One of the most formative experiences of my career was teaching fifth grade. I loved teaching biographies because they brought history to life, taught timeless lessons and inspired my students.
I remember teaching about Kathrine Switzer, the 1967 marathon runner who shattered a glass ceiling for women in sports. Kathtine was an excellent athlete, but women weren’t allowed to run the Boston Marathon, so she registered simply as "K.V. Switzer." She created a blind audition for herself where she would be evaluated based on merit and not her gender.
Despite race officials attempting to forcibly remove her from the course, Kathrine finished the 26.2 miles in about 4 hours and 20 minutes and would later go on to be the first-place female in the 1974 New York City Marathon.
All she needed was the opportunity to prove that when given a chance to succeed based on merit, women can. She earned that success through hard work and talent.
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Let’s ask ourselves an honest question: can all women who rise to the top these days confidently say that they earned it? Too many are launched into positions of power and success not based on merit or excellence, but because they check a particular box required by a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) obsessed society.
As a mother, an educator, and a CEO, I can’t help but ask, "What does this teach our children about women, and what does it teach us about ourselves?"
Far from the feel-good claims of promoting female power, DEI hiring ultimately sends the exact opposite message. It teaches society that if the metric for success is merit, women have no chance of succeeding.
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It teaches that instead of being capable of attaining positions of power based on talent, skill and determination to excel, women need a leg up. It lowers standards and surrenders excellence in exchange for pretend "progress," ultimately harming humankind.
I remember explaining to my classroom that women can do incredible things as long as we’re simply allowed the chance to compete and win based on our own merit. The children enthusiastically exclaimed that making it about gender is unfair! But that’s exactly what DEI does – makes it about gender. Isn't that also unfair?
Now that I run a company, it doesn’t matter how many men or women are seated at the table in my boardroom meetings. I know that I am here because I worked hard and had enough talent to get here on my own. The chance I was given was nothing less or more than any man would have gotten, and that is all I needed.
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Everyone there, including me, knows that I am qualified for the job because I earned it. Most importantly to me, my children know that, too.
But imagine how a woman might feel if she had to sit there wondering whether she was only hired to fill some real or implied politically correct quota. Instead of self-assured and capable, she will feel humiliated, insecure and like a puppet on a string, only dancing because the puppet masters allow it. She will know that it isn’t about her or her abilities, but rather about making them look good to others and feel good about themselves.
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Imagine, too, how the public might feel if they had to wonder whether a woman in a powerful position was handed her job because of a DEI agenda rather than earning it through merit and excellence. Could they confidently support that woman’s leadership decisions? Or might they be concerned that she wasn’t, in fact, the most qualified and capable of excelling at the job?
What’s worse, consider the damage that could be done by having unqualified people in important leadership positions like surgeons, pilots or life-saving jobs. Understandably, we are all starting to wonder whether the quality of diverse hires is putting our lives at risk.
The long-term effect that DEI hiring will have on qualified women in or entering the workforce is alarming. The public is being conditioned to wonder whether a given woman really deserves to be in her position, thereby polluting the image of the entire pool of qualified female leaders.
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Are we once again going to be expected to display even greater excellence to prove ourselves? Will we need to go back to the days of sneaking our way into "blind auditions?"
Let’s reject DEI because it teaches our children that women are inherently less capable, only able to rise to the level of men with the help of that pedestal. Let’s remind the world that while womanhood is an important quality, it does not define our natural talents, work ethic, learned skills or ambition.
At this moment in history, we can avoid permanently cementing a crutch beside women for generations to come. Just as Kathrine didn’t need a crutch to help her become a historic female athlete, our political, medical and business leaders shouldn’t either.
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And we shouldn’t be expected to reject or choose someone just because they’re a woman. Success through merit will empower women with the knowledge that they earned their spots at the top, and the public will feel confident in their qualifications to be excellent in the jobs they earned.
Guaranteed, generations of incredible women will rise to the occasion, to the benefit of the nation and the world.
