation to invest a small fraction of the new genes in some wild long shots. So, there can be a few percent of feminist CEOs of major, successful companies. And maybe, due to PC-feminism, the fraction is higher now than 70 years ago. But, do not be misled or extrapolate: No way is that early traction on the way to anything significant.

  16. Pete Griffiths

    Agreed.But in part what we are witnessing is massive growth between the lives of the women at the top and those at the bottom – most women round the world live in traditional societies where not only are there massive obstacles to success but the reality of day to day life is crushing for intelligent women.

  17. JLM

    .The rate of development on this issue — the end result is assured, it is only an issue as to the time it takes to get there — is held hostage by performance, the performance of the women who are the pioneers in these areas.Soon-to-be UK Prime Minister Theresa May stands solidly on the shoulders of the Baroness Thatcher who proved herself to be a steely and successful leader. Baroness Thatcher didn’t just run England, she changed the world and was the greatest influence on Ronald Reagan (maybe after Nancy). She was a killer.PM May (I am anticipating the Queen will ask her to form a gov’t) is not a shy retiring woman. She’s been Cameron’s Home Secretary (roughly equivalent to our DHS) for six years and is a critic of current immigration policies of the UK. She was on the “stay” side on Brexit and, perhaps, much of her quick acceptance was based on her embrace of the outcome of that vote.She is an advocate of the UK growing its economy in order to grow itself out of its current status. This is a very accomplished woman who has labored in the trenches for a long time (just like the green grocer’s daughter).I tell you this because she is likely — from a governance and policy perspective — as far from Hillary Clinton as one could be.The only thing they may share is a day-to-day tendency to use the ladies room — only if Hillary is feeling that special feeling. She is entitled to use whatever facility strikes her fancy at that instant — who says Obama is going to be struggling to identify his legacy, eh?On the issue of Hillary Clinton and Marissa Mayer — one could certainly argue their actual performance is an anchor which every woman who comes in their wake must drag with them.We are beyond the museum quality tokenism on this subject and well into the “let’s pile on what works” phase. There are issues to be dealt with and the commenters here have identified the low hanging fruit.But, make no mistake — when the top US female “leader” is identified as a congenital liar, “extremely careless,” “unsophisticated” when it comes to reading comp, a grifter of gargantuan proportions — the fight is a long way from being joined.Do you want your daughter to follow this set of personal character flaws? Even if so, then there is her horrendous professional performance which has, well, you know what she’s done and failed to do. Worst. Sec of State. Ever.Marissa Mayer has devolved into a auctioneer, rather than a leader, as Yahoo is dismembered like a drug cartel corpse and sold off to any bidders. She was to have saved it and she has instead overseen its embalming. [In fairness, maybe it was just not possible. Fair play to that idea. Still, I thought she had it under control when I saw the fabulous Vanity Fair spread. You?]Women themselves have to decide whether their womanhood precedes or follows their professional endeavors. Not an unfair question. I don’t see much likelihood, as an example, for a Senator Elizabeth Warren to cooperate with a Senator Joni Ernst. Even on women’s issues. Sen Warren can’t get off the warpath long enough to find common ground on any issues with Republican woman. Fair criticism?And, then, there are all the cheerleaders on the sidelines who never follow their sentiments with their actions. I like to look at pictures of companies and see if the faces in the pics match their rhetoric. Current grade? “F” minus.Full disclosure: I am married to a woman who has a law degree. We somehow bred a lovely young woman who is a bit of perfection and works for a startup while running her own startup. My mother was also a woman though she did wear combat boots (she was in WWII). Tough. As. Nails. Believed in spanking.I am cheering for competent women because I love competence. For the same reason, I am cheering for competent men. I have a big long story as to how I used to hire the top Univ of TX female finance grad but it was really about getting talent and there wasn’t an iota of social engineering in it.Ooops, that’s where we’re supposed to be heading. I forgot.Am I a feminist and, if so, is it treatable?JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

  18. Kirsten Lambertsen

    I, too, am extremely optimistic about our future.I’ll be the nitpick for the day, though ;-)”…gender equality in the workplace…” There’s no separating the workplace from the rest of a woman’s universe. Until a woman has totally agency, most especially over her body, she doesn’t have equality in the workplace or any place.But, more women in positions of power and leadership is progress, for sure. I’ll just leave this here…

    1. JLM

      .Sixty million abortions in the US since Roe v Wade seems to suggest that on that score alone women have dominion over the right to kill their babies — many of whom are female and none of whom were created without a squirt of a man’s baby juice.Makes me proud of our women and our nation though I suspect some small percentage of those dead babies might have been worth saving, no?Sorry, you raised the issue.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

      1. Kirsten Lambertsen

        Thanks for helping me make my point.I’m curious about this part of your statement: “…none of whom were created without a squirt of a man’s baby juice.” Why was that included? I don’t want to jump to conclusions about it.

