On the Way Up the Corporate Ladder, Carry Your “Pearls” Advises Morgan Stanley’s Carla Harris

womanladder.JPGBy Michele Drayton

This past April 2014, the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) Chicago Chapter held its 31st Annual Celebration of Achievement Luncheon in Chicago, marking the 35th anniversary of the chapter’s founding and showcasing the accomplishments of corporate executives and entrepreneurs.

Keynote speaker Carla A. Harris recounted how when she came to Wall Street in 1987, she felt that she had the smarts and work ethic that appeared to guarantee success. Realizing quickly that this would take her only so far, she reached for her “pearls,” or career strategies that propelled her to success. She shared them before a rapt audience of nearly 500 women and men at the event.

Leading in Turbulent Times
“If you consider yourself a leader in the 21st century, you must be comfortable taking risks,” said Harris, commanding the center of the stage as she discussed one of her pearls. “In the environment we’ve had for the last six years everyone else may be ducking, but you have to have clear vision to see opportunity. Now is not the time to keep your head down. When you submerge your voice you become irrelevant.”

The women who are fearless as turmoil ensues – Harris cited GM CEO Mary Barra, Xerox Chairman and CEO Ursula Burns and HP President and CEO Meg Whitman – reinforce the fact that uncertain circumstances can produce uncommon victories.

Even amid the economic doldrums reflected in a 6.7 percent unemployment rate, Harris urged women to take the lead on a new project or recommend a process improvement. Those actions demonstrate relevance, and colleagues and stakeholders will take notice and say: “She’s trying to put points on the board. She’s moving the ball down the field. She is a keeper,” Harris said.

Crafting Your Personal Brand
A Wall Street veteran for nearly 27 years, Harris is Vice Chairman of Wealth Management, Senior Client Advisor and Managing Director at Morgan Stanley in New York. She is the author of the book, Expect to Win, her playbook for workplace success.

One insight Harris learned early involves understanding the importance of workplace perception. For example, a woman aiming for a P&L role will not get tapped for that position unless colleagues see her as quantitative, analytical and strategic. Harris advised audience members to select three words they want colleagues to use to describe them when they are not in the room, where decisions are made about hiring, promotion and compensation.

Recounting her own experience, Harris remembered a senior colleague telling her she wasn’t “tough” enough for investment banking. Instead of rebuffing the colleague, Harris, who earned two degrees from Harvard, changed her modus operandi. For the ensuing 90 days, she told the audience, she walked tough, talked tough and used the adjective to describe herself in conversation. Soon, she heard colleagues take into account how “tough” she was as they prepped for meetings with her.

“You can train people in the way you want them to think about you,” said Harris, recently installed as Chair of the National Women’s Business Council.

Know Yourself
Harris also recommended that audience members be authentic on the job because in relationship-driven business it opens up the opportunity to connect with a client on a different level. She related her experience. Before making a formal pitch for Burger King’s $300 million IPO, she asked the client whether the company planned to bring back both verses of the “Have It Your Way” jingle. The client insisted the jingle had only one verse until Harris sang both. Morgan Stanley got the account and Harris maintained a working relationship with the client.

This pearl? “Nobody can be you the way that you can be you,” said Harris, who has produced gospel CDs and sung at Carnegie Hall. “It is your distinct competitive advantage.” Most people aren’t comfortable in their own skin and they will gravitate toward people who are, she added.

Harris brought her message full circle with her most important pearl, what some might call faith. Women should accept that the answers to the most daunting workplace challenges are within their reach by way of their intelligence, their professional experience and their network. “If you expect to win, you will,’’ Harris said, as audience members at the sold-out event stood to applaud.

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Sallie Krawcheck and Pax World Offer Women’s Global Equality Fund

iStock_000003731985XSmallBy Beth Senko

Women’s financial clout is growing and Sallie Krawcheck and Pax World are partnering to invest in the trend by investing in the very companies that are paving the way for women’s success.

In June, Pax World Management LLC and Ellevate Asset Management LLC announced that they have entered into a partnership agreement to manage and distribute the first and only mutual fund in the United States that focuses on investing in companies that are global leaders in advancing women. The fund, Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Index Fund, is a successor fund to the Pax World Global Women’s Equality Fund.

Krawcheck formed Ellevate Asset Management LLC (formerly 85 Broads) with impact investing and asset management executive Allyson McDonald. Ellevate Asset has an ownership investment in the new effort (Pax Ellevate Management LLC) and Krawcheck will sit on the board of trustees of the Fund.

Pax World President and CEO Joe Keefe gave The Glass Hammer additional insight into the new fund, its strategy, and the opportunity for investors.

The Glass Hammer: The Pax World Women’s Global Equality Fund was re-launched in 2010 with some changes. Is this an evolutionary step, or is this a new direction?

