The Gender Game

I caught myself playing the quota games last evening. “You need a woman in this venture…” I told a guy acquaintance as we were discussing the objectives of a particular enterprise. Of course it had to do with business and high tech as well – but thinking back I am annoyed at myself for stating the obvious. Did I mean that his project was clearly lacking women contributors – and of course it did – but what was it that I meant exactly? He knew it and acknowledged it immediately and we both shook our heads – partly embarrassed at the realization that perhaps finding the right women for this particular project was a bit of a challenge.

And in hindsight, this is where I realized I said and probably meant the wrong thing. I do believe that gender is symptomatic in this case. The job requirements apply to a dozen individuals I know – men and women equally. Yet, the appearance of homogeneity and equality forces us to stop and think about what the differences are, how we feel vs. think, how we look vs. how we really are (Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus typologies need not apply here please). Is there really a difference in viewpoint between men and women? Or is it the experience, educational background, psychographics, personal and family history and everything else that colors the actual oratory view point?

And the question is so simple really: having diversity of any form, Muslim, gay, Buddhist, female, handicapped, senior citizen, soccer fanatic and anything in between –be a competitive advantage or like in some exclusive and greatly segmented businesses, it would be totally irrelevant and useless? And can we use the same prescription for all maladies?

I don’t want to turn this into a feminist or diversity post. I have been in male dominated environments all my life – often being the only woman in board rooms and conference rooms in countries where the western concepts and politically correct habitual mores are nowhere to be seen. I have never felt harassed, different or terribly female – my power, self-assurance and absurdly low timidity have always been on my side in this domain. Yet, as an observant of business life – correction – life in general – I pause and listen to the pulse. Being open and expressive allows for dialogue – manylogue – if it’s between many instead of only two participants.

And I love the plurality – so, I decided to forgive my transgression and happily join the forum…Happy New Year, gals and guys!

This entry was posted on December 30, 2010 at 7:18 pm and is filed under Diversity, Featured, Gender, Workplace. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.