        1. Salt Shaker

          Well, ya got me there, though the Kardashian story would ring more truthful w/ a headline that read “The Dumbing Down of America.” KK may be raking in the bucks but she’s hardly a role model for female advancement (or biz). The matriarch of the family is prob far more deserving, though she pilfered Seinfeld’s strat of developing a show(s) about nothing. Jeez, I gotta go read a book.

          1. Kirsten Lambertsen

            I’d offer this thought: no one accuses (that I’ve heard) Mark Pincus of dumbing down America. Or Ryan Seacrest. Etc. Etc. They are models for success, no? Even though their stuff isn’t exactly rocket science. No one decries how they aren’t models for male advancement ;-)I applaud her and her mother, too, and her sisters. They own everything about themselves.Not every version of female success has to look like the Kardashians’, but it’s one option 🙂 That’s what I think about all the time. Girls should see *all* the options as *their* options.

          2. LE

            Entertainment is a valid profession, male or female. So is sports and the time wasted on that. Or music. My wife and I spent hours watching reality TV and discussing it. It’s a game to us. Lately we started watching a show which parodies reality tv (Unreal [1], Lifetime, a parody of Bachelor …)Worse than any of this is the kids that could do anything but they choose to solve some a problem that isn’t even a problem. It’s been called an anti-problem (or something like that). That brain drain is a real issue. Was an article recently on this (can’t dig it up now) but it essentially says what I have been saying “all the smart kids are doing things that we don’t need and ignoring the things that we need”.[1] I can’t recommend this show highly enough I almost never watch scripted TV this is literally the only exception.

          3. JamesHRH

            Last sentence is excellent.The line that most describes Kim and Ryan would be ‘its a living.’

        2. LE

          From parent comment by JLM:have dominion over the right to kill their babiesthough I suspect some small percentage of those dead babies might have been worth savingI am surprised that you (or anybody else) didn’t jump at JLM’s use of “babies”. There is no definition of babies that is even close to an embryo … even in common everyday usage.

          1. Kirsten Lambertsen

            Excellent point. Using “babies” is dog-whistling, in my opinion. So, for me, I’m just trying not to take the bait these days.

          2. JLM

            .I have no problem with using the term “embryo” when, in fact, that is appropriate but we have a candidate, HRC, who wants to be able to authorize the killing of babies a minute before delivery.Folks self-servingly fail to recognize that even Roe v Wade mandated a 26 week test of viability which today is being pressed toward 20 weeks with actual neo-natal clinic, documented performance.If an “embryo” can be delivered at 20 weeks — not even a close call today — then, by all means, dog whistle yourself deaf. Call it an embryo.In the end, the viability of a child has everything to do with why an “embryo” should not be eliminated like a hangover.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

        3. JLM

          .One of the great fallacies in the issue of abortion is the idea that a woman is the sole arbiter of the life of the child.Men are legally and morally obligated to participate in the funding of the cost of bearing children — as it should be.Men are responsible, legally and morally, for where their sperm swims and what it does when it reaches shore.Men should, similarly, have rights in the decision to abort — kill — a child. It is half their DNA, no?The right time to be thinking about this issue and assigning rights and responsibilities is BEFORE the sperm is introduced to the egg.Hope this helps.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          1. LE

