It doesn't happen every day

To what degree does it matter being a woman in today's world?
This post is not going to be one of those where I go on and on about how great it is to be a woman, how great it feels to be able to give birth to a child, how sensitive and insightful we women are, how men would be lost without us...No, this post will only focus on what it means to be a woman in today's business world: is it fair? are we being discriminated against? are we given a hint to go back to our vacuum cleaners? or are WE our worst enemy?

I honestly have to say that I have been outraged when Eva Herman published her new book "Das Eva Prinzip". I haven't read the whole book myself (how could I when I was freaking out just hearing that it was on the bookstands???), but I have read the introduction and what the book wants to accomplish. Basically Ms. Herman puts it like this: Feminism was a horrible, women-misleading mistake. Nowadays women are not only emancipated, but also frustrated and more helpless than they ever were before. Do you see now why my blood pressure went up just by reading a title? (I'm telling you, there are not a lot of books out there which can achieve that).
But let's go back to the poor helpless, frustrated, running in the dark-woman (does she suggest we need a man to light up a candle and guide us?). Ms. Herman strongly believes that women today feel that they are loosing / lost something along the way, meaning their happiness; they forgot to be feminine and have passed the opportunity to have children. So in her book she sets forth to shed some light for the "oh so lost" human being (we can't call her a woman anymore, can we, since she has no children, isn't feminine?) and promises to solve the dilemma, by showing us "what is really important". Ok, I have to admit, I was kind of curious to read what she thinks is important, but I figured I'm only 23, I don't want to be taking pills for my "after reading this book all I got is a heart condition".
The author goes on to say that she discovered the reason why many women suffer from postpartal depression: it is again this crule world which twisted the woman's senses and now because of it, the poor woman is suffering from depression because she is not able to mentally connect with her baby. Why? Because the world has disrupted this bond. Wow, then we should introduce Eva Herman to the millions of doctors all over the world, to help them with their diagnosis. Who knows, maybe she'll even find a cure for other depressions as well.

So dear readers, to sum up, you got what she wanted to say: women whould concentrate on having children, educating them, taking care of the household and stop longing for a Vice President Position in a company or even worse (CFO, CEO, pick a box). Who needs that when you can wake up every morning, put your apron on and be the CEO of your own household? Do not get me wrong, I respect every woman's decision: if she wants to stay home and take care first hand of her children and their education, she is 100% entitled to do so, and no one should judge her. But having a career, wanting both kinds and work-related satisfaction, does not make the rest of us heartless, disoriented, frustrated, lonely, childless, or irresponsible.

What Eva Herman states in her book comes to join a long list of facts that show us that women in the business world today have to proove themselves even more than their male friends. Like women hadn't had it pretty rough already...

This brings me to the second part of my post, the study conducted by Catalyst, "the leading nonprofit research and advisory organization working to expand opportunities for women at work". Cutting to the chase, these are some of the results:
- more than one-half of the Fortune 500 companies have fewer than three women corporate officers
- Only eight companies in the Fortune 500 were led by a woman CEO in 2005, and none of those companies were among the Fortune 100
- Women held only 6.4 percent of top earner positions
- And fully 75 percent of Fortune 500 companies reported no women as top earners.

I'm not surprised of the results, I mean, the poor women in today's world are so confused, they couldn't even find their way to those companies, right? :-)