[kqland]

And that's why we must understand that at executive level gender does not matter. What matters is strategy and ability to execute. When HP announced "Meg Whitman" as CEO everyone was so voraciously attacking how HP is is being in bad condition because of male CEOs. Being male does not matter. Whitman has failed tremendously. Not only HP has laid off thousands of people from US ( some of them I knew personally very well ) and increased offshoring in India and Philippines but also they now seriously lack true culture of invention. I studied APM at Stanford and HP case study was presented repeatedly as how it went from Inventor's Org. to control structured Org. I was recruiting at major ( top 20 ) universities and from many places I got feedback that young people deliberately avoid joining HP. Those who have left in HP are in survival mode and always worrying if they are next in round of layoffs.

So when feminists advocates claim that female CEOs are better than male CEO answer is simply NO. At highest level you want someone who can not only steer the ship but take everyone along with you without loosing them.

If I was major investor in HP, first thing I would ask is Whitman be removed from CEO position. Get new energy in. Since cultural changes don't happen overnight implement strategies to go from Operational ( Control ) based Organization to Inventor's Org.

I will certainly not consider next CEO based on gender and would not bring someone in just because she has vagina.

PS - Sorry if this came as too bold but I could not resist myself.

[hackuser]

> Sorry if this came as too bold but I could not resist myself.

No need to apologize, and the problem isn't boldness but what I think is a lack of factual basis and a bit of a rant:

1) I haven't seen anyone, including feminists, claim that female CEOs are better and certainly not that they are necessarily good managers (I'm sure you can find someone to back any statement, but it's certainly a very small minority).

2) You imply Whitman was chosen to run HP because of her gender Do you have evidence? At least she has a very impressive resume and is fully qualified. EDIT: And you imply that people with the opinion in #1 caused that to happen; it's very hard to believe that is true or that they even have the influence to affect the choice of HP's CEO.

3) The necessary assumptions behind #1 and #2 make your statement read as if you believe there is some sort of conspiracy favoring women in tech and you are pushing against it. I'm not saying you believe that, but the argument looks that way.

If there is a conspiracy to promote women in tech, it is doing very poorly.

I agree with this statement: Cultural changes don't happen overnight.

[kqland]

Oh, did I hurt feminist inside you ? Here are claims[0] from prominent national news organization and many many reputed sources.

So that addresses your question #1.

#2. You are twisting the words. I said when "When HP announced "Meg Whitman" as CEO everyone was so voraciously attacking how HP is is being in bad condition because of male CEOs". It is not same thing as saying Whitman was chosen because of her gender. My point still stands though. In her tenure of last three years she has failed to turn around HP from lost focus despite whatever claim you see. Here is latest news on more layoffs from May [1] So she is doing no wonder than some male in same position being as CEO.

#3. I don't know about conspiracies and I would never see myself assimilate with one. But, here is thing I can tell you. Circle of powerful people do definitely want more women in powerful position. HP, Yahoo, IBM, Oracle( recently ) on and on. I don't know if these efforts are to get more women in tech industry or something else but there are sustained efforts across US for sure.

Regarding your claim "few women in tech industry " is blatantly false. I worked for four Org. on east coast. 8 out of 10 IT managers are women. 7 out of 10 women in mid to senior level mangagement up to VP.

This is not case of any one company , rather I would say there are more women in management than men.

I don't form my opinion from sustained campaigns run by someone and I certainly look far beyond San Francisco hypocrites.

[0] https://www.google.com/#q=woman%2B+ceo%2Bbetter%2B+than%2B+m...

[1] http://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/hp-plans-more-...

[krylon]

> If there is a conspiracy to promote women in tech, it is doing very poorly.

Sad but true.

[bitwize]

An example from earlier in HP's history:

When Carly Fiorina was ousted from the company she wrote a book all about how she was despised at HP for being a woman in charge of a major engineering firm. But being a woman had nothing to do with it; being an idiot who didn't understand engineering culture and who damn well nearly broke the company had everything to do with it. Steve Ballmer was ousted from Microsoft for similar reasons.

[hackuser]

> But being a woman had nothing to do with it

I don't know the facts of Fiorina's experience but from what I understand discrimination against women in tech is well-documented and very widespread today. It would be surprising if Fiorina were not subject to it back when she ran HP, from 1999 to 2005.