            I think (my guess) the concept of not giving rights to the man is somehow derived from the fact that the man has a certain power over a woman and that she is powerless to reject him for many reasons. Hence society has determined that the woman can even the score by saying that she has (where legal) sole decision making in terms of ending the pregnancy.And of course any deal made by a man in the heat of the moment is, what they call in law, “a contract made under duress” or “an offer made in jest” is perhaps a better way to put it.From Meatloaf, video posted yesterday, Paradise by the Dashboard Light:I couldn’t take it any longerLord I was crazedAnd when the feeling came upon meLike a tidal waveI started swearing to my godAnd on my mother’s graveThat I would love you to the end of timeI swore I would love you to the end of time…And after that one moment of pleasure, the results:So now I’m praying for the end of timeTo hurry up and arrive’Cause if I gotta spend another minute with youI don’t think that I can really surviveI’ll never break my promise or forget my vowBut God only knows what I can do right nowI’m praying for the end of timeIt’s all I can do (ooh, ooh)I’m praying for the end of timeSo I can end my time with youThe video, at the relevant part:https://youtu.be/GMR3Hy3yrb

          2. JLM

            .Far be it from me to ever argue with the philosopher Meatloaf but the rejoinder might be the theory of “mutual mistake” or “fraud in the inducement” or “failure of consideration” or ” a state of mind which makes it impossible to enter a binding contract.”In the end, it is a child, not a choice.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          3. Kirsten Lambertsen

            Men often do participate in the decision to have an abortion. But at the end of the day, no way should they have the FINAL say. In the few cases where a man cares at all and disagrees, the final say should go to the woman, for obvious reasons.Why on earth would you want to force someone to have a baby who really didn’t want to? Please give me a beautiful life affirming scenario for this case.And this hyperbole does you no credit, “HRC, who wants to be able to authorize the killing of babies a minute before delivery.” What HRC says, and has said for years, is that abortion should be *rare*, safe and legal.Do you HONESTLY believe that if abortion was 100% safe and legal everywhere in the U.S. that women would just have them willy nilly? Like pedicures? You say all these positive things about women, yet you feel we can’t be trusted with the decision of whether or not to end a pregnancy.I know you’re a ‘nice guy’ and a diplomatic debater (mostly). But you don’t see me as equal, and I’m always aware of that. You’re always held at arms length for me because you think you have the right to tell me what to do with my body. You are, in that way, the enemy unfortunately.

          4. JLM

            .You are asserting facts not in evidence.In the same way I think a man should have a say in the discussion, I agree fully that a man should NOT have the final say. It is a shared responsibility.I worry about our final judgment when we are responsible for ending what is God’s greatest gift — life. For this exact same reason, I am opposed to the death penalty. Adamantly.I know this will come as a surprise to many but often when HRC speaks her words are not true. Big surprise. Haha. Small joke.I don’t think abortion should be legal after 20 weeks — in accordance with the Roe v Wade “brightline” 26 week limit updated for modern neonatal care.I also think that orphanages and adoption agencies should be the first line of defense against unwanted pregnancies. In Austin, we used to have the Marymount House which was essentially where a young girl went to have her baby and to leave it to be adopted.Those, like me, who oppose abortion should be willing to fund those kind of places.The notion that I see you in some way or another is pure nonsense. We are both people who have thrown our ideas into the public square to let them wrestle and become stronger.I absolutely don’t think any man has the “right” to tell any woman what to do with their body but I do think the father of a “child” has a right — and obligation — to be involved in the result of their actions. Specifically, providing support, financial support, for the mother and the child.I am the enemy of death and a worshiper of life. If you are a friend of death, then we ARE enemies.One day we will all have to answer for our actions and I don’t want to have to answer why my judgment or lack of action resulted in the loss of human potential.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          5. Kirsten Lambertsen

            Well, you threw up this straw man, and I guess I started shooting at it. ;-)There’s a false premise underlying your statements, that somehow most women who have them are having abortions against the wishes of the father of the pregnancy. Why even bring it up unless you see a problem? Or is it to deflect the conversation from the topic I raised, a woman’s right to have 100% control over her body?While it’s fair that I made assumptions based upon your comments, let’s face it, what I really did was take the bait.I retract the “enemy” comment, with apologies. Nonetheless, anyone who stands to tell me what I can do with my body is seen to me as a threat, as I imagine they would be to you were the tables turned.

