Discrimination and the woman executive

Abstract

Business and the service professions are competing for the well-educated, well-adjusted, highly motivated employee or manager. There will not be enough to go around, and society will have to develop a natural resource that it is now exploiting—that group of women capable of qualifying for executive positions. The author describes her experience in the medical world, where women are better tolerated than in other fields, but notes that few are represented in executive positions. The obstacle lies in society's attitudes, social and economic, and the fundamental visceral approach, a carry over from two million years ago when ancient cooperative male hunting groups were necessary for survival. Sometimes, women can turn this response to their advantage.