Career-minded women exploited by companies.

About 15 years ago, despite many women still working at traditional assistant positions without promotion potential, well-known companies would take every chance to advertise themselves by showing what a good environment and opportunities they gave their capable female employees. Since the times and the law required companies to offer career paths to more women, major companies took advantage of a tiny number of their female employees working on the same level as men in order to improve their images. Unsurprisingly, this helped companies improve their image.

Contrary to good images conveyed by companies, I would often hear various complaints and about terrible situations from these career women. When a large company was introduced as a good workplace for career-minded women in a TV program, my friend working on the same level as men in the company sighed about the introduction, saying that the information in the TV program was far from the reality. She added that she had realized her company's ulterior motive behind the advertising campaign. Sadly, it's just one example.

As for my company where I was working in a male-dominated position, it didn't try to use their female employees in order to improve its image. Rather, my company didn't pay attention to doing that. However, I was sometimes requested to deliver a speech as a part of the recruitment activity of my company.

Today, women working on the same level as men have become much more common. However, many companies still try to show what a good working environment they give their female employees and what important roles their female workers are playing in their businesses. I think that these appeals imply companies have many problems solved.

Needless to say, all of these problems aren't attributed to companies. Our economic structure that is overly dependent on working long hours and some traditional ideas are the fundamental problems.