          6. JLM

            .I don’t know whether women are routinely working hand in hand with their sperm donors or not. I did not say that but I concede it is a fair inference that was what I meant, so let me correct that.When an absolute statement is made, one can only assume that women are not, are unwilling, or are consulting with their men.I just want to ensure that the men have a voice in the arrangement and can overcome whatever obstacles exist to life. If that means they have to somehow convince a woman to have a baby and turn it over to him (the most extreme case, I think, no?) then I just want to give life a chance.We are all told to do with our bodies.The gov’t told me they wanted my body for national defense — potentially against my will — and I complied. I commanded a lot of troops who were in the Army involuntarily. They objected to being told what to do with their bodies to no avail.The gov’t can routinely intervene with anyone when they present a danger to themselves or others.Life. That’s all. My default condition is to protect life.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          7. Kirsten Lambertsen

            By the way, I really admire that you’re against the death penalty. In that regard, no one can accuse you of hypocrisy.Hopefully you understand from our conversation that my point isn’t that abortion is awesome. Having an abortion isn’t fun nor is it pleasant or even trivial. But when that decision has been made, we need to assume first that it’s been made thoughtfully. No one subjects herself to something like that impulsively or casually, and it often comes packed with a bunch of other issues that are negatively affecting that woman’s control over her own body.

          8. JLM

            .Nobody can understand the impact on a woman other than that woman.My most sincere hope is that every woman possible will be protected from ever having to endure that travail.JLMwww.themusingsofthebigredca…

          9. JamesHRH

            On that last point, you need to read up on your Chelsey Handler!

    2. Salt Shaker

      Help me w/ this one: Why do women seemingly always pose w/ arms crossed when taking a power publicity photo? Presumably it’s to signify strength and confidence, but the approach seems pretty gender specific.

      1. Kirsten Lambertsen

        I don’t know for certain if that’s a thing or not 🙂 Here are all the Forbes covers so far in 2016:https://www.google.com/sear…Lots of men with arms crossed, too. Maybe it’s a Forbes thing.In general, I think the arms crossed posture communicates permanence, immovability. So it’s a tempting choice for a cover like Forbes, I suppose.

        1. Ana Milicevic

          @SaltShaker1:disqusIt’s a general best practice for professional headshots because of the framing — if you just stood there with arms to the side it would look weird in the photo and would limit strong cropping options. Hands crossed also lets you play with angles better (slight twist to appear leaner/less broad-shouldered, etc – of course this is all before any Photoshopping is applied). It’s in turn interpreted as a strong pose.That’s the explanation I got from the last photographer who took my headshots. Seems legit 🙂

  19. Salt Shaker

    Minority Report: No, not a critique of a Tom Cruz movie, just some plain facts. There are only 22 female CEO’s in the Fortune 500 (4%) and only 5 black CEO’s (1%). Not advocating a quota system by any means, merit certainly should be the senior criteria, but you’d expect a bit more progress in these areas by 2016. The corporate world is still very much entrenched in old world views, barriers and biases, regardless if there’s a black man or woman residing at either 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. or 10 Downing Street

    1. LE

      Pool of qualified women applicants is not as large. Ditto for black as well. You could argue that there are many reasons for this (not allowing to rise through the ranks) but I don’t think you can hurry love and just make it happen w/o some kind of quota which means “merits” does take a back seat.

    2. Anne Libby

      I graduated from bschool in 1995, when about 25% of my classmates were women. People of color, I would guess to have approached 10%, but not sure.The needle has barely moved on Fortune 500 C-suite since then; as you suggest, there’s a bigger cultural system operating here.

      1. JamesHRH

        When I think back about the people from my Law School who have become CEO’s they all have one similar trait: fiercely competitive, successful amateur athlete.How many of your female peers @ B School were like that?Its not the system, its the participants.

          1. JamesHRH

            Ok, ok.My point is that the competition is existential….most CEOs fundamentally need the job for some reason. Lots of pretenders want the job, but don’t need it.The Wimbledon Men’s final this year was an abject lesson in Need v Want. Murray broke down sobbing after this win. Raonic vowed to, basically, solve the problem. He does yet get – although Johnny Mac is working on this switch with him – that he needs to need it.Honestly, does that sound like most of your female peers @ Bschool?Are their egos that wrapped up in their work status / success?If so, I think your class is an exception.Most women are more emotionally balanced than the men who need to be CEO…..

