Introduction
This morning I read an article in the New York Times titled “As Layoffs Surge, Women May Pass Men In The Workforce”. Although a surprise to many, it was not shocking to me as business writers such as Tom Peters, who in my opinion was way ahead of his time in his writing of Re-imagine!, have been predicting this sort of shift for years. This article reflects upon my experience of working with women in the past and present, my opinion of this article, as well as insights drawn upon the two.

The Glass Ceiling
For years many have been discussing the “glass ceiling” that may have existed for women in corporate America. Men have historically made more than women for performing the same task, at least if one is to believe the reported surveys and labor statistics.  To some extent this has always made sense to me, not because it was right or even sexist but mainly due to the history of our country and associated traditions.

Since the founding of the country it was not acceptable for a woman to participate in the workforce due to traditionally assigned gender roles. In addition, there is a certain biological instinct leaning towards traditional gender roles – women to nest and men to produce, check out “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus” by Dr. John Gray for more insight into this. However this shifted during the World Wars, mainly due to the necessity – most able bodied men were off fighting the wars. Women had to take the mantle of responsibility and keep the front lines supported and successfully did so, therefore earning a much deserved place in American history and industry.

My rationale behind the glass ceiling is that because men are biologically tuned to have an instinct towards productivity, in many instances our state of mind is linked to how much we produce and results achieved, and that we have been playing the industrial game for generations, we had the natural inclination, practice, and people were accustomed to seeing men in leadership positions in this country. People generally like what they are used to, and people were just used to seeing men in leadership positions, at least in this country.

Take the current presidency for example. There would have been a time when having women candidates for the President or Vice President would have been too much for the average American to handle – it simply would have been too risky for a serious contender to consider. The same could be said for an African American candidate. However, the former we may not have been ready for, but obviously the latter we are, if the election results are any indication of our readiness and acceptance of change. Although now that our country has been exposed to seeing female candidates for the top two positions in government I believe this will be more readily accepted and even lead to the election of a female President – it is only a matter of time.

The purpose of this article is not to debate whether this ceiling existed, as in my experience I have found that like most other things, it is advantageous to be of a certain gender or background in various situations – being  a Caucasian male with military service was likely to my advantage when applying to a defense contractor as my first position out of military. However, years later when another employer was specifically seeking candidates with diverse ethnic backgrounds and female gender to satisfy government diversity desires – it certainly was not to my advantage to be a white male – and employment offers and conditions reflected this. My point is this – your strength can be your weakness, and vice versa – it is all context dependent. Let’s discuss this further.