About the Book
There is a battle for power at all levels within corporations throughout the world. This battle is between men, “the suits,” and women, “the skirts.” Unlike the Sharks and Jets, who battled for neighborhood territory in West Side Story, the Suits and the Skirts are battling for power in the workplace. For a chance to move up the corporate ladder. For a chance at the boardroom table. For the same opportunities and positions of power that men already have—and are determined to keep for themselves. Women make up nearly half of the workforce yet hold only a small fraction of the positions of power and leadership. Women have spent decades fighting for equality in the workplace, and the needle hasn’t moved in any significant way. Women tried playing nice and that didn’t work; now, they’re not going to be playing so nice anymore. They are demanding what they are due and parity is long overdue.
In Suits and Skirts: Game On! former CEO and author, Teresa Freeborn establishes unequivocally that there is a corporate problem of inequality, even if the men in the C-suites and boardrooms don’t think so. She shows men how they consciously or unconsciously hold women back. And, more importantly, how to change this corporate culture. She hammers home the truth that having women in the C-suites and at boardroom tables increases profits. That is a fact.
Suits and Skirts is different than other books on this subject because it is a successful woman CEO speaking directly to the men blocking women’s corporate advancement. This no-holds-barred, well-researched discussion will ruffle many feathers. Author and former CEO Teresa Freeborn goes into great detail about:
- Why men fear women in leadership roles (needlessly);
- How men block women from these leadership positions;
- What businesses need to do right now to create equity, parity, and equality in the workplace, and
- Why these changes will put more money in everyone’s pockets.
Teresa Freeborn is demanding men immediately reevaluate their behavior, and become women’s advocates instead of adversaries. This eye-opening book should be on the nightstand of every CEO and board member in the country. It should also be in every HR department in every business, too.
A No-Holds-Barred Look at Workplace Inequality
Excerpt from the book.
Suits and Skirts: Game On!
Chapter 1: Guys, You Have a Woman Problem
Game on, gentlemen. There is a battle for power at all levels within corporations throughout the world. This battle is between you, “the suits,” and women, “the skirts.” Unlike the Sharks and Jets, who battled for neighborhood territory in West Side Story, the Suits and the Skirts are battling for power in the workplace. For a chance to move up the corporate ladder. For a chance at the boardroom table. For the same opportunities and positions of power that you already have—and are determined to keep for yourselves. Women make up nearly half of the workforce yet hold a small fraction of the positions of power and leadership. We’ve spent decades fighting for equality in the workplace, and the needle hasn’t moved in any significant way. We tried playing nice and that didn’t work; now, we’re not going to be playing so nice anymore. We are demanding what we are due and parity is long overdue.
I’m about to establish unequivocally that there is a corporate problem of inequality, even if you don’t think so. I’m going to show you how you consciously or unconsciously hold women back. And, more importantly, how to change this corporate culture. I will tell you many times throughout this book that having women in the C-suites and at boardroom tables increases profits. That is a fact.
Although company leaders, mostly suits, are generally reluctant to stick their necks out in support of or in opposition to anything controversial, the tide is turning. Research that I will discuss in greater detail later establishes that your customer base wants to see that you are keeping pace with the way they experience the world, not the way you might wish it were. They want to know that, on issues of gender, race, pay equity, and sustainability, you are on their side, that you can proactively co-exist in a changed world.
I think we can all agree that it’s a confusing time for men and women in the workplace. For many decades, gender roles were clear and simple. Men were breadwinners and women were “homemakers,” right? So how did we get thrown into the chaos we are experiencing now?
Until World War II, women were expected to be Domestic Goddesses, taking care of the home, having kids, making dinner, and doing the laundry. Then you needed us to help the war effort and fight the Nazis, so we became Rosie the Riveters. We were told to throw out our aprons and put on hard hats. Okay, put us in, Coach. We’re team players.