  20. sigmaalgebra

    Been There — Tried ThatFred, at one time I believed such things. With that belief, I made the biggest investment of my life. The investment was a total loss — it ruined all of her life (she died from it) and a good fraction of my life. That investment and that belief were by very wide margins the worst mistakes of my life.I strongly urge all fathers and husbands and the rest of society along with nearly all the females — don’t try that.A Big ExampleAs my wife and I were dating, once as a college sophomore she said,Women don’t have to just be cared for. Women can do things, too. I want a career.Ah, but she wasn’t smart enough or hard working enough, maybe? Fred, you and nearly everyone else at AVC are lucky you were never in a class with her because the best you would be able to do is come in second.In academics, I beat her effortlessly in math, especially advanced math, and anything in physics, but otherwise she could give a little motion with the back of a hand and knock me into the nickel seats.She won prizes in cooking, sewing, and raising chickens. She was in 4-H and Methodist Youth Fellowship, as a high school Junior starred in the senior class play and as a senior directed the senior class play. She sang in the church choir, from grades 7-12 or some such on piano accompanied school operettas, and played clarinet in the school band. She worked gathering eggs for her father, as a waitress in a local family restaurant, and as a clerk in an office supply store. She sewed many of her own dresses. She was Valedictorian of her high school class.When I was a grad student teaching trigonometry, as a freshman she was a student of mine. My tests had some easy questions for the ordinary students and some hard questions for more points for the good students. At the end of the class, she had twice as many points as the next best student. She could have walked out of the class after the mid-term and taken 0s on all the later tests and the final exam, come in second in the class, and still made an A.In college she wanted to learn some European history but didn’t need the credit hours and didn’t want to work at it so audited. The prof still wanted the audits to take the tests, so she did. At the end the prof told her she should have taken the course for full credit because she made the best score in the class, a lecture class of 300 people. Right: Without even trying, she beat 299 students who were trying.In college, to write a term paper, she collected notes on 3 x 5 cards and the night before the paper was due arranged the cards in order and typed the term paper, final, polished copy, directly from the cards. Consistently she got As on the papers.Right, she made Phi Beta Kappa, graduated Summa Cum Laude, won a Woodrow Wilson fellowship, won two years of NSF fellowship to graduate school in one award.At graduate school at Johns Hopkins, she got her Ph.D. in essentially mathematical and statistical approaches to the study of groups of people — sociology.Computing was not her field, but at one time she wanted to learn some. I was in an artificial intelligence (AI) project at IBM’s Watson lab, and we had designed and implemented a new programming language for AI. So, I gave her a 30 minute lecture on how to use a PC from home to log into a Watson lab IBM mainframe VM/CMS system, use the system, and use the editor XEDIT. Then in another short lecture, I gave her an introduction to the IBM scripting language Rexx, and as an exercise she wrote a nice, useful program to analyze disk space usage. Then in about 30 minutes I gave her a lecture on our AI language, a pre-processor to PL/I, one of the more complicated programming languages. A week later she had a good, first running AI program. I looked at the program and explained the AI ideas that the AI language was supposed to support, and a week later she had the best early AI program our group had seen.She could effortlessly work me to a puddle of melted jello — her endurance was astounding.I spent more than enough time in high end academics to have seen some brilliant people. She was genuinely brilliant — no doubt.Then she went downhill, never recovered, and died.Her mother and two sisters were all at least good mothers, and there’s no doubt in my mind that she could have been, also. But, she never got around to motherhood and, instead, was wildly successful in school and then went downhill.I gave up a big fraction of my life trying to help her. I learned a lot about people, topics a long way from mathematics and computing.During her struggles, once she told meI know what you are going to do: You are going to keep thinking about this until you finally figure it out.Yup.I read a stack of books; the best was E. Fromm, The Art of Loving. I will paraphrase a little from Fromm:”Men and women deserve equal respect as persons but are not the same.””From the French Revolution, Western Civilization got the idea that any differences between