Why Women Mean Business

On January 30, 2008, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) hosted a launch party for the new book Why Women Mean Business: Understanding the Emergence of our Next Economic Revolution by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland. The event took place at PwC’s offices at Embankment Place in London, where over 100 guests were invited to attend at talk by the authors. The event was sponsored by PwC’s Gender Advisory Council, which advises the Global CEO on gender issues, particularly retention and development of women and support of leadership initiatives.

Those concerned with diversity and gender issues in the business arena greeted this book with great fanfare, the book takes a new approach to these issues. Beyond “preaching to the converted,” this book seeks to bring the teachings of diversity and inclusion training to a wider audience in an understandable and accessible way.

The book goes several steps further than doling out the usual “case for diversity” plea. Instead, the book highlights WHY companies that embrace diversity and are sensitive to gender issues will become all-round employers of choice, as well as more effective marketers for this new century. It gives a lucid step-by-step guide for managers on how to create growth by valuing the input of both women and men in the workplace, explains why many current approaches to hiring more women haven’t worked well, and offers a new perspective.

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Spotlight on Leadership: Hillary Clinton

In the presidential election playing out in primaries across America, front-runner Hillary Clinton has the best chance of becoming president of any woman to date. Though The Glass Hammer typically confines its discussion to issues that deal directly with women in finance and law, Senator Clinton’s leadership style and the role of gender in presidential politics has been a hot button topic among all of the professional women we know.

Last night’s debate in South Carolina demonstrated that race and gender issues have dominated the Democratic debates in recent days. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton sought to de-emphasize race and gender and focus on their qualifications. However, all of the Democratic candidates, including John Edwards, recognized the importance of appealing to African-American and female voters. One of the highlights of the debate occurred when Senator Clinton, in an effort to transcend divisive race and gender issues, quoted Frederick Douglas, who ran the slogan on the masthead of his newspaper The North Star that “right has no sex and truth has no color.” More than 150 years later, are voters finally ready to accept that?

In a much discussed article in the New York Times last week, Gloria Steinem, women’s movement leader and founder of Ms. Magazine, advocated persuasively on behalf of Hillary Clinton’s bid for the presidency. In her article, entitled “Why Women are Never Frontrunners,” she raises some troubling questions about the way in which gender and race are perceived as characteristics of a leader. When comparing Senator Clinton to Senator Obama, she writes, “what worries me is that he is seen as unifying by his race while she is seen as divisive by her sex.” She goes on to note the disparity between the media’s criticism of Senator Clinton for “playing the gender card,” where Senator Obama is seen as unifying by referring to the civil rights movement.

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When a Woman Cries …

What is it about a few tears, or just a misty eye at a poignant public moment that spurs a media frenzy and possibly a turning point in the presidential election?

Tuesday night, January 8, was the night of the New Hampshire presidential primary. As the election results were coming in, I stepped out after work to meet two women friends for a burger and beer. One of the main topics of conversation – along with year-end bonuses and spring vacation plans – was Hillary Clinton tearing up at a campaign event a few days beforehand. My friends said they easily understood how stress, lack of sleep and frustration in a high stakes situation could lead a person to shed a few tears. One friend remarked, “She’s human – it’s normal.” But as the three of us were leaving the restaurant, we passed a group of men laughing, and overheard them making fun of Hillary’s emotional moment on the campaign trail.

Some people felt that the moment showed a more human side of Senator Clinton, and demonstrated how much she cared about her country and the American people, while others thought that her tears seemed insincere. No matter what side of last week’s debate you were on, you’ll have plenty of company, as everyone weighed in on this subject via every media outlet imaginable. Here at the Glass Hammer, this media scrutiny brought to mind another issue we’ve covered: how the same behavior in women and men can be perceived differently. (See “Can Women Win” from November 8, 2007)

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Pace Law School Offers Program for Returning Lawyers

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new-directions-class.jpeg You graduated from law school. Then, you practiced for a few years or pursued a career outside of the law. After you had your first child, you decided to scale back to part time. After the second one, you decided to take a few years off while the kids were small. You planned to go back to work when they started school. That was ten years ago.

