When considering the state of women in the American workplace, some hard truths come into focus: Gender bias persists. The pay gap has barely narrowed. Women are woefully underrepresented in leadership positions. The upside? Progress has been made. And women like author and cultural critic Roxane Gay—who also writes a workplace-focused advice column for The New York Times—are putting work in to make the future bright. Here, Roxane challenges you to evolve your understanding of representation.
We often say representation matters. It sounds good. Great, even. And it’s a useful way of advocating for inclusion and equity in places where these things are most needed. Representation matters because we want to see people whose identities and experiences reflect ours in positions of leadership, seated around the tables we share, and populating our lives in the ways that matter most. Representation matters because diverse viewpoints—different genders, different ethnicities, different socioeconomic backgrounds—enrich the environments of which we are a part. But rarely do we have the more challenging conversation about what representation should be beyond the broadest of strokes. Representation matters, but what should it look like? What kinds of representation matter most?
I think about this a lot in the context of women and leadership. For so long, we have fought for seats at the proverbial table. We have fought to wield some of the power that men, white men mostly, have long been afforded (see page TK). We see how they’ve been able to shape the world, politics, the economy, and even the culture we consume. We have long assumed that the goal is simply achieving enough success to unlock that power. I certainly understand the allure. For so long, women have been kept out of the highest echelons of power in almost all realms. We know the glass ceiling intimately, and it is a rare thing to break through. (Even when we do, it is often rebuilt under us; it becomes even more impermeable.)
In the corporate world, for example, just 53 women are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies as of 2023—a bit more than 10 percent—while we are about half the world’s population. The imbalance is glaring. And again, if we look at who those 53 women are, we may not find the diversity we hope to see.
All too often, we define feminist leadership as women finally being able to wield power the way men do, by hoarding it and employing top-down strategies that serve individual interests far more than the collective. As people who are human and fallible, why wouldn’t we want that type of power? But no matter how strong the desire is, it’s important to consider the cost of such immense, unchecked privilege. Are we really willing to pay that price, one that will be primarily extracted from the most vulnerable among us?
During Women’s History Month, we celebrate women and our achievements. We consider the past and the present and try to imagine better futures. This month is a necessary corrective to all the ways women’s history has been dismissed, diminished, or simply overlooked. During this month, we also talk about empowerment and how we, as women, can achieve more, live better lives, be the best versions of ourselves. But so many of these conversations, these ideas, are insular. They focus on the individual rather than the collective. They allow us to believe that a few of us shattering glass ceilings is progress enough.
Put another way, I have found few things more radicalizing than success. With financial security and some measure of power, I have a far more nuanced understanding of just how indelibly systemic bias shapes our lives. I find myself seated around tables I never imagined being invited to and realize that as much as I want to enjoy being there—and I certainly do—I must also consider who isn’t sitting alongside me (and why).
I am most interested in looking forward and rethinking power and how we should wield it. I want us to think about how we can build bigger tables that offer space to more voices. I want us to hold ourselves, especially as women, to higher standards—much higher than simply the status quo.
—ROXANE GAY
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