Poor, Poor Barbara

I have made no secret on this blog of my belief that gender discrimination still exists.  I have tried to come at this subject in various ways that might make the subject be taken seriously and that might help human resources professionals deal with it practically and effectively.

I have no doubt that TV personality Barbara Walters felt the sting of gender discrimination during her career as she writes in her new memoir Audition.  (Click here for more on the book.)  The TV news ceiling was probably made of steel rather than glass when she was rising or trying to rise as a television news commentator and anchor.

Audition isn’t much help to women (or men, for that matter), however, in giving advice on how to navigate the rough waters of the corporate world.  Rather than providing young people (particularly young women) a guide to dealing with discriminatory attitudes and practices in the workplace, it seems little more than a tell-all book designed to make money by divulging secrets about her life and the people (particularly male paramours) in it.  She, thus, joins the ranks of Kitty Kelley, Joan Collins, and Xaviera Hollander.

Barbara Walters isn’t the “flat-out failure” she thought she was at one time.  Her memoir convinces me more than ever, though, that Gilda Radner had her pegged when she aped Walters on Saturday Night Live as Baba Wawa.