The Gender Equality Checkpoint

[DanaC]

I was being facetious and my description of the decison-making process was meant to be humorous. But also to recognise an eseential truth about STEM companies as they are right now, which is that at a strategic and managerial level they are overwhelmingly male.

Yes - IBM is run by a woman. And yes, IBM have, partly through her pushing, increased the number of women in managerial positions. But - as a general rule, the CEO of a global tech giant, is unlikely, I'd have thought, to be micro-managing the specific editorial content of every part of a campaign like this. This advert was part of a larger initiative by the company to promote careers for women.

Even with a female CEO, IBM at a strategic and managerial level is three-quarters male. Unless she is specifically involving herself at every level of this campaign, rather than running the company, and unless IBM have specifically tasked their female management with this campaign, then there is a statistical likelihood that the majority of those making decisions about what makes the cut across the various components in this campaign are men.

And the fact that she might use a hairdryer is besides the point.