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1. 🔊 What industry do you work in and what is your role?
2. 🔊 What are your responses in your role / position?
3. 🔊 Can you describe to the function of your workplace / company?
4. 🔊 How many departments, how many offices. National or International?
5. 🔊 What are the minimum requirements for employment ie Education or Experience?
6. 🔊 How many opportunities are there to ‘move up the ladder’?
7. 🔊 What is the process for changing job roles ie Interview? Test?

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🔊 General discussion about your workweek:

1. 🔊 Current projects? Deadlines? Opportunities?
2. 🔊 Anything of interest happening?

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Script

1. 🔊 Senators Amy Klobuchar, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren top lists speculating who will be presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s running mate. Right now, the only thing we know for sure about his pick is her sex. It will certainly be a boost for women in the U.S. to have a female vice-presidential candidate, but is there a downside to selecting this person based on her sex?

2. 🔊 The first woman on a major ticket for president was Geraldine Ferraro. When Walter Mondale announced Ferraro would be his running mate in 1984, he went out of his way to be clear that she wasn’t chosen because of her sex.  Instead, Mondale introduced Ferraro with, ”I looked for the best vice-president, and I found her in Gerry Ferraro.”  In other words, he didn’t choose Ferraro because she was a woman, but because she was the best candidate.

3. 🔊 But, Joe Biden is the first major-party presidential candidate to announce that he is committed to a female running mate, before actually choosing who that running mate will be.  In other words, he’s the first to limit the pool of candidates to only women.  

“And I commit that I’ll pick a woman to be vice-president. There are a number of women who are qualified to be president tomorrow, I would pick a woman to be my vice-president,” Biden declared during the March democratic debate.

4.🔊 Selecting from a female-only pool sends the message that if the decision were sex-blind, he wouldn’t have chosen a woman—that women couldn’t earn this position on their own, without some help. People may also not respect the selection as highly. She’s not necessarily the best pick, but she’s the best of the women.

5.🔊 If Biden had chosen the best candidate without regard to gender, it’s still very likely the candidate would have been female. And her appointment would not have been diminished by his narrowing down the field by gender beforehand.

6.🔊 Historically, women have fought long and hard to have sex removed from hiring decisions, and sex discrimination in hiring was barred by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. One of the National Organization for Women’s (NOW) first actions in the 1960’s was getting sex-segregated help-wanted ads removed from the New York Times.  

7.🔊 At that time, jobs listed in the male column were often high-paid leadership or trade positions, while low-level office jobs dominated the female section. Ads targeting women offered less pay and often specified the need for applicants to be “attractive” and “well-groomed.”  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) finally ruled that separate male and female help wanted ads violated the Civil Rights Act. A big victory for women’s rights, the New York Times stopped printing separate ads for men and women on December 1, 1967. The clear message here was not to consider sex in hiring decisions.

1.🔊 What are the most important contributing factors to someone being an effective leader?

2.🔊 Are there any leaders around the world which you admire? Past or present?

3.🔊 What qualities do you think are distinct in men or women? Where are we most similar and where do we differ the most (in thinking)