“Fellow males, get onboard. The closer that America comes to fully employing the talents of all its citizens, the greater its output of goods and services will be. We’ve seen what can be accomplished when we use 50% of our human capacity. If you visualize what 100% can do, you’ll join me as an unbridled optimist about America’s future.”

By Nicel Jane (Contributing Writer, Femme-O-Nomics)

One of the world’s richest men finally offers his perspective on women and the workplace. In an exclusive essay for Fortune Magazine, Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett calls himself an “unqualified optimist” and believes that “women are a major reason” why the American economy will continue to prosper.

While he acknowledged that the American “political and economic system that unleashes human potential to an extraordinary degree” is the main reason behind the country’s current progress, the 82-year old tycoon also pointed out that this was done with only half of its workforce. He writes: “For most of our history, women — whatever their abilities — have been relegated to the sidelines.”

He cited examples from his family where his sisters were led to believe that for them success was to be equated with “marrying well” while he was told that the opportunities of the world were his for the taking. He also wrote about the late Katharine Graham, former CEO of the Washington Post Co., who Buffett describes as having been “brainwashed…. to believe that men were superior, particularly at business.” While Graham was able to get past the brainwashing to eventually hold the reins of the Washington Post, Buffet relates that “her self-doubt remained, a testament to how deeply a message of unworthiness can be implanted in even a brilliant mind.”

Thankfully, these “funhouse mirrors” are slowly being shattered, and Buffett calls on the self-interest of fellow males to help shatter the remaining barriers that women still face: “Fellow males, get onboard. The closer that America comes to fully employing the talents of all its citizens, the greater its output of goods and services will be. We’ve seen what can be accomplished when we use 50% of our human capacity. If you visualize what 100% can do, you’ll join me as an unbridled optimist about America’s future.”

But not all, however, view the billionaire’s opinion in the same light. In the Roosh V Forum, the thread about the said piece showed varying negative reactions. Exactaking thinks that the whole essay “basically supports the whole feminism=cheap labor theory.” Hades agrees, writing: “Like a lot of people he does not give much of a shit about laborers, only that by increasing the labor pool it makes labor cheaper. Spot on.” Meanwhile, n0000 mentions five downsides of “employing 100% of people as worker drones….1. Massive healthcare costs due to lower quality of food because the mom isn’t home to cook for the family. 2. Lower iq due to poor nutrition means less innovation, more crime. 3. Single parent families cause increased crime, poverty. 4. Weaker families due to kids spending less time around parents. 5. A culture focused on instant consumption instead of saving for the future.”

Other sectors, like the Women in Manufacturing, however, lauded Buffett’s piece. Calling it “motivational” the group also thanked him “for taking a stand for women and reminding the country how important we are for the future of America’s prosperity.”

This post was originally published at Femme-O-Nomics Follow  on Twitter at @femmeonomics.