If this profile describes you, you are not alone. Many lawyers take time off to raise a family or pursue another profession — perhaps a field they worked in before attending law school – with the intent to return to practice, only to find that the job market has changed significantly while they were away from the law. Not sure if their skills and contacts are relevant in today’s market, they have a hard time returning to the law.

Pace University School of Law recognized the need for a program that helps lawyers return to the law after some time away from practice. Administrators there conceived of the unique and innovative New Directions program to help lawyers returning to practice improve their skills and gain practice experience before going back on the job market. This program was recently profiled in a New York Times article called “Mom? Lawyer? The Ambivalence Track.”

The Glass Hammer interviewed Amy Gewirtz, Associate Director of Alumni Counseling and Relations in the Center for Career Development at Pace Law School, and Associate Director of the New Directions Program, to find out more about this exciting opportunity for returning professionals

The New Directions program, which graduated its first class in December 2007, was created by Ms. Gewirtz, along with Deb Volberg Pagnotta, Director of the program, and Mark Shulman, Assistant Dean for Graduate Programs and International Affiliations at Pace Law School. It was developed in collaboration with the Westchester Women’s Bar Association, which played an important role in helping with extern placement and networking with association members. In addition, Maja Hazell, former assistant Dean for Career Development, was fully supportive of the idea. Without her support, the program would not have gotten off the ground.

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Top Female CEOs of 2007

2007 might not have been a good year for the market overall, but there is some good news. This past year, Fortune 500 companies with a female CEO at the helm did better than ever.

A recent story by Del Jones of USA Today, entitled “Female CEOs Make More Gains in 2007,” analyzed financial performance data from Fortune 500 companies in 2007 and concluded with some encouraging news for women in business. First, women-led companies increased from 9 to a record high of 12 this past year, making up 2.4% of the Fortune 500. That might not seem like enough, but the better these women perform, the more they will lay the groundwork for future female CEOs.

There’s more good news. For the second year in a row, stock performance of female-led companies at least mirrored that of companies led by men. While women also lead many medium and small businesses in the United States and abroad, this study focused only on the largest public companies. However, these highly visible companies set the trends in business that investors and entrepreneurs take note of, and so the performance of these female CEOs is carefully monitored by industry observers.

The Glass Hammer would like to recognize the top six highest performing female CEOs on 2007, calculated according to the methodology of the USA Today study, which measured the overall stock price gain of female-run Fortune 500 companies.

  1. Patricia Woertz, Archer Daniels Midland. ADM stock climbed 45% in 2007 with Ms. Woertz at the helm, making her company the top performing female-led company in the Fortune 500. Appointed to run the $36 billion agribusiness conglomerate in 2006, Ms. Woertz used her background in the petroleum industry to make the company a leader in alterative energy by transforming organic material into ethanol fuel and biodiesel. Way to go green and make green!
  2. Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo. Pepsi stock rose 21% in 2007, under Ms. Nooyi’s leadership. Appointed as CEO of the soft-drink giant in 2006, Ms. Nooyi was CFO and President at Pepsi before reaching the top job. Ms. Nooyi was responsible for the company’s $108 billion stock market valuation as well as implementing a company wide diversity initiative that is looked to as a model by many other large companies.
  3. Andrea Jung, Avon Products. Avon stock climbed 20% in 2007, with Ms. Jung as CEO. Appointed CEO in 1999 and Chairman in 2001, Ms. Jung helped the global beauty company generate over $9 billion in revenue last year. In addition to developing new growth strategies and brand initiative, Ms. Jung is responsible for increasing Avon’s charitable work with breast cancer research and providing opportunities for women in developing countries.
  4. Meg Whitman, Ebay. Ms. Whitman became head of this online auction company in 1998, but it did not grow large enough to be a part of the Fortune 500 until 2005. Still, since going public in 1998, the company’s stock has risen 1,549%, making Ms. Whitman the all time career leader among female CEOs, as measured by the performance of their company’s stock. Beating back competition from Yahoo! And Amazon and trying to aggressively weed out fakes has been a recipe for success for Ms. Whitman, whose personal holdings in the company are valued at over $1.6 billion.
  5. Christina Gold, Western Union. Under Ms. Gold’s leadership, Western Union’s stock was up 8% in 2007. She became CEO in 2006 after Western Union was spun off from First Data. As the head of the $4 billion money transfer, bill pay and prepaid services company, she has helped to expand the company, which now provides services in over 200 countries and territories.

