[jeffio]

If you look at fortune 500 companies, most are run by tall, old white men over 50. The reality in today's world is that if you're a short black woman (for example), you're up against huge discrimination that runs deep in mainstream society.

I found this article the other day that Female Fortune 500 CEOs were at an "all time high". Female CEOs represent just about 3.6% of Fortune 500 company heads. That's 18, a new record. And it's not a very multicultural bunch: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/26/female-fortune-500-...

The issue is not "crap", it's a very real issue that a lot of people experience every day. Thank-you to Brad Feld for putting the spotlight on this issue into the tech world, at least for a few hours.

[virmundi]

Not to exclude racism from the picture, but look at the requirements profferred for CEO: experience in the field, wisdom and experience in a management position. Given this it makes sense that many CEOs would be white males in their 50s. They have experience in the field. They should have gotten wise (though, that's anybody's guess). They would have had management experience during their 30s and 40s. So the question is how many, as you said, short black women were looking to be CEOs of a F500 company 30 years ago when they were in their 20s? Probably not that many. Given that there are only a tiny number of F500 CEO positions (500 or so), that small initial population is competing with a large pool of white men, men in general and taller, non black women.

It will be interesting to look at CEO ratios in 20-30 years. That's about the time you'll start seeing women (more in the work force now then every, especially better educated) start to have the paper credentials to fill those roles.