Thursday, September 6, 2007

FIRST-BORNS MORE LIKELY TO BE CEOS?

Ah, the potpourri of junk -- scratch that -- "good reads" that are thrust upon me when I log on to my computer every morning, courtesy of my AOL homepage. (Yeah, yeah, there are other homepages. But I gotta keep in touch with the pop culture ... )

Being a first-born child (of a first-born child), I was compelled to click on this link:

First-Born Kids Become CEO Material, courtesy of America's favorite McNewspaper.

Seems innocuous enough, at first glance. But they always do, don't they?

Sure, they mention a token female CEO in the first paragraph of the first page as part of the formulaic political correctness protocol, but the remainder of the first page of the article cites only men. Men are the CEOs, and the experts on the CEOs.

The last paragraph of the first page is very telling -- it offers an exception to the first-born example, and how this exception, in part, occurred because of two older and nurturing siblings -- who happened to be sisters.

If you click on to the second page -- and those of us who work in media know many of you won't (which is why I keep referring to "first page, first page" ... so call me Rain Man if it makes you happy) -- they do mention two more females.

The McArticle surmises the findings of the study: "The domination of older children in business appears to have no gender or international boundaries."

To which I say phooey. It's kind of why I read USA Today now and then. I love saying "phooey." Or writing it, anyway. But that's beside the point. Which is where I often find myself before three cups of coffee ...

Take a look at the wiki page for a list of well-known CEOs and see how far you have to scroll down to find a female on that list ...

2 comments:

  1. phooey is one of my favorite words. it can mean anything i choose just by the tone of voice.

    me,i say, if they are going to have these inane studies, i'd rather know if those first borns(and i'm one) are happy in their lives no matter what they do for a living.

    and yep, i have AOL. i get a lot of grief about that but i like AOL better than the others i've seen.

    even if they do piss me off at times with connection issues. : )

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  2. Hi Sherry -- I'm leaving for work here soon (as I continue to make edits to my post; the perils of being a blogger -- no editors!).

    The importance of being happy.

    I've read lots of studies (ugh), and one I thought that was not inane was about how Americans are more depressed and dissatisfied with their lives than ever, and a major contributor to this cultural funk is the gauging of their level of contentment on what they possess. So, the writing is on the wall, but many of us can't see it because we are preoccupied with what designer color we're going to paint over it and whether or not to wainscot.

    An additional question I'll pose here in the comments section that is especially timely: How could America possibly be ready for a female president?

    I hope my daughter lives to see the day.

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