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The essence of modern radical feminism is conspiracy theory. While you or I look at the advance of "women's rights" and see the lurching, slightly drunken logic of progress balanced against the persistent tug of custom and tradition and the reality of day-to-day life, the the wild eyed feminist sees a vast testosterone conspiracy. The only thing that explains the lack of equal or superior representation of women in business, athletics, politics, etc., is a vast conspiracy by men everywhere at all times to keep women down. If you were to substitute the Trilateral Commission and international bankers for "men", it would quickly become clear that radical feminism deserves to be consigned to the loony fringes of our culture alongside Black Helicopter Theorists and Ross Perot. Unfortunately, unlike anti-fluoridationists, feminism has many true believers and allies buried deep in the heart of the cultural machinery. So it behooves us to belabor the obvious and keep pounding away at their premises with common sense.

One of the most beloved manifestations of the vast conspiracy for feminists is the "Glass Ceiling". There is, it seems, a distinct lack of women occupying positions of high power and control in the business community. 25 years into the feminist revolution, and only a small handful of woemn occupy the seats of chairman, President or CEO in major corporations. What more proof do we need that the "old boy network" is working overtime to preserve it perks at the expense of women?

Feminism, like so many other wacky ideologies, prefers to start with the Big Theory, and then look forward to explain observable facts as manifestations of that theory. They do not feel the need or the urge to start by looking at the facts, then working their way back from them to see where they logically lead. Anyone, and I mean anyone, who takes the latter approach in thinking about the glass ceiling will very quickly see that the glass ceiling is a common sense and permanent fact of life in our or any culture.

Not wishing to discriminate, let's toss the vast male conspiracy out on the table. It is true that the inertia of social custom is not easily or quickly changed. I have no doubt that embedded attitudes about the abilities and nature of women in business may have played some small part in making it more difficult for some women to move up the ladder. But the nature of modern business suggests that maintaining this way of thinking would prove directly counterproductive. If company A refuses to promote skilled and experienced women because the old farts running the company don't think they can cut it, and company B offers women the oppornutiy to advance, guess which company will soon have all sorts of talented women working for it? The tyranny of social custom can be maintained only if it is granted monopoly status, either through universal consent or law. Neither of these things apply to the role of women in American business in the last quarter of the 20th Century.

Some writers have pointed to generational change. Because very few women pursued the educational and career path required to run big companies until the '70s, it has been suggested that the glass ceiling is a temporary phenomenon which will melt away as the new generation of women steeped in business skills and men marinated in a feminist oriented culture move into their 40s and 50s. Well, the time has come, and although we are seeing some change in the numbers, it is nowehere near parity. If one thinks like a feminist, this leads one back to the vast conspiracy. If one thnks like a sensible human being, it leads one to pursue other factors.

My personal observations over the years haf led me to discover a remarkable theory: women have babies. While it is true that not all women have babies, they do tend to have more than men. This theory will no doubt make Feminists uncomfortable. They don't especially like the notion of women having babies. Indeed,they see aborting one's unborn baby as the highest expression of solidarity with feminist principles. But, nonethless, women insist on having babies. What is more, having drunk deeply from the Feminist well, they have had a tendency recently to focus on career first, moving up the ladder right alongside their male counterparts, until their biological clocks go off and they panc. They wake up at 33 or 35 or 37 and realize that they really do want a baby, and they must have it now!

The years between 33 and 40 are the most critical for corporate success. These are the years where talented individuals vie for Manager slots, then Director slots, then VP slots. If one has one's eye on the top, this is the worst possible time to voluntarily remove oneself from the race. But that is precisely what millions of women do each year, their career dedication temporarily overwhelmed by biological imperatives. In my own experience, over the last two years I have seen three very talented women rapidly rising through the ranks get pregnant, have babies, and come back to work part time. All of them effectively removed themselves for consideration to the next level. meanwhile, their male counterparts continue to scramble up the ladder. Even those women who do the proper feminist thing and come back to work full time find themselves less focused. The demands of young children, daycare, preschool, etc., tend to turn those 12 hour days into 8 hours days in a hurry.

At this point the Feminist might interject: "But that's not fair. If men pulled their fair share of raising the children, or if sufficient social [i.e. government] supports were available, women woudn't have to be penalized". Well, I suppose that may be true. If one believes that the tendency of women to want to nurture and raise their offspring is a social construct rather than a hard wired biological necessity, we might be able to change it. But all of the available evidence points the other way. In every society, for all of human history, women have played the primary role in raising and socializing children. This is not coincidence. It is not conspiracy. It is the essence and stuff of life itself.

I am not the first to realize the irony of the glass ceiling. Feminism, by urging women to forego family and children at the age nature intended, have set up the situation where women are trapped into having babies and temporarily relinquishing the corporate race at the worst possible time. It is also ironic that the same qualities that make women so effective as workers in the information age (communications skills, teamwork, patience, an enhanced ability to see laterally as well as straight ahead) are qualities tailor made for raising and socializing children.

It ain't men who made this so, although in some narrow and shallow sense men do gain advantage from it. It is Mother Nature, or Gaia, or whatever pagan goddess Feminists see in charge these days.