men and women were a threat of tyranny and, thus, strained to have men and women as equal as possible in every way.”My Summary ConclusionFor Mother Nature and Darwin, motherhood is necessary and nearly sufficient. So, net, do expect a lot of abilities, drives, etc. for motherhood and don’t expect much more. If you plan for a lot more, then you are likely to get a lot less down to zero.A Path to HellIn more detail, men are supposed to feel protective of their mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters. Good. So, for this equality stuff, nearly always regard it as a path to hell for human females.The Mommy TrackWhat to do? Did I mention motherhood? And, then, sure, grand motherhood. So, let’s review the time line:In the first few years of life, girls are just fantastic at using facial expressions, body language, eye contact, and tone of voice to elicit supportive and protective emotions from their fathers.Then they discover that if they act cute, sweet, darling, adorable, and precious, are pretty, demure, etc., then they get a lot more in supportive and protective behavior from their fathers and, really, a large fraction of adults, teachers, nurses, babysitters, etc. Commonly such girls, already by age 4, can wrap their fathers around their little fingers so that he can nearly never tell her “No”. One tear from her can cause him to move a mountain. Such girls can be cheerleaders, homecoming queens, fair queens, etc.Are we learning yet? Didn’t I just explain that, commonly by age 4, human females are just magnificently talented at manipulation and acting? They can put on an endearing smile and look really trustworthy faster than throwing a light switch. Already by age 4. And as they grow older, they get better at it.E.g., boys are told in very strong terms never to hit or hurt a girl. The same boys may be throwing mud and rocks at each other, in fist fights, with shouting and name calling, blocking and tackling, knocking the other boy down and stealing the ball, etc., but they aren’t permitted to touch a girl or hardly even say anything.As teenagers the girls come to understand that a girl that is sweet and pretty can with a good husband be supported, protected, cherished, treasured, and loved as she is a wife and mother. And that’s just exactly what Mother Nature and Darwin want.A little examination shows that there is a lot to good motherhood: Again, for Mother Nature and Darwin, there’s no hope for female genes that don’t place very high priority on doing well at motherhood, starting right at the beginning with bonding via nursing, cuddling, contact comfort, eye contact, and tone of voice and continuing through emotional, verbal, psychological, social, creative, artistic, empathetic, moral, ethical, religious, athletic, academic, mechanical, rational, quantitative, scientific, technical, entrepreneurial, etc. development.It’s not a small job. To do well, likely can’t just hand it off to baby sitters, play dates, computer games, TV, pre-school, kindergarten, K-12, and college.SummaryI had to conclude that Mother Nature and Darwin have developed some strong but subtle means to keep girls on the mommy track I described.For this equality stuff, especially given our relative ignorance about the fine details of child development, again I urge as in the Indiana Jones movie character Marcus Brody’s “You are meddling with forces you cannot possibly comprehend.”.Currently in the US, on average the number of children per women is less than two. That is, we are going extinct. Moreover, the number of children in stable, first marriage, two parent families is shockingly low.Commonly college sophomores don’t have the best ideas. E.g., the Newt Gingrich interaction at Amherst with two highly concerned coeds inhttps://www.youtube.com/wat…is a good reminder. E.g., my wife’sWomen don’t have to just be cared for.was exactly wrong both on average in general and in particular very much for her and her mother and sisters.In our society and also family by family and women by woman, we need to set aside this equality nonsense and emphasize MOTHERHOOD.For those CEO, high level manager women, let’s look at their descendants for a generation or two and then evaluate how well they did at motherhood. And if those women don’t do well at motherhood, then this whole equality issue will be self-correcting and the whole equality question moot as Darwin diligently prunes one woman at a time, one weak, sick, or dead limb on the tree at a time, one ruined family at a time, and one wasted life at a time OUT of the gene pool.Starting in year 2200, men stand to be really lucky, with a lot of really pretty, sweet, darling, adorable women really good at being and really, really eager to be really good as wives and mothers! Then the job of the men is clear — pay for it.Gee, what really smooth, soft shoe salesman talked the US into neglecting motherhood? That guy could get rich in an hour a week selling ice to Eskimos!

