Douglas M. Branson
87 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1061
The women’s movement has been with us for approximately 50 years. Women are airline pilots, police officers, engineers, fire fighters, physicians, and veterinarians. By contrast, the progress to corporate senior executive positions has been paltry, in fits and starts, at best in baby steps. Ascendant males would tell you that women have made no business case for increasing the number of female executives. In response, this Article contends that the focus, exclusively upon women themselves, is all wrong. The focus should be on corporations themselves, the employers, and not exclusively on aspiring women. Beyond lip service, corporations have done little, throwing a few dollars at STEM programs that may lead to a first or second position, but not to leadership roles. Information technology empirical studies show that of the measly 4.8% of executive positions women hold, only two are held by women with STEM degrees. All of the remaining 25 female executives have law or business degrees with MBAs predominating. The tech industry attempts to crowd out women completely, by hiring males from foreign countries who enter the United States with H1-B visas that allow them to stay for six years and often permanently. It is high time for corporations themselves to undertake concrete steps of the nature with which this Article concludes.
