That is, I think, a detective novel by Agatha Christie, but it also applies to two situations I read about today. First, Gawker laid off its one-and-only female employee. Then there was this:
New York Gov. David Paterson said on Wednesday he was "outraged" that no women were nominated to lead the state's Court of Appeals, its highest court, forcing him to choose from seven men recommended by a panel.
The current Chief Judge, the one who's being replaced, is the first woman who ever held that job, Judith Kaye. That her replacement would have to be picked among seven men might suggests either that a) there are no qualified women, none at all, in the whole state of New York, b) that you couldn't possibly replace one woman with another (the horror! we already HAD one of those, now shut up) or c) that the people nominating candidates are oblivious to the existence of capable women candidates, because women as something else than women tend to be invisible people.