Q. What is more futile than pushing a pile of runny shit uphill with a pitchfork?

A. Trying to get equal representation of men and women in management roles in the workforce.


Never gonna happen. I’ll tell you why.


OK – riddle me this. You need a new car. You find two exact same models but one is cheaper. Which one do you buy? Well duh, the cheaper one yes?? We aren’t stupid. Apart from the odd what I like to call “free-range egg value” where we agree to pay a little more for a greater good, we live and thrive in a capitalist, consumer driven society and we cannot deny it. We shop around for the best price, the best deal, what’s in it for me with every purchase we make. Sadly, this behaviour is what prevents many women from a fair go at a Managerial level of employment.


Let me explain.


Let’s pretend you are the CEO of a large company. You advertise for a Senior Manager position which requires some basic company orientation and training. Your last two applicants standing are a 30 year old male and a 30 year old female, both with the SAME credentials, the SAME experience and the SAME positive attitude. They have both just gotten married and neither have children.


Who do you choose??


Your answer is the reason why women will NEVER get a fair go in employment. This is because the race was never fair to start with. Where is it fair for a company to hire a person, only to have them go on maternity leave after 12 months, require their position be available to them after 12 months, thus hiring someone else on a temporary basis who still needs the same training again, and then if the original employee no longer want this position after 12 months the company must find another position found for them at the same company, thus forcing yet another person be found and trained for the original position? If they hired the bloke, then this scenario doesn’t exist and the company saves money. Lots of it. Heaps. They can produce their product at a cheaper price and are still in the rat-race for shelf space. It simply doesn’t make financial sense to choose the woman over the man in the above scenario. A savvy CEO would never do it. In fact, they would be deemed to be negligent in their job if they were to hire the woman in the previous scenario.


So – we can bitch and moan about the glass ceiling and all that jazz. We can cry that’s its sexist and it shouldn’t be allowed to happen. We can sue for discrimination and cite the low percentage of women in managerial roles, but reality suggests that 
we, as consumers, are really the ones to blame 
for this predicament. As long as we keep demanding our produce at the cheapest possible prices, whilst also insisting to be compensated for having children, companies will always be looking for cheaper methods of production and this includes the hiring of senior staff. The reality of living in and enjoying the benefits of a capitalist world is that women, who come with working ovaries, will never get a fair deal. We really can’t have it all.


It’s just the way it is.


Get over it and enjoy your $10 six piece towel set.


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