Joe Keefe: The shareholders of the Pax World Global Women’s Equality Fund approved a merger into the Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Index Fund, which was formally launched on June 4. The major difference between the predecessor fund and the new fund is that the prior fund was actively managed (that is, a portfolio manager actively bought and sold stocks) whereas the re-launched fund follows an index-based strategy (that is, the fund buys and holds a fixed basket of stocks). We had long felt that an index-based strategy might be the best way to measure the contributions and capture the investment returns associated with gender diversity in business, but no such index existed. So, we built one. The Pax Global Women’s Leadership Index – a customized index calculated by MSCI – is comprised of the most highly-rated companies in the world in advancing women’s leadership on boards and in executive management, as rated by Pax World Gender Analytics. The Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Index Fund invests in the 400 plus companies comprising that index. So, in one sense this is an evolution and in another it’s a new departure. Certainly, we have built the first and only index comprised of, and launched the first and only mutual fund investing in, the most highly-rated companies in the world in advancing women’s leadership.

TGH: The Pax Ellevate fund uses the term index, but is it seeking to perform relative to the index or actually replicate the index?

JK: The fund actually follows what some call an enhanced index or smart beta strategy. The index is a market capitalization-weighted index. The fund invests in all 406 companies in the index but gives added weight to companies with higher gender diversity scores, so the company weightings in the fund are different than the weightings in the index. Research suggests that where women are better represented on boards and in executive management, companies often display stronger long-term financial performance. The Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Index Fund is premised on that research. Now, you will be able to make an apples-to-apples comparison between the market as a whole, on the one hand, and the best companies for advancing women, on the other. Now, if you agree that women should be better represented in corporate leadership, you have an opportunity to invest in those companies where they are indeed better represented. We hope, over time, to be able to demonstrate that these companies with greater gender diversity in leadership are actually better long-term investments.

TGH: Standards for gender-positive practices vary by country and industry. Is the goal to pick only the best companies worldwide, or will the investments be examined relative to local/industry standards?

JK: We do make some adjustments based on local/regional standards, although, with respect to industry and sector, we let the chips fall where they may and make no effort to remain industry- or sector-neutral vs. MSCI World or other global indices. Some regional or country differences are accounted for in the way we score for gender diversity. For example, women hold very few board seats in Japan but we wanted some Japanese representation in the fund, so the thresholds used for Japanese companies are somewhat different from, say, the threshold used for most European companies.

TGH: Will there be a place in the fund to recognize companies that may not be best-in-class but are moving in that direction?

JK: This fund is more about best practices than best intentions. Companies have to demonstrate a commitment to advancing women as evidenced by a number of criteria, including, most importantly, gender diversity on their board and in executive management. In some of our other funds at Pax World, although of which incorporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria into portfolio construction, we may give some weight to improving performance or aspirational factors. In the Pax Ellevate Global Women’s Index Fund, however, you have to be a leader to qualify for inclusion in the index and in the fund.

TGH: Is this fund aimed primarily at individuals or do you see an institutional market for this product as well?

JK: We think the fund should be attractive to both individual and institutional investors. Moreover, we don’t view this fund as simply a thematic fund or a niche product. This is a broadly diversified, global index-based strategy and we believe the fund can be considered as a core holding in many investor portfolios.
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The rise of the female investor is a theme that has been in the news for a number of years. A study by Russell Investments notes that women control 51% of the private wealth in the U.S., or $8 trillion. That figure is expected to grow women’s wealth at $8 trillion, a number that is forecasted to grow to $22 trillion by 2020. More importantly, women are more likely to invest in companies that do well by doing good. U.S. Trust’s Women and Wealth series found that “65% of women think it is important to consider the positive or negative social, political, and/or environmental impact of the companies they invest in.” And for women, the study indicates that investing for women is not all about the money; “Women feel so strongly about the social impact of their investments, that two-thirds (56%), compared to 44% of men, would be willing to accept a lower return from investments in companies that have a greater positive social impact.” While a number of investment managers are capitalizing on untapped potential for women investors, creating a product designed to fit how women invest in Pax Ellevate is likely to set itself apart from the crowd.

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In a Record Year for Corporate Equality, Some Challenges Remain for LGBT Employees

Welcome to Pride Week on The Glass Hammer — we’ll be profiling successful LGBT business women all week long!

iStock_000000837540XSmallBy Michelle Hendelman

For the last twelve years, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) has compiled the Corporate Equality Index (CEI), the national benchmarking tool on corporate policies and practices pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) employees. The current index features a record number of corporations– 304 to be exact –that achieved the coveted 100 percent ranking. The ranking validates the significant contribution of a company in providing equal rights in the workplace to LGBT employees.

While this number speaks volumes about the progress and change that has occurred, there are still factors of LGBT equality in the workplace that are difficult to address through the index and its measurements. Such as, what happens when a high potential LGBT employee is selected for an extended assignment abroad—let’s say for example, in a country where their sexual orientation or gender identity is considered illegal and punishable?

