Young Women on the Job

The days of DEI are passing away, and not a moment too soon. Hiring and promoting on the basis of race or gender cannot possibly advance corporate efficiency. Discrimination against white and Asian males does not necessarily produce more corporate profits. And it undermines the work ethic, to the point where in everyday parlance, DEI now stands for-- didn’t earn it.

The Wall Street Journal has published a standard issue complaint about the lack of women at the top of corporations. It does not offer another explanation beyond bigotry. It does not ask whether women want those jobs, whether they are willing to do what is needed to earn those jobs, whether they command the respect of their subordinates and whether their performance is worthy of the exalted corporate titles.

Corporations are in the business of producing goods and services, and earning a profit. Why did anyone think that these companies are sabotaging themselves by hiring and promoting white males, in order to undermine their profitability.  

Ought we really to be surprised to discover, reported by the Journal, that women have largely limited their advances to human resources and marketing. Exception given for a certain presidential candidate, one who most certainly did not earn it.

One does not like to have to mention it, but nowhere in the article does the author remark that some of these incipient female executives might have children at home and might decide to spend more time with their offspring.

Of course, the article assumes that men and women should be represented equally at all levels of the corporate hierarchy.

That means, the failure to institute equality must mean that some serious prejudice is afoot. The only explanation is bigotry, i.e., sexism. Young women who are raised on this feminist swill must come away thinking that the corporate world is stacked against them. And they act accordingly.

Dare we say, the Journal never asks any questions about the work ethic of the women who are not being promoted. Has feminism made them better workers or has feminism made them insufferable?

Zoe Strimpel describes young Gen Z women in The Spectator. She invents a new fiction, a woman named Keffiyeh Karen.

In her ready and confident fury, her rudeness, her iron-fisted appetite for confrontation over infractions of what she deems political and moral gospel, the Keffiyeh Karen is related to a broader epidemic of the Gen Z Mean Girl. These Mean Girls have graduated from running the schoolyard to terrorizing the workplace. If there is one type to be afraid of in modern offices, it isn’t the lech or the shouty, hungover male middle manager. It’s the twenty-three-year-old gluten-free vegan graduate, wet behind the ears. We know what these misanthropic misses are capable of — we’ve seen the Phoebes and Annas of Just Stop Oil chuck soup on Van Gogh.

Would you want to promote someone who behaved this way? Is such a woman preparing herself for the executive suite or is she one step from being fired.

Strimpel continues, describing Gen Z, or at least the British version:

Several good friends of mine who work in corporate settings have told me tales to chill the blood — women in their early twenties conducting bullying campaigns, being proudly insubordinate to their bosses. They never face consequences.

Insubordinate, disrespectful, full of themselves, incapable of cooperating. They do not face consequence because any overt rejection will be taken to be a sign of deep seated bigotry. Strimpel also connects it to the #MeToo movement:

But in setting up a “guilty because I say so” system, turning Twitter into an open-air arena in which slander and accusation took on rapid real-life consequences and gave the accuser instant power and fame, #MeToo armed young women with new and magnificent powers to accuse and destroy.

The word for this is-- empowered. Strangely, these strong empowered women do not know how to work together with other people in a corporate setting. And then they do not get promoted, and, they have something to complain about. It’s a saving grace, since complaining is their primary social skill.