SUMMARY In naming female CEO, IBM passes gender milestone - Essay Example

first Summary: In naming female CEO, IBM passes gender milestone To summarize, in his article, Robertson highlights paradoxical state that ‘women’ are holding in contemporary business world. Though there is immense transformation in the way a woman’s position and contribution to business is viewed, it is still not complete. These transformations can be seen in terms of women reaching and holding the topmost positions in various businesses. To prove this point, Robertson quotes examples from multinational giants like IBM, HP, Xerox etc in this article.

The current CEO of IBM, Sam Palmisano announced Virginia “Ginni” Rometty as his successor following retirement next year. Rometty has been with IBM since 1981, and has swiftly moved up the ladder to occupy the role as chief of sales and marketing after serving in a variety of other roles and responsibilities within IBM. Rometty is compared with other women CEOs like Meg Whitman of HP and Ursula Burns of Xerox who have been instrumental in taking their respective organizations to the positions that they currently hold in the market.

About Rometty, she is described as a transformational leader that proved her mettle and capabilities through critical decisions in terms of business sustenance, growth and expansion, which helped taking IBM to stronger competitive positions in the market. However, perceptions about women heading businesses and their capabilities still seem to linger in people’s mind. Robertson gives many examplesin this article to prove this point. For instance, Palmisano’s decision to stay back as the chairperson somewhat shows a picture about his total confidence in Rometty’s capabilities to take over as CEO; secondly, the sudden decline in IBM’s shares following announcement of Rometty as the CEO is indicative of stakeholders’ perception of women leaders.

Both these lead to the paradoxical state attached to women leaders in contemporary businesses. Works citedRobertson, Jordan. In Naming Female CEO, IBM Passes Gender Milestone. Published26 Oct, 2011. Web 18 Nov, 2011 from,http://www.salon.com/2011/10/26/in_naming_female_ceo_ibm_passes_gender_milestone/