women in business Archives - The Grassy Road

Queen Bees or a Stiletto Network?

I was disappointed by the drivel written in the WSJ on Friday The Tyranny of the Queen Bee. It is just not reality, and reinforcing a negative stereotype at the same time. The WSJ should know better. The thesis is that because there are so few women in power they hang on to the power as Queen Bees and bully other women... "Four decades later, the syndrome still thrives, given new life by the mass ascent of women to management positions. This generation of queen bees is no less determined [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T16:49:43-08:00March 3, 2013|Equality|2 Comments

Dressing for success as a woman in Silicon Valley

There's a new class of perfect female executive in technology today. She wears short skirts, fitted tops, maybe a jacket or a small cardigan and heels. Always legs and heels. Her hair is perfect, her makeup light and she never forgets her lipstick. These women were all over Dreamforce in San Francisco a few weeks ago. As I walked around the show I was struck by how much the uniformity of their look is the female equivalent of the buff, white sales guy of my early career who worked out [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-06T16:53:08-08:00October 15, 2012|Equality|2 Comments

Birth Control Battles and Women in Tech

Published in the Huffington Post earlier today: Would I have the career I have today without having had easy access to birth control? I doubt it. Tech women are like any other women. Most of us ‘successful’ technical women were uninsured or low-income at the beginning of our careers, including those of us in Silicon Valley. We were students, we went for stretches without health insurance, we had to manage when we got pregnant just like any other woman building a career and taking her rightful place in our society. [...]

By Penny Herscher|2017-12-03T02:44:33-08:00August 23, 2012|Equality|0 Comments