Readings on “Opertion Pipeline” and “Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership”

Readings on “Opertion Pipeline” and “Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership”
Becky Grau

In the operation pipeline reading I thought I was very interesting that they created a website that would allow third-party nominations for women to get them started on a political career path. Being a woman in politics is tough, I knew the statistics of women leaders in government positions were a low ratio but I had no idea that they were only 9 of 50 Governors, only 16% of the Congressional seats, only 16 of 50 in the senate and ONLY 73 of 433 seats in the house. The senate seams to be the closest to 50% equal and we’re still 9 off.
I felt a great similarity when they had the direct quote from Primavera that talked about her being at home with her fuzzy slippers with her kids and she just felt regular but the opposite when she was gliding through the marble halls of the gold-domed statehouse. It makes you feel like its ok to still be the wife, girlfriend, mom, sister, the family-woman, but you can also be the head-strong politician.
In reading the “Women and the Labyrinth of Leadership” I was shocked to find women tend to only make 81cents for every dollar a man mad. So if a man made $100 a week, we only made $81!!! The higher you go, the less we make compared to them! I just couldn’t believe it. However they pose a good question, is it racist? Or is it that the family life at home allows for men to commit longer hours and times and there fore tenure and commitment allow men to make more the women? I would like to think it is not racist ideas that allow us to make less, but at the same time more women are taking the single and successful route now and finding that the husband and family come later on.
Both readings were very interesting and had a lot to do with real life situations and down-to earth women and he stereotypes we face every day in the workforce.