Why women in leadership roles are more likely than ever to quit their jobs
The reasons for the growing levels of female unemployment have been laid bare on Tuesday, with the resignation of one of the most highly rated and powerful women in the financial world as well as the departure of the CEO of Hewlett-Packard, the computer giant that was once the most highly regarded company in America.
One of those most highly rated and powerful women was Elizabeth Holmes, founder of a company that has been at the center of a heated political debate for years now. Holmes has come under fire for her role in developing the controversial “gluon charge” particle accelerator that was sold to Japan for $6 billion.
On Tuesday, Holmes resigned as chief executive of HP and her former position, saying that she was “fully committed to HP.”
That made Elizabeth Holmes the second top-rated woman in history to be fired for failing to take steps to change a company. In 2007, HP’s former CEO, Carly Fiorina, was forced to step down amid the company’s scandalous management behavior, which included a massive amount of insider trading.
“I’m just a mom and a book editor. I don’t have any power in HP,” she said in a blog on the company’s website. “I’ve been very supportive of their efforts and their vision and I’m heartbroken to see the HP I know slipping away from me.”
Holmes’ departure is the latest evidence of how the gender gap within the ranks of women working in the male-dominated workplace has grown in recent decades.
In addition to IBM’s and Hewlett-Packard’s corporate scandals, women in the workforce have seen their positions held more and more in check, while the ranks of women in management positions have grown.
“The power dynamic within companies is increasingly tilted toward men,” said Stacy L. Brown, author of “The Picket Fences: A Social History of Police and Civil