Congratulations to these high-performing female CEOs in 2007. In a bad year for many companies, these women proved that they have the experience, wisdom and insight to grow and improve their companies and increase stock prices, even in an uncertain economy. We look forward to hearing about the next generation of female CEOs following in their footsteps.

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MSN Leaves Women in Business off its “Most Influential” List

MSN released their annual list of the most influential women in 2007. The list included politicians (two, to be exact), singers, television personalities and actresses (six, to be exact), a random woman who popped up on the radar of bloggers at some point during 2007, a coach and an author. The big shocker? The list did not include a single woman in business, finance or law. That’s right, according to the movers and shakers at MSN, the myriad ways in which women leaders impacted our society in 2007 did not merit a single mention of women in the corporate world. In contrast, the list of most influential men was dominated by politicians and businessmen. Here, the list of 2007’s influential women, as interpreted by MSN News:

  1. Hillary Clinton, New York Senator and Democratic presidential candidate
  2. Benazir Bhutto, Former Prime Minister of Pakistan
  3. Elizabeth Hasselbeck, conservative television commentator
  4. Carrie Underwood, American Idol winner and country music singer
  5. Pat Summitt, University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach
  6. Miley Cyrus (otherwise known as Hannah Montana)
  7. Alice Temperley, Sarah Jessica Parker, Vera Wang, Erin Fetherston (in their capacity as designers of trendy affordable clothing)
  8. Obama Girl (someone who made a YouTube rap video endorsing presidential candidate Barak Obama – don’t ask)
  9. Tina Fey, writer and comedian
  10. Padma Lakshmi, Top Chef hostess
  11. J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter author

However, readers on the MSN message boards also noticed the discrepancy, which caused a bit of an outcry. Several readers noted that it seemed ridiculous to include Miley Cyrus and Benazir Bhutto on the same list of anything. The stark and surprising absence of women leaders in business was observed by several commentators, who panned the list as a superficial and inaccurate reflection of women’s accomplishments in 2007. One reader stated that she was disappointed in the list, which consisted mostly of “sexy-looking media celebrities,” and did a disservice to Clinton, Bhutto and other serious hardworking women who were left off. Another reader summed it up nicely, lamenting the exclusion of the “hundreds of women trying to make the world a better place” and stating bluntly, “that’s five minutes of my life that I will never get back, thanks.”

This pseudo-list of accomplished women inspired The Glass Hammer to try to compile the real thing. Who do you think should be included on the list of most influential women in 2007? Write to us or post below to let us know your thoughts. This article will be published shortly after the New Year.

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Return to the Work Force Programs: Spotlight on Lehman Brothers

With more and more women taking time off from their careers in finance to start a family or pursue personal ambitions, it is no wonder that the corporate world is in need of qualified female applicants. After studies revealed that it was difficult for employees to re-enter the work force after a career break, Lehman Brothers became one of the first investment banks to capitalize on this untapped pool of professionals.

Lehman Brothers co-sponsored a study called “On Ramps and Off Ramps,” which looked at how many financial professionals take off from work and what they do with that time. The results showed that 37 percent of females and 24 percent of males take a career break and then have trouble re-entering the work force.

In response to the data generated by the “On Ramps and Off Ramps” study, Lehman Brothers started the Encore program. Created by Lehman Brother’s Chief Diversity Officer, Anne Erni, the program was built around the premise that inviting mid-career executives back to corporate America added value to companies.

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What Is Happening to Women on Wall Street?

