Women and Leadership: Can we really have it all?

This is a very interesting issue to me. The disparity between men and women in the workplace in terms of both leadership and pay has been fairly well-documented in both research and demographic information over the years. A recent report from the National Women's Law Center to the more recent report that the White House Council on the Status of Women and Girls released last week, financial inequality for women in the workplace is common. Often, this is due to the "family gap" or the difference in earning power of women who are primary caretakers for children and those who are not. A British study from the late 1980s found that the single women actually make 95% of what men make, while married women who care for their families fall significantly further behind.

There are many more factors that go into this debacle. I was really intrigued by the last paragraph or two of Browne's essay. His entire arugment hinges on this idea of agency and differing types of equality. Does equity for women in terms of leadership mean that they be given the same choices that men are, and that the results are non-correlative to the equality of choice and opportunity that men and women are given. While, in a utopian world, these arguments may hold true, I don't think an assertion of this nature can be made until the cultural, social, and structural violence and discrimination against women in completely removed from American society.

1. What is the biggest factor that prevents women from rising to positions of leadership?

2. Do women who become leaders face harsh judgement? Can a women be an effective leader while retaining all of her feminine qualities and satisfying the gender roleplay that society expects from her?

3. How does a dearth of female leaders affect our culture?