Then, once the war was over, we were told to put down the hard hats and tie the aprons on again as if nothing had ever happened. That was a hard pill to swallow. It felt like we were taking a step back, but what could we do? For the next thirty years or so, women were relegated to clerk, stenographer, typist, or secretarial roles reporting to corporate men. Look pretty, be single, and type like a machine. Those were the requirements for success. No woman ever even conceived of becoming CEO of the company she worked at. That was just crazy talk.
Then, in the late sixties and into the seventies, all hell broke loose. Betty Friedan created NOW and the Supreme Court affirmed several laws protecting women in the workplace, from salaries to discrimination, to contraception, to Title IX. In 1963, Katharine Graham took the reins of The Washington Post. Mary Richards became a fictional TV producer at WJM-TV and turned the world on with her smile and her obvious ability. A host of trailblazing legislation and new laws were passed to help women get ahead in the workplace. Unfortunately, they didn’t do much. All of those things were great, don’t get me wrong, but we quickly discovered that legislation alone doesn’t instantly end institutional prejudice and ingrained sexism, no matter what the law says. No matter how hard our Supreme Court and legislators worked to create equal opportunities for women in business, it just never caught on with those of you in positions of power. We were doing our part, pulling our weight, but that didn’t seem to matter.
We filed, typed, organized, and took dictation bigger, faster, and stronger than anyone had ever done before. We were crazy good. We let our bosses know that we wanted more responsibility and proved we could excel at whatever was asked of us. We all thought we were on our way to becoming valued contributors at work. Then, our bosses decided that to progress, we needed more business education, setting up a new hurdle for us to get over. So, we got better educated—much better educated, it turns out—and began to move on. We started to make our way out of the clerk/secretary levels of business and into junior and middle management.
By the mid-eighties and nineties, we were making some serious inroads when it came to holding midlevel positions in most industries, but the Holy Grail—the senior executive table, the C-suites and boardrooms—remained elusive. And, unfortunately, those positions remain so today. We are constantly hitting a brick wall when it comes to getting that corner office on the top floor. Each time we chip out a brick in this wall, three more bricks are added. One step forward, three steps back.
When we talk amongst ourselves, some women question whether we are doing something wrong or are somehow inadequate, and that is what’s keeping us in the metaphorical aprons and not the hard hats (i.e., C-suites and boardrooms). Although we have proven we can assume almost any job you need us to, many men now want to limit the jobs we are offered. No more hard hats, no more riveting. They want us to be satisfied with middle and upper-middle-management positions. That doesn’t work for us anymore, yet we just can’t shake the stigma(s) attached to being a woman in the business world. We have been busting our asses for decades earning our chance to lead, yet we are still forced to remain as followers. It’s not from a lack of trying. It’s not from a lack of ability. It’s certainly not from a lack of drive and determination, and it is most assuredly not because we are not ready!
We are not the problem.
Guys, you are the problem.
A Book About Breaking Women Stereotypes
Excerpt from the book.
Suits and Skirts: Game On!
Chapter 1: Guys, You Have a Woman Problem
Game on, gentlemen. There is a battle for power at all levels within corporations throughout the world. This battle is between you, “the suits,” and women, “the skirts.” Unlike the Sharks and Jets, who battled for neighborhood territory in West Side Story, the Suits and the Skirts are battling for power in the workplace. For a chance to move up the corporate ladder. For a chance at the boardroom table. For the same opportunities and positions of power that you already have—and are determined to keep for yourselves. Women make up nearly half of the workforce yet hold a small fraction of the positions of power and leadership. We’ve spent decades fighting for equality in the workplace, and the needle hasn’t moved in any significant way. We tried playing nice and that didn’t work; now, we’re not going to be playing so nice anymore. We are demanding what we are due and parity is long overdue.
I’m about to establish unequivocally that there is a corporate problem of inequality, even if you don’t think so. I’m going to show you how you consciously or unconsciously hold women back. And, more importantly, how to change this corporate culture. I will tell you many times throughout this book that having women in the C-suites and at boardroom tables increases profits. That is a fact.
