Are there yet?

Every interview I have with a journalist who wants to discuss female equality from women getting invested in, to more investors who are women, to companies that have a diverse work force, asks the same question “are we there yet”?

The fact that someone is asking those questions and writing about it in National publications means that we are getting there. Are we there yet well change takes time. Many might want it to happen overnight but it never works that way.

When my Mom graduated college at the end of the 50’s, her options were limited to being a teacher, a nurse or a secretary. There were (and thankfully) many outliers but it wasn’t as if a woman went to college thinking she would ride into corporate life. The woman of that generation were many of the first women who went to top colleges or colleges at all to educate themselves but many fell back on what they knew which was to stay at home and raise their family. After all, childcare has yet to even exist in the way it should. Seventy years is just not that long.

45 years ago the schools taught Home Economics and Shop. Very few boys took Home Economics and very few girls opted for Shop. Perhaps the bold few are the women who went on to break the rules in their careers. Who knows but it wouldn’t surprise me.

Schools are now very much focused on diversity, equality, acceptance, be what you want to be, do what you want to do, be who you are. Generation Z is looking at the world and navigating their lives very differently then my Mom’s generation did and mine did and even our children are. Perhaps this is the generation where they won’t have to ask “are we there yet”?