[HN Gopher] Turmoil at 'Chief' raises the question: is empowerin...
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       Turmoil at 'Chief' raises the question: is empowering corporate
       women enough?
        
       Author : tafda
       Score  : 17 points
       Date   : 2023-03-28 13:57 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
        
       | yieldcrv wrote:
       | 501(c)4 and 501(c)5's are the kinds of organizations that anyone
       | can form or work for if they want their corporation to "use their
       | platform" for social welfare in labor matters and helping
       | marginalized people
       | 
       | corporations formed for selling shares are simply not formed for
       | these unrelated matters
       | 
       | if you're in a network for becoming executives at share selling
       | corporations and want to be in a network for a group that does
       | other things, then leave and go to that other network
       | 
       | It seems like people who have tried (and failed) at reshaping the
       | for-profit world are unaware of what actually exists to cater to
       | their sentiment already, social welfare and labor groups
        
       | InTheArena wrote:
       | From the article:
       | 
       | 'The recent turmoil at Chief began on International Women's Day,
       | in early March, when a member of the network, Denise Conroy,
       | declared on LinkedIn that she was leaving Chief and accused the
       | group of sidestepping political issues and ghosting women of
       | color who applied for membership. (Ms. Conroy, 51, later
       | acknowledged that she had been reprimanded internally for trying
       | to sell tickets on Chief's platform to an external workshop she
       | was running, which ran counter to the company's policies.) ....
       | 
       | Rachel Hassall, a supply chain executive, is one of the Chief
       | members who chose to leave the organization this month. She had
       | recently participated in a discussion that Ms. Conroy hosted
       | about the book "White Women: Everything You Already Know About
       | Your Own Racism and How to Do Better"
       | 
       | Seriously. Who signs up for this? Imagine paying to be called a
       | racist all day long, just so you can feel morally superior to
       | others.
        
         | bennysonething wrote:
         | Same as being a Catholic "sign up to feel guilty for the rest
         | of your life". I should know, I was born one !
        
           | JohnDeHope wrote:
           | I'm in RCIA classes to convert to Catholicism. I'm skipping
           | this Easter's big confirmation event to give it some more
           | time. I'm chiming in to reply to this comment. Catholicism is
           | a practical way to deal with the guilt you (should?) already
           | feel.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | JPws_Prntr_Fngr wrote:
             | > Catholicism is a practical way to deal with the guilt you
             | (should?) already feel.
             | 
             | For the low, low price of a few tithes and indulgences*,
             | you too can assuage your guilt, you guilty sinful person!
             | 
             | *and a little child abuse. Ok, and a little warmongering
             | too
        
         | JPws_Prntr_Fngr wrote:
         | > Seriously. Who signs up for this?
         | 
         | Women, specifically the middle-to-upper class ones that take
         | the wackiest university courses, outpace men in grades and
         | graduation rates, are hired preferentially at large companies,
         | completely own the HR departments, and therefore are the ones
         | who determine American Corporate Culture.
        
       | TheMoonToMyLeft wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | engineer_22 wrote:
       | TL;DR: Self-selecting social club wasn't selective enough.
        
       | malermeister wrote:
       | This is the Sheryl Sandberg school of feminism, which is more
       | concerned with already privileged, white, rich ladies
       | accumulating the same amount of power as their male counterparts
       | than helping the struggling single mother working three jobs
       | trying to make ends meet.
       | 
       | Class is the true defining factor. Not gender, not race, not
       | anything else. If we want to encourage equality, we need to
       | address the class issue.
       | 
       | Stuff like this is just more class warfare dressed up as
       | empowerment.
        
         | orwin wrote:
         | The use of the word 'empowerment' in modern feminism itself,
         | even by center-left collective, is the proof that we lost the
         | last battle in the class warfare. Goldman, Beauvoir and
         | feminists used emancipation. Now I even hear French feminist
         | use 'empowerment', and that's just sad.
        
         | Proven wrote:
         | [dead]
        
       | boeingUH60 wrote:
       | Of course, country clubs for privileged people never refrain from
       | eating themselves when they throw politics into the mix.
       | 
       | $7,900 a year and these folks acting like they're the saviours of
       | the world, lol. To paraphrase the CEO, "We're a club for rich
       | women and will like to remain that way..." which is fine by me.
        
       | neonate wrote:
       | https://archive.ph/CyAMW
        
       | rayiner wrote:
       | Not only does an organization aimed at empowering corporate women
       | not need to tackle racial issues, they will cause harm by trying.
       | Affluent, educated white women have interests that are
       | fundamentally in conflict with the interests with those of most
       | minorities, who are disproportionately working class. And their
       | money and power makes it inevitable that, if they meddle in those
       | issues, they will distort and disrupt organic movements by and
       | within those minority groups.
       | 
       | For example, black people are the most likely of any racial group
       | to express the traditional view that being able to provide for a
       | family is very important for a man:
       | https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/09/20/americans-s....
       | Among women without a college degree, which disproportionately
       | includes racial minorities, fully 44% would prefer a homemaker
       | role to working outside the home:
       | https://news.gallup.com/poll/267737/record-high-women-prefer....
       | There's _lots_ of black women who would prefer the return of good
       | union jobs so that they wouldn't have to work outside the home.
       | This is not surprising--if a career that confers power and money
       | and social status isn't realistically an option for you (and it
       | will never be for the majority of people) then your other options
       | look much different!
       | 
       | Whenever affluent white people parachute into stuff like this,
       | the minorities involved inevitably become a canvas for them to
       | project their own interests and motivations. And varying
       | interests within those minority groups get swept aside in favor
       | of whatever happens to line up with those of the white people
       | with money and power. It's bad and wrong.
        
         | bennysonething wrote:
         | Or it's a way to increase your status while not doing your
         | actual job. "Look at how moral I am!". I'm wondering how long
         | this crap will continue. I'm hoping it becomes a cliche and
         | embarrassing soon.
        
           | JPws_Prntr_Fngr wrote:
           | The elaborate and nonsensical (and costly) virtue/fitness-
           | signaling will only continue to escalate, because just like
           | with clothing fashions, the difficulty and cost of staying in
           | the trendy vanguard is the entire point. Scott Alexander (and
           | probably others) had a pretty good analysis of the
           | phenomenon.
        
       | riskneutral wrote:
       | > For admission to Chief, a women's leadership network, members
       | pay up to $7,900. That gets them executive coaching, big-name
       | speaker sessions, a Rolodex of female executives and, for an
       | extra cost, access to five sleek clubhouses. Chief is essentially
       | an "old boys' club" -- for the ladies. The venture capital-backed
       | company has grown to over 20,000 members and over $1 billion in
       | value since it started in 2019.
       | 
       | So ... can we have the "old boys' clubs" back now, for the other
       | half of the species? Somehow I don't think so.
        
         | paxys wrote:
         | If you truly think these "old boys' clubs" went anywhere you
         | are simply not connected enough to be part of them.
        
           | scarmig wrote:
           | But I thought every man is part of the patriarchy and is
           | given a free all-access pass to the old boys' club at birth.
        
             | theossuary wrote:
             | Patriarchy and old boys clubs are related but separate
             | things. One hint they aren't the same is they are different
             | words with different definitions.
        
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       (page generated 2023-03-28 23:02 UTC)