Corporate america

By Risa Green

When I was in college, I took one of those life-changing classes that completely altered the way I thought about the world. It was called America in the 1950’s, but the discussions were really more about how American society had changed since that time, and the various movements that brought those changes about. One of the major topics in the class was about whether one can really change an institution from within, or whether change has to be effected by outside forces. We spent a lot of time talking about whether a hippie who takes a corporate job with the intention of changing the “old white male” mentality of that corporation could truly maintain his integrity, or whether he was just another sell out who would inevitably become one of the “suits” he intended to change in the first place.

What was never discussed in our class, however, was the idea that you could change an institutional mentality simply by rejecting the institution all together. If women, for example, just said no to Wall Street jobs, then wouldn’t Wall Street firms be forced to change in order to attract women? Read More »