Today’s BBC website carries an article, “How America’s richest women made their fortunes” which is coverage of the same namesake Forbes list.
The usual suspects – Oprah, Beyoncé and Serena Williams – were all present in the article, as was profuse mention of all things glamorous and (I kid you not) “toilet freshness.”
Honestly, I was dismayed by this article. My mission in life is to champion other women, especially for the sake of our daughters. If I were a teenager reading this article, I’d think twice of becoming Bill Gates and would lean towards fashion, glamour and beauty as my meal ticket.
Thankfully, I am Indian in origin. The answer to NONE of our existential crises (poverty, poor infrastructure, gender imbalance and simply earning a living) involves becoming a singer, tennis player or talk show host.
We are indoctrinated with the following mantra: only back-breaking hard work via medicine, law, engineering, finance or journalism will give us salvation from our sins.
As part of writing this blog, I went to the actual Forbes list…
And guess what? The list reads, ” the (USA’s) most successful self-made women ENTREPRENEURS and EXECUTIVES.”
Gender inequality aside, I was heartened by the presence of:
- Good old fashioned CEOs (who most certainly have a private jet on standby)
- Money managers (seeing female hedge fund managers made my heart swell)
- Restaurant founders (go Panda Express. Whoop! Whoop!)
and at the no 1 position was Diane Hendricks, who made her money as a wholesale distributor of roofing, siding and windows.
Could there be anything more mundane and run of the mill than construction? Phew.
I wanted to berate the BBC over its coverage (and blame them for Brexit as well).
However, in the cold light of day, I believe the author – a British Asian female journalist – has brought her own rose-tinted view of what the world can look like for women of colour. In doing so, she paints a tunnel-visioned view of women’s current achievements.
There has to be recognition, that not all our daughters have the talent, opportunity and ambition to be Rihanna. However, their hard work, diligence, intelligence and integrity can lead them to become the most successful CEOs of companies, such as Judy Faulkner.
Faulkner founded America’s leading medical software provider. The USA healthcare industry forms about 20% of its economy. Enough said.
My second point is, we all have a collective responsibility to change how we write and speak about the achievement of women.
Being an author (Nora Roberts at No 53), CEO (Meg Whitman at No 2), money manager (Nancy Zimmerman at No 32) or founder of an IT company (Neha Narkhede) is and should be presented by all of us as role models for future generations.
And it doesn’t start with the BBC – it starts with you and me.
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Photo by Chelsi Peter from Pexels