Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/61371
From Editors the All Aboard friend are not the only ones who favor a secondary status for women. After all the advances in civil rights and changes in social mores, after the onslaught of women in the workforce, in education, in politics, there are still large portions of the worldwide population who cannot entertain the idea of genuine equality between the sexes. This can hardly come as a shock to business educators, who have consistently cover that somewomen arenot only sitting on theboard, they'rerunning thecom- pany—and they have a great many insights into the way that business should be done. Shirley Choi, CEO of Seapower Manufacturing Hong Kong Ltd., knows that even a relatively small, family-run business must find new partners, cut unprofitable divisions, and stress teamwork across departments. She also believes that top busi- ness leaders must practice corporate social responsibility even as they work to change and improve their own national cultures. Interestingly enough, like my grandmother's friend, Shirley Choi lives in Hong seen their classrooms weighted toward male students and who have watched some of their most promising female graduates grow disillusioned with the corporate world. In the article "Women on Board," Pat Flynn and Susan Adams of Bentley College provide a rather grim picture of women's participation in the higher eche- lons of the workforce. Women hold fewer than 14 percent of the board seats in Fortune 500 companies. Almost 11 percent of U.S. companies have no women directors at all. The numbers are worse in other countries. Corporations with no women on their boards account for half the companies in the U.K., three-quarters of the companies in Spain, and almost 100 percent of the companies in Japan. Against such a discouraging backdrop, however, it's even more delightful to dis- Kong. So in thesamecity whereonewoman withdraws from institutional power, another one thrives on it. This coincidence gives me renewed hope and leads me to believe that change is not only possible, but fated. It is by turns slow, cumbersome, mocked, argued, denied, celebrated, reversed, encouraged, invisible, blatant, and messy. But it comes.s z I recently received an e-mail from a very distant connection, a friend of my grandmother's who somehow had me on her distribution list. She announced that she was leaving an institution with which she had long-standing ties because the board had chosen a woman for its new director. It's hard for me to understand the point of view of my grandmother's friend—perhaps because we have so little in common. She's 40 years older than I am; she lives in Hong Kong; she belongs to a Christian denomination that considers women subordinate to men. Myself, I received a gift subscription to Ms. magazine when I was 13; I've been a feminist since I could think. I literally can't comprehend the idea that women should be considered unsuitable for any task. Still, the sad truth is that older, traditional individuals like my grandmother's 6 BizEd SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2004 BILL BASCOM