By Gini Dietrich
It’s unlike me to not add commentary on the “glass cliff” and the firing of Jill Abramson.
It’s difficult to watch it all unfold and I most certainly have an opinion.
But…I recently met a woman who is as passionate and energized about women’s issues as I am. Talking to her makes me all starry-eyed.
She said something to me last week has stuck. She said, “I believe we have real challenges, but pounding it into people’s heads instead of actually doing something doesn’t work.”
As I sat down this morning to write about Jill Abramson, I asked myself, “By writing about women’s issues, am I simply just trying to pound it into people’s heads and not actually doing something about it?”
While I ponder that – and figure out what the right approach is with this passion – I leave you with several articles (and one comment) you should read on the glass cliff issue.
Six Articles You Should Read about Jill Abramson’s Firing
- What Aren’t Standards this High for Male Leaders? In this Harvard Business Review article, Sarah Green challenges the idea that women are put in the top positions when companies are in trouble. And then, when they aren’t able to turn things around fairly quickly, they’re fired.
- Equal Pay? In the above article, Spin Sucks community member Marianne Griebler talks about how it certainly looks like the board at The New York Times got their nose out of joint when Abramson questioned her pay in comparison with the men who had held the job before her.
- Does The New York Times Know How to Fire Someone? Taking on a completely different angle, Ben Heineman looks at the reasons they gave for firing Ambramson, which – in his experience – is “a cursory account of its reasoning.”
- Was Jill Abramson Fired Because She is a Woman? “Women battle to break through the glass ceiling. After that, what comes is walking on broken glass.” This CNN opinion piece looks at what happens when women aren’t nice and all warm and fuzzy in the workplace.
- Why Jill Abramson Was Fired. This is three-part series from The New Yorker looking at everything from equal pay (or not) to management styles (or lack thereof). In true fashion of the magazine, it’s well-reported and in-depth…so set aside a few years to get it all read.
- Not Part of Unequal Treatment of Women. In probably the least biased article about this event, AdAge uses the facts and a timeline to show what happened. If you don’t read anything else, this is worth a few minutes because it doesn’t have opinion…just facts.
And now I leave the comments to you.