Old Boys' Network

When doing questions on gender discrimination and under-representation, remember this point on the Old Boys' Network. Whether deliberately or otherwise, vacancies at the top are often filled by men as the men already up there tend to look for someone in their group (i.e. network) to fill the post, and this usually happens to be a man. Women --at least for now -- will find it difficult to break into this 'inner circle'.
It can thus be argued that there is actually not a conscious effort to keep women out of the upper echelons of any organisation. What happens is that a man often gets chosen by default to fill a post up there as the power-holders up there mainly network among the same gender. Hence, when they are looking for someone to fill a vacancy up there, they usually look for those in their own network, and by default, a man gets chosen. As the article mentions, this phenomenon can lead to what is called 'incestuous breeding', causing the organization to end up with people of not only the same gender, but also people of the same mindset and thinking, which is unhealthy.