HBR's Women at Work Collection

The Memo Every Woman Keeps in Her Desk

by Kathleen Reardon

Author’s note: When I wrote “The Memo Every Woman Keeps in Her Desk” in 1993 it was generally thought that men rising in the workforce at that time would be far more comfortable working beside women than their fathers had been.

I wrote the case study to reflect what I saw at the time—that women directly competing with men for jobs was easier to accept in theory than in reality, especially at senior levels. And while it wasn’t acceptable in most organizations to overtly voice objections to women’s promotions simply because of gender, that did not mean such feelings no longer existed. With regard to gender equity, the job was far from done in 1993 and remains far from done now.

Of course, ...