There is a refreshingly honest
interview with
Jacqueline Novogratz,
CEO of Acumen Fund.
In it,
she discusses parental leave…
“I have four brothers who all work on Wall Street,
and I remember when
one of my brothers’ wife had a child.
And I said,
“Well, is there, you know, paternity leave?”
And he said,
“Oh, yeah.
We have the most liberal paternity leave
on Wall Street—
but I would never take it,
because if I did,
everybody would think I was, you know, wimpy.”
And I think there’s great truth to that.”
I once sat in a board room
while execs discussed an opening.
A woman was considered
and then dismissed
for the position
because she was in her child bearing years
and recently got married.
The first step to solving a problem
is admitting there IS a problem.
If you’re female,
under 40 years old,
and wish to sit in the C-Suite,
address the child issue head on.
I don’t even want kids, but the fact that this could be happening to friends of mine, all in our mid to late 20’s is so infuriating.
Settle for a worse candidate because they are male? What if that female candidate brought in millions for the business and only cost a tiny fraction of that while out for maternity leave? Doesn’t that outweigh having a body at a desk for the duration of the maternity leave?
People have some messed up priorities.