Someday

Today I had a meeting with a senior executive in my company. It wasn't me alone, but a few of us went into the NYC office for the meeting. The senior executive was a woman and as it turned out she and I were the only women in the room. Of course that is not unusual for me especially since I work in IT, but today I noticed. Maybe because the woman exec is so senior in my company. I know I am certainly impressed by her. Everyone (or at least every woman working in corporate America) knows that the higher up the chain you go, the fewer women you see.

Sometime after the meeting a colleague and I knocked on her office door to ask a few follow up questions and I have to admit that I didn't necessarily hear everything that was said because I was completely wowed by this woman's office. It was a nice size and certainly well-appointed, but the thing that made it so amazing was the fact that two of the walls were floor to ceiling windows that faced west and north from the 25th floor in the heart of Times Square. You could see west all the way to the Hudson and there was a perfect view of all the jumbotrons and other enormous signs and lights that make Times Square what it is. Now this is an office, I was thinking to myself. This is an office I could aspire to.

So often I feel the challenges of being a woman in the corporate world. I've been held back and insulted and any one of a number things that don't happen to men. Rarely do I feel empowered as a woman and rarely do I feel I have the same chance for promotion and success as a man. But as we were walking out of her office and I glanced back at the view I thought, someday. Someday I think I'd like that. And it might just happen.