Women and their enemy within

Yahoo recently held a get-together for the girl geeks in Bangalore and the topic of discussion for the evening was, ‘Are girls considered geeky enough to climb the corporate ladder?’. Quite frankly, I was appalled at the choice of topic. considered geeky?  Considered by whom – women themselves? men? society? Yahoo management? To me, the topic read as: ‘Are girls competent enough to climb the corporate ladder’. I was quite dismayed that such a  non-starter of a topic was churned out right under Carol’s nose. As much as Yahoo wanted to help women and their cause, this was a self-defeating attempt

Oddly enough, I was quite convinced that the topic was unanimously chosen by a bunch of women. For one, no man would have the pluck to propose such a topic for the fear of being dismissed as a sexist. And another, I have noticed a curious predilection among many women to blindly believe in the magnificence of the opposite gender yet not of their own.

A woman’s assessment of self is never grand. Rather, it is staggeringly modest; modest to the point of being self-deprecating. And, this is precisely where the rub lies. This is exactly what makes me believe most of women’s problems are self-invented.

Questions about women – their role in corporates and society are not idle; they are very pertinent to the progress of our society. But, if we are to really turn the corner, women should learn to look within; and fight the enemy within. Had the women behind the event fought their enemies within, they would have come up with more relevant topics for discussion like: Advantages of having more women at the top or why there aren’t already more women at the top.