  21. Thor Snilsberg

    Agreed, it is always great to see more women leaders at the very top. While there is a long way to go in terms of gender equality in the workplace, there is a lot men can learn about leadership from their female counterparts. As an analyst at Anderson Consulting in the 1990s my best project managers were always women. To this day, I often find myself reflecting back on how they kept their teams running on time and budget with more compassion, cohesion and camaraderie too.

  22. leigh

    We did some research for a digital first heathcare startup we are doing a new brand for – and it was VERY interesting that the top 100 startups are actually significantly diverse at the top while the top 100 marketing companies are most white men with the occasional white woman.Millennial run businesses are going to lead the way and their success with have other follow suit.Personally, i can’t wait.

    1. Kirsten Lambertsen

      “Millennial run businesses are going to lead the way …”This! The future is bright! I have faith in our youngsters 🙂

  23. sigmaalgebra

    Hillary:(1) Marriage.Bill and Hillary don’t have a real marriage. Instead, they have a codependent power and money partnership.Then for sex, Bill seduces and rapes women, and Hillary is an accessory.Bill and Hillary are a horrible example for the US.(2) Selling Favors from the Government.E.g., Bill is on street corners around the world shouting “Hillary favors for sale!”.Bill and Hillary raised many tens of millions of dollars doing that. Some of the money went to Bill personally and some, to their foundation. But about 80% of the foundation’s expenditures are for “administration” — that is, their foundation looks like a tax-advantaged slush fund for Bill and Hillary personally.Hillary used her position as Secretary of State to get confidential information about future actions on Greek debt and passed that information to her hedge fund son in law who was investing in Greek debt. Sounds like insider trading to me. That’s illegal. People can go to jail for that.(3) Foreign Policy.As Secretary of State, Hillary was right up and in front with our disasters that resulted in our current situations in Libya, Syria, ISIS, Iraq, Iran, and more.Her foreign policy judgment is just horribly bad.(4) Benghazi.Hillary’s actions on Benghazi suggest that it was her intentions to have the US unit in Benghazi fall, for Ambassador Stevens to be killed, and for ISIS to gain power in Libya.(5) E-mail.What Hillary did as Secretary of State with her e-mail is definitely “extremely careless”, that is, “gross negligence”, and, thus, wildly and massively in violation of part (f) of the US Espionage Act.Saying what cases should be prosecuted is not really the job of the Director of the FBI.A decision on prosecution is up to the Attorney General who can decide not to prosecute for any reason or no reason. And the Attorney General serves at the pleasure of the President who, in this case, likely didn’t want a prosecution.There is a good chance that via e-mail server hacking all of Hillary’s e-mail traffic went to the intelligence agencies of all the major world powers. Thus, Hillary put US national security at risk.Apparently with her DIY e-mail server, Hillary’s main intention was to hide her communications with world powers and large businesses as she and Bill sold favors.Hillary couldn’t pass a background check for a security clearance at any level, even the lowest.(6) Work Record.Hillary was long First Lady in Arkansas, US First Lady for 8 years, a US Senator for 12 years, and US Secretary of State for 4 years. In all that time, she had a few, small accomplishments for the US and otherwise, e.g., HillaryCare, Libya, just massive failures.(8) Nasty.As from staff and others who know the private Hillary, she is one really nasty, selfish, self-centered, self-obsessed person.(9) Lying.Look up Hillary’s lies.She is a long term, consistent, habitual, highly accomplished liar, to Congress, the public, and more.(10) Trade.Hillary has long been for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Since Trump criticized her for that position, she has said that she is not for the TPP “in its present form” or some such. So, sure, that can mean that she will be for the TPP once there is a change in a comma.Some people stand to make money from the TPP, and Hillary’s record of selling favors is rock solid and can easily explain her support of the TPP.Bill signed NAFTA, and Hillary has supported it. As Perot predicted, NAFTA would result in businesses and jobs going to Mexico with “a giant sucking sound” — he was correct.(11) Open Borders.Hillary is for the Obama Administration’s position to have open borders, refuse to enforce our immigration laws, refuse to follow our long established procedures on vetting immigrants, etc.As an Obama Democrat, Hillary is for open borders for people who vote but don’t work. As someone selling favors, Hillary is for open borders for people who work but don’t vote. In both cases, Hillary is for a new, identifiable underclass too close to a new case of slavery and that will prove to be too darned expensive and worse for the US.(12) Supreme Court.Hillary would be nearly guaranteed to appoint to the US Supreme Court several justices who will make massive revisions to our Constitution to make new laws to support causes that liberals very much want but can’t win at the ballot box. Hillary would destroy much of our Constitution.With (1)-(12), just why any US citizen would be for Hillary for anything but jail, for the country or for themselves, escapes me. I’ll eagerly read rational responses.FutureAs the campaign continues, IMHO Trump will in very strong terms make totally clear to nearly every voter(A) what is seriously wrong with Hillary and, really, highly threating to our national security, economy, and country, e.g., (1)-(12),and(B) his policies that are much, much better for our national security, economy, and country.Is Trump able to do such work? In the Republican primaries, Trump, starting at the first debate where he was already in the center of the stage, kicked all 16 of his opponents well into the nickel seats.Doing the same for Hillary will be a lot easier.There is no chance that Hillary will win.Anyone who wants to see women rise in government should see Hillary as an example strongly harmful to their cause.With Hillary as President, there may be a lot of support to repeal the 19th amendment, to make sure no woman ever gets a security clearance, etc.!

