Comment by Mz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Mz | Hacker News Reader

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So her title says "it doesn't change a thing" and then in the body she admits that there are some differences:

Of course there are some drawbacks of being a female CEO. When you’re a woman in charge, you do have to work a bit more to get credibility and have people listen to you; it might be harder to recruit developers and make them trust you; and you will end up going to a few sales meetings where the other person is more interested in you than in your product.

There are also some pretty good advantages. It’s sometimes easier to get press coverage, and sales can happen faster. People will usually be keener on lending a hand. And I’m not even talking about all the help I got from fellow female entrepreneurs, especially when I was trying to get things off the ground.

I agree with her general sentiment that being a CEO is hard, regardless of gender. I also agree with her agenda that women need more role models of what it looks like to be a successful woman. But I don't think this kind of dismissal of the issues women have is very helpful. Being a woman does change some things. Understanding that "it has its good points and bad points" is a much, much better message than saying "it isn't any different at all" which is what the title says.

(imo)

Her point here was that its not necessarily harder being a girl ceo/ some things are different but it's a draw.

Her point was that these are minor details and that it doesn't change what makes being a ceo so difficult.

She wants to make it clear that being a woman ceo isn't some kind of amazing feat (though being a ceo in general is) and that she wants more woman to try it.

I think her point is that the differences are irrelevant in comparison of the (common) challenges leadership positions generate, so it's not helpful to overemphasize them.

She didn't emphasise it very strongly, in fact it was a very weak emphasis but she was saying that everyone has a different set of strengths and weaknesses. She might find it easier to get press attention as a woman but a guy could easily have a strength that makes up for this.

> But I don't think this kind of dismissal of the issues women have is very helpful

I think she knows better than you, unless you are a female CEO.

She made the point that sometimes when a woman is doing sales the customer can be more interested in her than the product. But historically, a lot of women in sales have tried to use sexuality to get the sale.

No, I am not a female CEO. I am female and have struggled a lot with the ways in which being female throws up barriers to some of my goals.

The fact that it wasn't perceived by her as a big deal does not prove she knows better than I do. Statistical outliers are not inherently more wise than others about the problems that your "average" person has.

> The fact that it wasn't perceived by her as a big deal does not prove she knows better than I do.

You've already said you don't agree with her on this point and yet again you don't say why.

> Statistical outliers are not inherently more wise than others about the problems that your "average" person has.

I'm sure that formerly, she was not a CEO, she was an "average" person. So she knows more about getting to CEO as a woman than you do. I'm not arguing that she has had the same experiences as you but I think it's a given that she is not implying that it is the same for all women.

You weren't previously asking me why I disagree with her.

If you are actually interested in a few of my thoughts on the subject, there are relevant posts on my personal blog that can be read. You could look for the tag "The Gray Zone" to get you started.

> You weren't previously asking me why I disagree with her.

I think the onus was on you, the person posting a comment that you disagree with the author of the article, to make your argument/point.

You can't join a discussion with "I disagree" and not say why.

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