EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION

As attention is focused on "reforming" health care, it seems that the issue of the Wall St. implosion and governmental bail outs, along with discussion of reforms, has fallen to the wayside. I just read an article on CNN (http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/news/0904/gallery.biggest_ceo_paychecks/4.html) listing the top ten most highly paid CEOs at publicly held companies in 2008. Their compensation starts at $25.6 million a year and tops out at $104 million dollars. The salaries tended to be fairly "low" - around $1 million, the real cash was in the bonuses - often $30-$40 million, plus stock options.

CNN Money also shows median CEO compensation averaging about $8 million.

I just don't see how anyone is worth that much money. I think that if you are paid over one million a year, you had better have some type of superpower - a cloak of invisibility, an ability to fly, superhuman strength, the ability to see through walls, just something that makes you extra special.

It seems that all you really need is a good Ivy League education, connected parents, and oh - I almost forgot - A PAIR OF TESTICLES. Every single person in the top ten is a man. Mostly white, but I see a couple of Indians and one African American in the crop.

I calculated the odds of this occurring by chance alone are 1/1024. The same odds as a woman having 10 kids and all of them being boys (all other things being equal).

It seems that the odds of a woman winning the Nobel Prize are slightly better. Between 1903 (when the first prizes were awarded) and 2008, thirty-five women have been awarded the prizes, compared to 700 men (http://womens-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/women_science_nobel_prize_winners). That means that 4.8% of the nobel prizes have been awarded to women, versus a fair 50-50 split. If the playing field were equal, then there should have been 367 women awarded the prize. So, approximately 332 women have been robbed of the Nobel Prize.

I'm rather demoralized because, as a middle aged woman, I am seeing that the women of my generation have not been able to achieve what they should have. And further, it seems declasse to mention the failings of feminism in this regard. In fact, it is bad form to even use the word feminism. The term is uncool. But if there is no feminism, how are women going to get a fair shake? What mechanism will achieve it? I certainly don't know.

I do know one thing, however. We women are often our own worst enemies. We sabotage other women because we are jealous of their achievement. We play the corporate games so that we can become one of the lucky ones. We throw each other under the train so often that we hardly need a man's help to do in our fellow ovarians.

So let's start helping each other. It will not only open doors for future generations, it will scare the hell out of the old male dinosaurs, who have relied on women to once again do their work for them.