    1. LE

      What Hillary did as Secretary of State with her e-mail is definitely “extremely careless”, that is, “gross negligence”, and, thus, wildly and massively in violation of part (f) of the US Espionage Act.The best was how she continued to repeat (and I hope she knows better) that since the server was physically secure (something like “my house has secret service protection”) that there is no chance of anything bad happening. I don’t know if she actually believes that (I mean Bush didn’t know about checkout scanners) or if she is just playing to the non tech proletariat who can related to such obvious stupidity.And yes they don’t have a marriage in any way shape or form it’s clear that Hillary is with Bill and Bill is with Hillary strictly as friends with political benefits.

      1. sigmaalgebra

        I’ve held US national security clearances at least as high as Secret, and my father, in the Pentagon, held clearances at least as high as Top Secret. For a while, Mom worked for one of the high Poobahs of the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA) — analytical support for the Joint Chiefs; her security clearance might have been higher than Top Secret, maybe too high to mention.In the Pentagon, Dad had a safe of file drawers, iron clad concrete, with a sign in front showing when the safe was open. His office was inspected at least nightly. All he ever had to do to lose his job was be out of his office with his safe unlocked or leave a piece of classified paper in a desk drawer. No ifs, ands, buts, excuses, second chances, etc. Instead, out’a there. They were NOT joking.Back onThursday, June 16th, 2016,on my development computer I ran the Microsoft Safety Scanner msert.exe. In a file on my boot drive msert.exe foundBackdoor:Win32/Qakbot.TAnyone who knew that that was there could have gotten anything and everything from my computer and also planted more viruses.I’ve tried to be careful, very careful, about malware, but, still, I got a virus. From where, how, I have no idea or any very good way to find out.Last night I ran the latest version (Microsoft updates msert.exe frequently, from the file sizes, apparently at least once a day, and won’t run a version more than 10 days old) of msert.exe for about 10 hours; no viruses were found.Just what the security holes are in current end-user computers is very much not clear. Sure, the US NSA, some of the Russians, Chinese, English, French, Germans, etc. likely know a lot that is darned tough for anyone else to find.And that’s some of why the US Federal Government is darned careful with digital systems.First cut, ballpark, common sense, e.g.,Backdoor:Win32/Qakbot.Tevery byte on Hillary’s e-mail server went to the US NSA, China, Russia, England, Germany, etc.Hillary is a grand disaster to US national security and, really, a “clear and present danger”.As has long been understood, blackmail is one of the threats; likely if Hillary were ever to serve in office again, she would be wide open to blackmail from China, Russia, etc.Uh, for the 33,000 deleted Hillary e-mails, maybe call up Putin and ask for a favor or just take a drive from DC up the B-W parkway and turn right near Laurel, MD.

  24. Nigel Sharp

    Definitely feeling the tide turn

  25. Barry Houldsworth

    One thing that seems to be missing from this discussion is the other side of the coin. Women absolutely have challenges when it comes to rising, although right now my main client and her COO are women, so it is getting there.But I speak from experience when I say that being a stay at home Dad isn’t easy to do. There is just as much exclusionary behavior, perhaps even more since there are really no regulations against it and no one sends Moms on diversity courses.We had a period where my wife took the role of the bread winner (she’s smarter than me anyway) and I took the role of primary caregiver for our three children.I’m a friendly and sociable person but while waiting for my kids on the playground I would most often end up standing alone while the Moms chatted nearby, even though I knew all of them. I was excluded from many of the school activities – either directly because “we didn’t think you would be interested” or indirectly since they put out requests for things like “Class Mom” instead of “Class parent”.Roles should not be defined by gender but there are only so many jobs to go around. If we want to make space for women in the workplace we need work just as hard to make space for men at home.