As yesterday’s Glass Hammer posting by Zoe-Cruz-not-the-Zoe-Cruz noted, these are tough times for women on Wall Street. Indeed, as a recent posting on the New York Times Dealbook website noted, Zoe Cruz’s forced transition into early retirement from her job heading up trading and risk operations at Morgan Stanley may have quietly heralded the end of an era.

What era? For the first time in history, the future looked bright for women on Wall Street. Zoe Cruz was the most senior woman on the Street, but examples of high flying female power brokers were increasingly more common. At a fundraiser last year for a women’s rights organization, I heard Sallie Krawcheck, Citigroup’s former Chief Financial Officer, speak passionately and convincingly about her road to success, the tradeoffs she made in her life on the way to “having it all,” and her enduring commitment to charitable causes. I remember feeling an almost giddy sense of jubilation and possibility, hearing her remarks and thinking that this life of professional success, family fulfillment and passion for public service could be mine one day too.

So you can imagine how I must have felt when I heard that Ms. Krawcheck was demoted from her top position at Citi in January 2007, where she had been widely been rumored to be the heir apparent to now-deposed CEO Charles O. Prince III.

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Someone Has To Take The Blame

Contributed, entirely coincidentally, by Zoe Cruz.

Last week, the co-president of Morgan Stanley and one of the most visible women on Wall Street, Zoe Cruz, was fired. According to Bloomberg.com, Ms. Cruz, who was born in Greece and received undergraduate and MBA degrees from Harvard University, started her Morgan Stanley career in 1982 as a bond trader. She became a managing director in 1990 and helped run foreign exchange before taking charge of fixed income, commodities and foreign exchange in 2000.

Only last year, Zoe Cruz topped the Forbes Magazine list of the 10 most powerful women in the world. Oh, how the mighty fall. So what happened?

Right now all of the major banks, corporations, and investment firms, are playing ‘hot potato’ and trying to pass the blame for the subprime market collapse onto scapegoats at the top in an attempt to halt hemorrhaging losses. Market-wide, credit losses entangled in subprime home loans add up to more than $50 billion, -and that loss continues to weaken the economy in ways both subtle and overt.

But is Cruz really to blame for Morgan Stanley’s slip-up?

As an editor of a blog that has covered this issue, or perhaps because of the strange coincidence that my name is also Zoe Cruz, I received an email that was actually a discussion between two people well-versed in the ups and downs of the financial industry. Their identities are kept confidential to protect the still-gainfully employed.

The email authors discussed how THE Zoe Cruz was unjustly represented in recent Wall Street Journal articles covering her demise. The emails also noted that three weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal ran an article stating that Cruz was the heir apparent to John Mack, C.E.O of Morgan Stanley, and now the Journal is publishing articles explaining how Mr. Mack lost confidence in Ms. Cruz.

The other writer also expressed disappointment, saying that Ms. Cruz had held the firm together and that now she was taking the fall for others and being treated as a scapegoat.

We are interested to know what The Glass Hammer readers think about the firing of Zoe Cruz, and whether you all think that the hatchet man on Wall Street is disproportionately targeting the few women at the top. Feel free to weigh in.

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Having a Mom Meltdown

Tonight I cried.

I shouldn’t have. It’s been a fantastic week, at least work-wise. I pulled a huge rabbit out of a hat and should have been resting on my laurels with a glass of bubbly, contemplating my glorious future with an exhilarated (but exhausted) team around me…

So why did I burst into tears? (Especially when I’m not big on crying. I avoid it when I can. My eyes go all piggy and red and it makes me look really not-put-together and also leaves me feeling lousy for days).

Some things get your eyes leaking and the voice wobbling, and tonight was one of those times. I was riding high on my journey home from my last assignment after an amazing week, thinking about how the future was looking rosy (and lucrative), when my daughter’s schoolteacher called my cell-phone and interrupted my reverie:

”Your daughter has failed to submit a major assignment on time; she tells us that it is because her excessive household duties prevent her from being able to perform her homework tasks effectively. She tells us that you are absent from the home so she can’t talk to you about it. We are concerned about you as a parent and your daughter’s performance because this is an important exam year…”

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