In the real world, women do have to make many difficult decisions, including the one regarding career versus personal achievements in areas like family. Meanwhile, many corporate policies may stunt their progress in attaining a healthy, forward-looking balance in two important life experiences, particularly advancing their careers.
Along those lines, Mayer’s move to ban working from home hones in on that theory as many why women sacrifice one type of achievement for another. Work and the rest of life’s rewards shouldn’t have to be at cross-purposes.
Flexibility can help women excel since they wouldn’t feel forced to give up their jobs or advancements for several years. In that light, the fact that Mayer herself was hired while pregnant and has built an adjoining nursery to her office simply sounds like a stale prevailing CEO attitude: that they deserve much more than other people due to their status.
Why diversity works
For those of us who crave more diversity in the workforce, an important modern factor that transcends beyond traditional feminism isn’t that such individuals can be exactly the same as traditionally male counterparts.
A big element here is that women bring different strengths to the table, like reduced risk-taking, long-term thinking, and other factors that are backed up by studies. It would be nice to see extremely high-profile women like Sandberg and Mayer take a stand for truly shaking up the status quo in leadership positions.
Again, data and studies show that cognitive diversity — a shoo-in when workforces include women and minorities — actually boosts long-term business success and stock returns. Although people of any gender or race can do wonderfully or poorly at their jobs, the upshot of successful diversity is to bring far more diverse perspectives to the table in order to form the most robust, competitive companies.
The spotlight is on, but let the inner lights shine
The spotlight’s currently on female heavyweights, and everybody’s got their eye on people like Mayer, Whitman, and Sandberg, and whether they excel at their admittedly challenging jobs or languish. I’d venture to guess that some folks out there are hoping they will fail, which I doubt they’d admit in cocktail party conversation.
I’m personally looking forward to reading Sandberg’s book, and I’m going to be on the lookout as to how Mayer’s leadership will pan out for Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO). Perhaps today’s doubts and critiques of these women will be proven wrong.
Still, I’m hoping for more female leaders who boldly bring about positive changes, both to their companies and the promise of more diverse workforces in general. Let’s not be afraid to be different, or ashamed of our individual strengths. The future leadership needs diverse, positive role models who aren’t afraid to let their true lights shine.
The article Female Leaders: Lots of Talk, Little Progress originally appeared on Fool.com.
Alyce Lomax has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Berkshire Hathaway, eBay, and Facebook. The Motley Fool owns shares of Berkshire Hathaway, Citigroup Inc (NYSE:C) , eBay, Facebook, and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM)..
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