OK, I haven't thrown a good tantrum for a while, so this is long overdue.
But first - some business news from Australia. We have four "major" banks here, and one of them just appointed a new CEO. Generally this sort of news only appears in the business pages of the newspapers, but this particular case was a big deal. This is because the new CEO of the Westpac Banking Corporation is a woman, Gail Kelly.
Gail Kelly, newly appointed CEO of Westpac.
I'm disappointed about this.
My disappointment is not that Ms Kelly is the new CEO - I've worked in banking and insurance long enough to know that she is highly respected and that she turned St George Bank (where she was previously the CEO) into a streamlined and profitable entity. It was no secret that a number of Australia's largest companies were very keen to sign her up, and Westpac now consider themselves fortunate.
NO, I am disappointed because I checked my watch this morning and it's apparently 2007. Yet in 2007 the fact that a woman takes the helm of a major corporation is still unusual enough to make headlines. She is, sadly, very much alone in the Australian business world.
Frankly, I'd like to live in a world where the fact that a CEO is female isn't regarded as particularly interesting or newsworthy. But it definitely still is.
In the 80's Maggie Thatcher was elected prime minister of the U.K., the first female leader of a major western democracy. At the time it was mooted as the "end of the era where women were secondary". But her leadership was an aberration for the most part. Women are still very minor players in business, politics and academia. And I'm sitting here asking myself why there has been so little change in the past twenty-five years.
Here's some movie trivia for you. The gender balance of all of the directors being graduated from the major film schools is pretty much even. Yet the percentage of Hollywood films made by female directors last year was only 4%. And only three women have ever received a 'Best Director' Oscar nomination (none have won it).
I have no idea what the causes are or what the answer is. I could rattle off the traditional platitudes - "glass ceiling", "business is a boy's club", "women take the primary caregiver roles", "lack of opportunity", etc. They're probably all true. I just wish it wasn't and I'm frustrated by why it is still this way.
One thing I will say though, is that we just don't celebrate women who achieve in these areas. Some token acknowledgement of Oprah happens, but did you know that Fortune Magazine only ranks Oprah as the 8th most powerful businesswoman in America? This means there are seven women regarded as more powerful than her, and I will bet that you can't name any of them. (Here's a link if you want to look them all up.) The CEO's of major companies like Pepsi, Xerox and Kraft are in there.
But we sure as hell celebrate Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan. Vapid minds and nubile eroticism are the hallmarks of female achievement in our media-obsessed age. Young girls are constantly being told that their sexuality is their only significant asset.
Here's a comedy skit which lampoons attitudes from an era which is supposedly "bygone".
But with everything I see in the media today, I'm not convinced that this message is so out-dated.
Addendum: Glen (AKA Mr Belligerent) raises the interesting observation that, for the most part, women are the better bloggers on MySpace. Anyone agree?
Second addendum: I can't think of a way to justify including this video given the blog topic, but it's just too damn funny not to. Yes I'm being cruel, yes I'm being insensitive. So sue me. At least she is cute.
*UPDATE* An addendum to the addendum... Apparently Miss South Carolina isn't as dumb as she looks. She says she just had a brain lock at that particular moment. She defends herself quite eloquently in this NBC interview.