Becoming a Parent/Leaving the Workplace–Choice or Discrimination?
Sylvia Ann Hewlett writes extensively about the barrier women face to promotion, especially if they exit the workplace to care for young children or increasingly aging parents. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: discrimination, parenting, work-life balance
Celebrity Boards, Super Star CEO’s
The New York Times Dealbook today had a story entitled Handicapping the Investment of IAC in Chelsea Clinton by Steven M. Davidoff, former corporate lawyer who is a professor at Ohio State University. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Chelsea Clinton, corporate boards, corporate executives, female executives, IAC, leadership, management, McKinsey and Company, New York Times
Lady Gaga and Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is well known for its case study method. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Anita Elberse, case study method, entertainment, Harvard Business School, Lady Gaga, leadership, management
Is the Job Interview Overrated?
Tags: board of directors, career transitions, Ebay, female executives, Hewlett-Packard, hiring, interviewing, James B. Stewart, Leo Apotheker, management, Meg Whitman, Michael Useem, msnbc.com, phone interviews, The New York Times, University of Pennsylvania
Pay Gap Persists for Female Undergraduates and MBA’s
It’s graduation season. And those lucky graduates who have landed jobs, may have some disappointing news if they are female. The wage gap is alive and well. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: college graduates, difference in lifetime earnings, employee attitudes, gender parity, M.B.A. first jobs, pay equity
Nice Girls …the Sequel
Early in the last decade Dr. Lois P. Frankel wrote Nince Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office. The book touched a nerve, became an international best seller and was translated into 25 languages. Now Dr. Frankel is back with a co-author, Carol Frohlinger who is an attorney and cofounder of Negotiating Women, Inc., whose mission is to help women negotiate more confidently. The title of their new book is Nice Girls Just Don’t Get It. Read the rest of this entry »
The Benefits of an Unexpected Career
Right out of graduate school, journalism still a gleam in my eye, another recession prompted an early career detour into retailing. After a six month stretch while I finished my thesis, unexpectedly I became what generations had known as a floor walker. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: consumer spending, low wages, retailing, survivor jobs
Equal Pay
Yesterday was Equal Pay Day which comes from the amount of time women need to work into the following year to make the equivalent men made the year before. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: college graduates, equal pay, equal pay for equal work, female executives, gender parity, Huffington Post, McKinsey and Company, Wall Street Journal, women in business
Where the Female Executives Are–Country by Country
Overall the numbers of senior executives dipped in the last two years according to research from the Grant Thorton International Business Report, an annual survery of the views of senior executives of privately held companies by the accounting and risk management firm of the same name. The percentage of female senior managers dipped from 24% tin 2009 to 20% in 2011.
Thailand led with 45% of senior management positions held by women, followed by Georgia (40%) Russia (36%) Hong Kong and the Phillipines (tied at 35% )
The data revealed the countries of the G7 lagged behind Asia/Pacific. Great Britain(23%) and the United States(15%). Stil the United States did better than Germany (11%) and Japan (9%). What can we learn from the Pacific Rim?
It’s Still Lonely for Women at the Top
Yesterday was the 100 Anniversary of International Women’s Day 2011. Throughout the blogosphere there were opinions, even tributes. Arianna Huffington wrote an essay about her mother. Tina Brown, now editor-in-chief of Daily Beast and Newsweek was championing the second Women in the World Summit. And on Careerdiva.net Eve Tahmincioglu who didn’t want to blog about the day asked hard questions about the distance women have traveled and what they need to still accomplish.
Now, it seems that many women are heeding the motto of former Secretary of State Madeline Albright who recently spoke at Ted Women and said, “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.”
There are several grass roots organizations that have gained traction recently and are poised to assist qualified women gain a place on corporate boards. DirectWomen, 2020 Women on Boards currently in Boston but expects to expand nationwide this year, and WomenCorporateDirectors in 27 cities worldwide are all gaining visibility.
Recently Mary Ann Jorgenson, an attorney and CEO of DirectWomen provided a brief overview of the organization. It had its start as part of an American Bar Association initiative to identify board ready qualified female attorneys. The attorney’s who go through an intensive 2 ½ day program are selected by a competitive winnowing process (only 1 in 5 makes it through) and are chosen in part for their business judgment and problem solving skills. Of 60 womenwho have participated, 15 now sit on corporate boards.
Ms. Jorgenson says the biggest impediment may be the mind sets of those screening for the boards. “They want other CEO’s,” she said. Still she said attorneys, especially those with experience in risk mangement and regulatory issues, may be more in tune with the current needs of corporations.
What’s your experience with women’s organizations?
