Something we commonly encounter in plots for Asian dramas - Chinese dramas especially stand out for me based on my recollection, but I acknowledge that I may be mistaken - is this argument that female CEO's can't do well running certain types of businesses if they've never been married or had a family...

Let's completely ignore the fact that an entirely contradictory argument constantly used to discredit women in the workforce - worldwide - is that we can't effectively balance our work and family lives so one always suffers; or that we only know how to keep a home but none of that is applicable to effectively running a business. *eyes rolling practically out of my head*  

Does this then mean that men should never be trusted to successfully run a company producing let's say...tampons? Bras? Breast feeding pumps? Of course not. We never hear those people making such claims about men either. See, there's this thing called market research. There are also things called employees who actually collectively form the structure of the company to support its goals. There are schools and colleges that educate people so they're proficient at certain things. I could go on for days. Can a man who's never worn a woman's garment not design female clothing wear? Would a woman doing so potentially have a leg up over him - possibly, yes! I can agree to that, as men wouldn't naturally be aware of what may make us uncomfortable. But does that mean the man can't refer to a female to find out or that they may not have staff working under them who'd be responsible for bringing forward and/or addressing such issues? I'm being entirely simplistic here too, obviously. 

It's always the dumb ass board members in these dramas that push this crap too. 

I could go on and on about this and about all the other illogical crap men say to deny us our value because they know if they properly acknowledge us, their worth would go down the drain. I'm not even trying to be insulting towards men. I think everyone has their value AND ways to overcome their weaknesses.

My point here is I hope like hell that this is not something that's predominant - as portrayed - in real life, anywhere in the world. I'm not naive enough to believe that it doesn't happen in most of the world but I hope a country as advanced as China doesn't really have board members in huge companies such as these who come out of their mouths with this b.s., especially not the FEMALE board members too. I hope that women aren't forcing themselves to get married because of finding themselves is shit situations like these. If so, those women need to stand up in those meetings and completely invalidate those prejudices to their faces so they receive the reality check they deserve. The world (present day and throughout history) is proof that such an uneducated sentiment is completely unfounded. 

On an entirely different note...and this is somewhat way off topic. What's with the fact that across the world master chefs are predominantly male! Like, for centuries, women were told our place was in the home and in the kitchen. So how in hell did it end up being that most chefs were male?!?!?! Like WHAT? That's just something I've been bitching about for years since I first learned that fact. I thought about it now because it's right up there with the earlier contradictions I mentioned. We're supposed to be fantastic cooks in the home but yet not considered intelligent or business savvy enough to actually run a kitchen and make it a successful business. So...clearly kicking ass in the kitchen at home doesn't translate to shit when it comes to running a restaurant-related company. We get no credit for what we're able to do in the home. As such, exactly what would our CEO in the drama gain by getting married that should make her more qualified to roll out the new line she's hoping to gain support for? Not a damn thing. That's what. 

In response to the subject of this discussion - "A female CEO can't produce a good family-oriented product if she isn't married with a family of her own??" - My counter is, can a man? We all know it's relatively uncommon for a man to be involved in the homemaking aspect of married life, so why aren't they questioned on the same way as a woman in the same role? Why aren't the expectations the same?

Okay, got that off my chest. Moving on. 

A worthwhile read, thanks for sharing. On the question of why most top CHEFS are male while most of the world's COOKS are female, the answer is both simple and sadly relevant to the points you made. The word "chef" has nothing at all to do with cooking. It's the French word for "chief, boss" etc.  In embassies and other dilomatic postings, one of the senior roles is "chef de mission". So, thanks to the patriarchy, the chef, the "boss" is still most often male, even in the kitchen.

Oh wow! Seriously!  That explains a lot. This is super informative and something I definitely wouldn't have become aware of otherwise. Thanks for your response!