Why EEOC rules and government mandates aren’t the answer

Today’s blog is an extension of the previous edition as to why it is not a good idea for the government or regulatory agencies to issue sweeping mandates. Yesterday I had a conversation with an acquaintance of mine. He asked me what was exciting and I replied by telling him my book – Women Under Glass – is doing very well. He didn’t know I had a book published and asked what it was about.

“Helping women get through glass ceilings in business,” I said.
He recoiled and his demeanor changed immediately. “I was forced out of [Fortune 500 company] because of EEOC. That stuff is all baloney.”

I asked him to elaborate. He said that a vice-president had left the company and rather than the usual six-month posting and search period, the company had appointed a woman within a few days. When my friend asked the new VP’s superior about why such a rush and why this woman was appointed rather than a search process conducted, he got a frosty answer, some comment about EEOC, and then grilled as to why he thought he was more qualified than she. The new female VP got wind of it and made my friend’s life so uncomfortable – she was now his boss – he chose to leave the company and a successful career there.

I told my friend that his story is the reason I favor grassroots efforts rather than sweeping, generic mandates. From this point forward, any time he hears about “glass ceilings” he will automatically have a negative reaction and be disinclined to be sympathetic to the plight of women struggling to break through glass ceilings. Mandates even the scales but they do not change the perceptions or attitudes of the men who have to work with or work for the women put into place by the government’s “magic wand.” As I continue to write and speak on the issue of glass ceilings I know there will be push back from men like my friend who don’t either believe in glass ceilings or have a negative experience based on a mandate.

My friend, when he listened to my perspective on the grassroots approach, opened up and talked more positively. It is my belief that we who want to smash glass ceilings will have to do so by changing hearts and minds, not using governmental crowbars to pry men out of positions they hold or wish to hold.