CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA May 23 (DPI) – The Washington Post used the Freedom of Information Act to force a billionaire hedge fund manager and the University of Virginia to disclose his private remarks at a closed April forum — and his opinion on women, motherhood and the demands of Wall Street trading set off a tempest on comment boards.
Paul Tudor Jones, something of a legend on Wall Street and a large benefactor to UVA, agreed to sit on an April 27 symposium at the university’s Commerce School. At one point a woman asked why the panel only featured “rich, white, middle-aged men.” Jones responded that trading requires intense focus, a focus he believes many women lose when they have children. “As soon as that baby’s lips touched that girl’s bosom, forget it,” Jones said.
He added that motherhood was something men “will never share,” an insight rarely discussed publicly. “Every single investment idea . . . every desire to understand what is going to make this go up or go down is going to be overwhelmed by the most beautiful experience . . . which a man will never share, about a mode of connection between that mother and that baby,” he said.
The Washington Post site was promptly deluged with comments – more than 750 by midmorning Friday. Some called Tudor Jones names — “narcissist” and “cretin” — while others, including many women, said he was entitled to any opinion he wanted. Others still said he was stating the obvious.
I think it’s hilarious that UVA professors have complained and people on the forum have their panties in a twist over what he said.
For (Pete’s) sakes, people – this is his opinion. He speaks from his personal/professional experience, perspective, and observation. Who are any of you to say he’s wrong? This is his world view, again, based on his own experience. He didn’t say women shouldn’t go into this field but stated how he believes they can become less effective.
The fact is, more women DO stay home with their children, or at least the main responsibility for the kids falls on their shoulders. The fact is, when women opt out of their chosen field to raise children, they lose opportunities to move ahead as well as more $. They rarely regain the lost ground if and when they rejoin the workforce. If a woman continues working while raising children, she ordinarily isn’t as free to travel or focus on her career as she may have prior to motherhood.
I am a woman – there was much truth to what he said. I raised a child and missed opportunities to further my career. I do not regret it at all but opportunities came and went because my priority was raising my daughter (husband was hardly ever involved and was out of the picture when she was four years old – I was a single parent after that).
Jeez. What happened to free speech?
And another:
What a bunch of squawking over the obvious. The only thing really outrageous is that so many thin-skinned people are busy being outraged. Last I knew we still have Amendment 1 and supposedly we are a country that prizes diversity of opinion and diversity of choices in how to live life. No more. Now we are in an age now where only the most scrupulously enlightened and sensitive opinions can be expressed without sparking rage, hatred and the usual accusations of some ‘ism. How dreary and joyless.