In an exclusive article, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway explains the reason that women are a key to America’s prosperity.
In the horror of the recently written words about women and work, one of the important and important points seems to me greatly. It comes to the future of America, about any familiar opinion about me – I am optimistic that is not qualified. Now I am looking at another opinion in my opinion: The woman is a major reason because we will do it well.
Start with the fact that our country has advanced since 1776 has surpassed reason, like anything that the world has never seen. Our secret sauce was a political and economic system that unleashes human capabilities to an extraordinary degree. As a result, today the Americans have a abundance of goods and services that no one could dream of a few centuries ago.
But this is not half of it – or, it is almost half of it. America presented this success while using it, in a large part of it, only half of the country’s talent. For most of our history, women – whatever their capabilities – were deported to side lines. Only in recent years we have started correcting this problem.
Although “all men are equal” in the declaration of independence, the males’ superiority soon became devoted to the constitution. In the second article, and dealing with the presidency, the 39 delegates who signed the document – all men, naturally – use male pronouns. In the poker game, they are called “Tell”.
Finally, after 133 years, in 1920, the United States reduced its distinction against women through the nineteenth amendment, giving them the right to vote. But this law rarely sows positions and behaviors. In the aftermath, 33 men rose to the Supreme Court before Sandra Day O’Connor, 61 years after ratification of the amendment. For those of you who love numbers, the possibilities against a male procession who occurs by chance is more than 8 billion to one.
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When people questioned the absence of females, the 61 -year -old response was simply “there are no qualified candidates.” The voters took a similar position. When my father was elected to Congress in 1942, there were eight of his colleagues 434 women. One single woman, Margaret Chis Smith, sat in the Senate.
The resistance between the powerful is natural when changing clashes with the interest of the self. Business and politics, and yes, religions offer many examples of this defensive behavior. After all, who wants to double the number of competitors in high positions?
But the greatest enemy of change may be the inherent attitudes of those who cannot simply imagine a different world from the world in which they lived. What happened in my family offers an example. I have two sisters. The three of us, by our parents and teachers alike, have been considered almost equal intelligence – and in reality the intelligence tests confirmed our equality. For a long time, to pave the way, my “social” sisters had much larger than I.
The moment I came out of the womb of my mother, my capabilities were folded from my brothers, because I was a boy! My elegant, elegant and self -appearance siblings were not. My parents loved us equally, and our teachers would give us similar degrees. But at every turn, my sisters – more through signs of words – will be told that success for them will “marry well”. At the same time, I heard that the world’s chances were for me to seize it.
So my floors became the ceiling of my sisters – and no one thought of tearing this style even a few decades ago. Now, thanks to the heavens, women’s structural barriers are falling.
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There is still an obstacle: many women still impose restrictions on themselves, and talk about themselves about achieving their potential. Here, too, I had some direct experience.
Among the dozens of brilliant and interesting women have known for the late Catherine Graham, a long time ago, the dominant contribution and CEO of the Washint Post (WPO) Kai knew it was smart. But her brain was washed – I do not like this word, but it is appropriate – through her mother and her husband and who knows who is the last belief that men were superior, especially at work.
When her husband died, he was in the self -interest of some men around Kay to persuade her that her feelings of insufficient had to justify her. The pressure they put on them was torture. Fortunately, Kai, in addition to being smart, was internal strength. She called this, she was able to ignore the sounds of the baritone she urges to hand over her heritage to them.
In 1973, I met Kai and I quickly saw that she was an unusual ability and personality. But sex -related self -suspicion was definitely there. She knew her brain better, but she has never been able to sound inside, “Men know more about managing more work than she does.”
Kai told that she had to ignore the fun mirror that others put in front of her, and instead they looked at herself in a mirror that reflects reality. I said: “Then, you will see a woman is a match for anyone, male or female.”
I hope I can claim that I succeeded in that campaign. The evidence was definitely on my side: the Washington Post shares increased by more than 4000 % – this is 40 for 1 – after 18 years of Kay as president. After her retirement, she won the Politzer Award for her wonderful CV. But her doubts remained in the soul, which is a testimony of the depth of the message of inaccuracy in a wonderful mind.
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I am pleased to say that Funhouse’s mirrors have become less common among the women I have met. Try to put one in front of my daughter. You will just laugh and destroy it. You should never forget women that it is common for you to have the powerful males who seem to be more than just OZ processor in it. Pull the curtain aside, and you will often discover that they are not super men after all. (Just ask their wives!)
So, my male colleagues, what about this for us? Why should we care if the remaining barriers facing women have been dismantled and fun mirrors? It does not matter that I think the moral state itself is convincing. Let’s look at your own interest.
There is no manager running his plants efficiently 80 % when steps can be taken to increase production. No CEO wants male employees not exploited when improving training or work conditions would enhance productivity. So take it one step forward: if the clear benefits flow from helping the male component in the workforce in achieving its potential, then why in the world do not want to include its counterpart?
Male colleagues, get on the plane. The more America is close to employing the talents of all its citizens, the greater its production of goods and services. We have seen what can be accomplished when we use 50 % of our human ability. If you imagine what 100 % can do, you will join as an unrighteous optimistic about the future of America.
This story is from May 20, 2013 from luck.
This story was originally shown on Fortune.com
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