Although company leaders, mostly suits, are generally reluctant to stick their necks out in support of or in opposition to anything controversial, the tide is turning. Research that I will discuss in greater detail later establishes that your customer base wants to see that you are keeping pace with the way they experience the world, not the way you might wish it were. They want to know that, on issues of gender, race, pay equity, and sustainability, you are on their side, that you can proactively co-exist in a changed world.
I think we can all agree that it’s a confusing time for men and women in the workplace. For many decades, gender roles were clear and simple. Men were breadwinners and women were “homemakers,” right? So how did we get thrown into the chaos we are experiencing now?
Until World War II, women were expected to be Domestic Goddesses, taking care of the home, having kids, making dinner, and doing the laundry. Then you needed us to help the war effort and fight the Nazis, so we became Rosie the Riveters. We were told to throw out our aprons and put on hard hats. Okay, put us in, Coach. We’re team players.
Then, once the war was over, we were told to put down the hard hats and tie the aprons on again as if nothing had ever happened. That was a hard pill to swallow. It felt like we were taking a step back, but what could we do? For the next thirty years or so, women were relegated to clerk, stenographer, typist, or secretarial roles reporting to corporate men. Look pretty, be single, and type like a machine. Those were the requirements for success. No woman ever even conceived of becoming CEO of the company she worked at. That was just crazy talk.
Then, in the late sixties and into the seventies, all hell broke loose. Betty Friedan created NOW and the Supreme Court affirmed several laws protecting women in the workplace, from salaries to discrimination, to contraception, to Title IX. In 1963, Katharine Graham took the reins of The Washington Post. Mary Richards became a fictional TV producer at WJM-TV and turned the world on with her smile and her obvious ability. A host of trailblazing legislation and new laws were passed to help women get ahead in the workplace. Unfortunately, they didn’t do much. All of those things were great, don’t get me wrong, but we quickly discovered that legislation alone doesn’t instantly end institutional prejudice and ingrained sexism, no matter what the law says. No matter how hard our Supreme Court and legislators worked to create equal opportunities for women in business, it just never caught on with those of you in positions of power. We were doing our part, pulling our weight, but that didn’t seem to matter.
We filed, typed, organized, and took dictation bigger, faster, and stronger than anyone had ever done before. We were crazy good. We let our bosses know that we wanted more responsibility and proved we could excel at whatever was asked of us. We all thought we were on our way to becoming valued contributors at work. Then, our bosses decided that to progress, we needed more business education, setting up a new hurdle for us to get over. So, we got better educated—much better educated, it turns out—and began to move on. We started to make our way out of the clerk/secretary levels of business and into junior and middle management.
By the mid-eighties and nineties, we were making some serious inroads when it came to holding midlevel positions in most industries, but the Holy Grail—the senior executive table, the C-suites and boardrooms—remained elusive. And, unfortunately, those positions remain so today. We are constantly hitting a brick wall when it comes to getting that corner office on the top floor. Each time we chip out a brick in this wall, three more bricks are added. One step forward, three steps back.
When we talk amongst ourselves, some women question whether we are doing something wrong or are somehow inadequate, and that is what’s keeping us in the metaphorical aprons and not the hard hats (i.e., C-suites and boardrooms). Although we have proven we can assume almost any job you need us to, many men now want to limit the jobs we are offered. No more hard hats, no more riveting. They want us to be satisfied with middle and upper-middle-management positions. That doesn’t work for us anymore, yet we just can’t shake the stigma(s) attached to being a woman in the business world. We have been busting our asses for decades earning our chance to lead, yet we are still forced to remain as followers. It’s not from a lack of trying. It’s not from a lack of ability. It’s certainly not from a lack of drive and determination, and it is most assuredly not because we are not ready!
We are not the problem.
Guys, you are the problem.