Battling against gender bias and crashing through the glass-ceiling

Carly Fiorina is reluctant to admit it but one of the many challenges of her job as chief executive of Hewlett-Packard is the "gender issue".

For the first 12 months or so after her appointment in July 1999, Ms Fiorina struggled to focus media attention on business issues, rather than on the fact that she is a woman.

She wanted to talk about bringing speed and urgency to a company that had become slow and stodgy; about "preserving the best and reinventing the rest" of Hewlett-Packard's vaunted corporate culture, and about leading rather than following in the internet revolution.

The press was more interested in her style of dress and what it felt like to be a female boss in the male-dominated high-technology industry.

Nonetheless, Ms Fiorina, and Hewlett-Packard by extension, got a good press - although she "never played the gender card", her public relations officials insist.

She was pictured on the cover of business magazines and feted as the world's most prominent businesswoman; the first female to head a leading computer company and one of the very few to hold the chief executive job at a leading US company of any sort.

Some would say that she should have been prepared to take the rough with the smooth or enjoy the celebrity status for as long as it might last. But the pitfalls of the "gender issue" emerged very quickly.

When Ms Fiorina declared - perhaps in an attempt to get back to her business script - that "there really is not a glass ceiling any more", she was roundly criticised.

"I probably didn't communicate well," she now acknowledges. "But I think it is a terrible thing when we send a message to young women that there is this thing called the glass ceiling. It is invisible, you won't know when it is going to hit you, but one of these days some invisible barrier is going to stand in your way.

"Companies that face intense competitive situations will figure out, over time, that all that matters is talent. Bias of any kind is an unaffordable luxury."

Ambitious women should "absolutely" look for opportunities in intensely competitive industries, she advises. Did Ms Fiorina somehow sidestep workplace sexism? Not at all, she says. "I have been harassed. You name it - it has happened to me. Sometimes you ignore it. Sometimes you confront it, sometimes you just keep going. But it can't become your problem. I say this to young women all the time. You can't carry it with you."

Recently, Ms Fiorina's determination has been tested.

As Hewlett-Packard's financial performance has deteriorated, commentators have been insinuating that she is not "man enough for the job". Negative stereotypes of women tinge coverage of the company's problems and competitors are poking fun at Hewlett-Packard for having a female leader.

"Pack it in, babe," a New York Observer columnist wrote, while a British newspaper ran a headline referring to her as a "tarnished golden girl".

"It's ridiculous that she is criticised because she is an attractive female. It's beyond comprehension that she takes arrows because she dresses well," says Mr Bob Knowling, a member of Hewlett-Packard's board of directors, who as an African-American has no doubt felt the sting of discrimination himself.

Other board members chime in. It is disappointing, they say, to see a female executive subjected to sexism in this day and age.

"I hear it and I totally dislike it," says Mr Dick Hackborn.

"I am shocked. I never expected it."

Ms Fiorina is also confronting the "gender issue" head on. "I think it is clearly different for me. I think it has a personal edge to it. There has been a lot of commentary about my appearance, my dress - that I have a private bathroom - that I have built a palatial office."

In reality, Ms Fiorina occupies the office used by her predecessor and she uses the women's room down the hall - just like any other female Hewlett-Packard employee.

She may sometimes be found browsing the aisles of a local supermarket and does not even have a housekeeper - a decision that must have more to do with a desire for privacy than with personal financial priorities.

At work she has eschewed the use of helicopters and limousines, and is determined to dispel reports that she is a spendthrift at a time when Hewlett-Packard employees are taking voluntary pay cuts.

Still, there is no pretending that Ms Fiorina is just "one of the guys".

She is intense, articulate and ambitious. She presents herself as a leader and tries harder than most of her male counterparts to make a good impression.

While she stands as an example to young women that it is possible to reach the top in corporate America, Ms Fiorina's struggles to overcome sexist stereotypes should send an even more compelling message.

The glass ceiling may have been broken - in certain companies and in certain industries - but life at the top remains hostile for female executives.