Sunday, June 1, 2008

In her May 28 op-ed column, "Our Own Glass Ceilings," Ruth Marcus pointed to an "ambition gap" as a reason that men greatly outnumber women in elected office and other high-level jobs. She wrote that sometimes, "the hardest glass ceilings" are those that women impose on themselves.

As a 23-year-old woman just finishing her first year of work in male-dominated Washington, I find it difficult to accept that women are creating obstacles for themselves without some help from society. In choosing not to run for office, we are limited by our own awareness that popular culture deems it unattractive for women to pursue careers in power.

If my generation of young, ambitious women is to break through the glass ceiling, we as a society (men included) first need to forget that one exists.

CAROLINE ANDERSON

Washington

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Ruth Marcus attributed much of the gender disparity in today's high-powered jobs to limits that women place on themselves. This suggestion is very troubling. While it may well be that the shortage of female politicians and chief executive officers does not originate in a sexist electorate or a chauvinist board of directors who elect and select more men than women, it most certainly does not stem merely from women's lesser drive to achieve. At least, that is not the root cause.

Women have long been expected -- by their spouses and by society as a whole -- to sacrifice their own ambitions on behalf of their husbands' pursuits. While that has changed to some extent, many societal barriers to women's full professional achievement still exist, over and above traditional sexism. The glass ceilings over women's heads may come from within, but it is centuries of sexist policy and practice that have steered women to internalize these limitations.

RIVKA FRIEDMAN

Washington