On June 4, CNBC unveiled a special episode of its Fast Money show, an episode to showcase Women at the Top in Finance. The need to create greater opportunities for women in the financial sector or Wall Street has been a hot topic for at least the past 20 years. So a Fast Money show dedicated to highlighting successful women in Finance was a terrific idea, we thought.
This Women at the Top show was planned, choreographed and produced with the noblest of intentions. We feel sure of that. But sometimes, good intentions or pride about one’s good intentions, can lead to a lack of balance, a lack that tarnishes both the intentions and the goal. Did this happen with CNBC’s Women at the Top show?
Look at the four invited women panelists on this CNBC special:
Now look at the invited women experts.
There was only one female expert who didn’t quite fit the mold.
What mold did Alexandra Lebenthal break? What is the diversity she added to this CNBC Women at the Top special? She was the only white brunette among the other invitees who were all white blondes. Ms. Lebenthal must be special indeed to be chosen as the mold-breaker.
This “white blond” mold was not just restricted to the 1-hour CNBC Special show. Look at the 3 Women at the Top that blond Karen Finerman interviewed prior to the show.
We are simple folk. We may not know much but we do get what we see or made to see in this case. So to us, the CNBC message seems loud & clear. That the Women at the Top in Finance club is for “white blonds” with the requisite token “white brunette”!
Surely, that cannot be the reality in America. There must be minority women who have made it to the top in finance – Hispanic-Latin women, African-American & Caribbean-American women, women from Middle Eastern & Asian races. We happen to know a couple ourselves. Perhaps, they only seem so to us because of our own low plebian vantage point.
But CNBC, the self-proclaimed “first in business worldwide” network, must have a much more elevated vantage point. And, apparently, from its high vantage point, CNBC could not find any minority woman who matched its chosen “white blond” collection of panelists, guests and interviewees. May be that is why they chose brunette Alexandra Lebenthal to talk about municipal bonds rather than blond Meredith Whitney. Kudos to CNBC for their determined effort to add color diversity to their Women at the Top CNBC special.
Unfortunately, CNBC is not unique in believing that “white” women represent the views, opinions, feelings & aspirations of women from all races and regions. You see this conviction in just about every forum or organization that claims to speak for “women”. This is probably why virtually all women’s groups seem dominated by “white” women and seem to have the same agenda.
No “white” man, or at least no “white” man on the public stage, will claim to speak for men of other colors, races or ethnic backgrounds. To do so would immediately cast that man as a bigot or a racist. This, we think, is a positive development that men could be proud of.
So, if we had the courage of Professor Henry Higgins, we too would ask “why can’t women be more like men” in ensuring diversity of colors, races, ethnic backgrounds & views in women’s agendas? Or, in the case of CNBC, in TV specials called Women at the Top in Finance!
Note: Yes, we do know that the anchor of Fast Money is Melissa Lee. Had the Women’s Special show been on the Squawk Box platform, then Becky Quick would have been in the anchor seat. So having Melissa host the show is more of an accident than a choice. Had CNBC wanted racial diversity, they would have included Sharon Epperson or Michelle Caruso Cabrera as panelists or segment reporters. And by the way, Melissa Lee is an all-Greatneck woman by her own on-air admission. And, from what we are told, Greatneck girls are prototype for rich elite girls found on ABC’s Subrogatory show. So CNBC should not spin Ms. Lee’s presence as a diversity claim.
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