March 8th, 2011 marked the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day.
I have to confess my aversion to such holidays. Why do we need designated days to appreciate mothers, fathers, love, Earth, women? It's like we treat them badly all year long and then try to make up for it in a single day.
The Women's Day also troubles me because of its Socialist origins. However, it provides an opportunity to raise issues of social and professional inequality. If we have to choose between one day of awareness vs. none, of course, one is a better choice.
Especially, if A-list stars like Daniel Craig and Judi Dench commemorate it with a video for Equals? partnership. Watch it: Dame Judi spends two minutes reciting statistics of global-scale injustice. It's important, but may create an illusion of remoteness. When she says that women perform 2/3 of work, but earn only 10% of income and own 1% of property, surely, it accounts for all those "other" countries.
Well, are we equal to our male counterparts here, in corporate America?
Let's see. The pay gap is still 19%. Let me spell it out: a female CFO or Controller will make 81 cents against a dollar earned by a man in the same position. Among the Fortune 500 companies, only 9% of CFOs are female. The same goes for Midcap 1500… Enough of this lifeless statistical data. Let me pull few examples out of my personal experience folder.
The brightest auditor I've known was assigned to my books by the CPA firm I've engaged about eight years ago. Every time I praise her to the senior partner, he tells me that she knows ten times more than he does. At one point I asked, when she was going to make a partner? The answer was, "Well, the company never had a female partner before…"
For many years I've been invited to participate in executive focus groups. Banks are particularly interested in researching opinions of CFOs, Controllers and Treasurers. There is never more than 25% of women in a group. Once, when the subject was Board of Directors' accounting awareness, I was the only female participant.
Speaking of BODs, during internet bubble I worked for a high-tech start-up backed by venture capital. The investors had their hands in a lot of businesses, which forced them onto a merry-go-round of board meetings. They were freshly surprised every time I presented monthly results. All other investees had male CFOs.
Five years ago I was asked by my boss to give up my CFO office for a newly hired COO. What made this person more important than me? Nothing at all, except for his gender. The boss said, "I just cannot put him into a smaller office." Really? This big shot spent most of his time just staring out of the window.
Notice how cleverly the Equals? video is set up: even though M is 007's boss, she would never get away with shenanigans that make James Bond so endearing to the world. So, no, we are not equal.
The Frustrated CFO 