The Wolf of Wall Street was nominated for five Academy Awards this year. The Martin Scorsese blockbuster is the story of New York stockbroker Jordan Belfort’s rise to success in the 80’s—with money, power, and women at his disposal—and his fall, involving crime, corruption, and the federal government.
But what if women were to take on the corporate world in the same way? What would that movie look like? Director Nicole Donadio and her female parody troop recreated The Wolf of Wall Street trailer in its entirety with reversed gender roles. While many of the viewer comments speak to production quality, the majority of them revolve around women and power. And most of them in a derogatory way.
Why is the concept of women in powerful positions still such fodder for attack?
Leading companies are still failing to capitalize on the talents of women in the workforce. Globally, a gender wage gap and significant disparity between women and men in high-level corporate positions continue to be an issue:
- Women earn between 70% and 90% of what men earn for comparable work
- Just 13% of Fortune 500 companies have female CEOs
- Women comprise only 9% of global corporate boards
- Just 28% of companies include gender diversity in their company strategies
As mentioned in our earlier blog post, “International Women’s Day: Celebrating Women’s Business Enterprises,” women are driving tremendous gains for our nation’s economy. In fact, the Guardian Small Business Research Institute has projected that women-owned businesses will create 5 million new jobs by 2018—about one-third of the 15.3 million total new jobs anticipated by the Department of Labor.
If women’s economic participation makes such solid business sense, why haven’t more companies made closing the gender gap a priority?