Or, consider a scenario closer to home. If you are a lesbian professional and are offered a promotion that requires you to relocate to another state where marriage equity is not recognized by law and you don’t know if the office culture is accepting of differences when it comes to who you take to the company BBQ?

Talented people are faced with choosing to continue to live as themselves at home and yet forgo the recognition of their marital status and their life in fact and potentially go “back in the closet” in order to advance their career. We are talking about highly professional people who want to do well, yet this type of dilemma ensures that only the folks whose ambition will overshadow all else would take this opportunity. Companies don’t always realize that they are losing talent by ignoring cultural markers and inconsistencies in the laws and policies at company, state and federal levels.

Myriad Complexities Accompany Small Victories
According to Meghan Stabler, an IT executive at CA Technologies, member of the HRC’s board of directors and National Business Advisory Council, “It’s a woven mess of state and federal laws, and other legal and social implications that impact employers. While the CEI accurately reflects positive changes occurring within the workplace, it’s progressive companies who benefit the most by clearly understanding that attracting, recruiting and retaining employees regardless of who they are or who they love, is vital to a healthy and productive corporate culture.”

She continued, “A huge gap exists in both large and small companies EEO policies. Hiring practices, diversity training and EEO policies need to be updated to combat the lack of statewide protection. This is where we need to see change the most.”

Since the inception of the CEI in 2002, there has been a large increase in the percentage of major businesses providing workplace protection for the LGBT employees. In 2002, 61 percent of Fortune 500 companies included sexual orientation in their non-discrimination policy compared to 91 percent in 2014. Furthermore, the percentage of companies including gender identity under their non-discrimination policy jumped from just 3 percent in 2002 to 61 percent in 2014, according to the CEI.

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Mind Your Career: Why Mindfulness is at the Core of a Successful Career

iStock_000002493020XSmallBy Nneka Orji

Being aware of our surroundings, showing sensitivity in certain situations, putting ourselves in others’ shoes – these all seem obvious things to do both in our professional and personal lives. But what is not so obvious is how being mindful – “being in the zone” – can help our careers.

According to Ellen Langer of the Langer Mindfulness Institute (and first female Professor to gain tenure at Harvard University’s Psychology Department), mindfulness is “the process of actively noticing new things”. By challenging ourselves to ignore the multiple distractions we experience each day, and instead fully absorb ourselves in the task at hand, Langer argues that we can reduce stress levels, improve our ability to think creatively, and improve our performance. In a recent interview with Harvard Business Review, she shared the benefits of mindfulness; “It’s easier to pay attention. You remember more of what you’ve done. You’re more creative. You’re able to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves. You avert the danger not yet arisen. You like people better, and people like you better, because you’re less evaluative. You’re more charismatic.”

All positive, but can we realistically apply these concepts to business?

Although the concept of mindfulness can be traced back to Buddhism, it was pioneered in America by Jon Kabat-Zinn through his work in the medical field during the 1980s and then with a number of other groups including sports, CEOs and judges. The benefits of mindfulness have been demonstrated throughout society and it is now gaining traction in the professional field – as of 2012, the Financial Times reported that 25% of large US companies had launched ‘stress-reduction’ initiatives .

In 2007 Google successfully introduced Search Inside Yourself (SIY), a mindfulness based programme which provides Googlers with the tools and opportunity to be mindful at work.

With the stream of research providing evidence to support the benefits of mindfulness at work, it is easy to see why this is the case. A recent research article from INSEAD and Wharton showed that mindfulness could lead to better decision making around investments by helping to reduce “sunk-cost-bias” – the tendency to progress an investment despite negative results in order to compensate or justify for earlier investments. An online course on mindfulness developed by Oxford University and Mental Health Foundation claims that participants who have completed the course have experienced “58% reduction in anxiety, 57% in depression and 40% in stress”. There are also examples of mindfulness programmes being effectively incorporated in the legal profession and in the military.

The benefits are clear and apply to both genders; Langer’s HBR interview cited some research during which she asked 2 groups of women to give persuasive speeches; one group using masculine traits and the other group presenting as they would normally. “Then half of each group was instructed to give their speech mindfully, and we found that audiences preferred the mindful speakers, regardless of what gender role they were playing out.” Irrespective of gender, the way we perceive our situations and the way others perceive us can be influenced by the degree to which we apply mindfulness throughout our lives.

With today’s continuous distractions and technology – phones, emails, apps (including those to help with mindfulness) – some of the sceptics among you might think that it is impossible to apply mindfulness in high stress environments associated with New York’s Wall Street, London’s City and lots of other fast paced business cities. But how much of this time is spent on mindless activities?

Moving from Mindless to Mindful
The argument thus far shows that we should approach life (work and personal) more mindfully, so what steps can we take practically to become mindful? Here are 3 things you can start today.

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The Imposter Syndrome: Why Owning Your Success is Critical to Your Career

iStock_000015894701XSmallBy Nneka Orji

Surely someone more experienced or more knowledgeable should be in this position instead of me.

These feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt – which some of us have experienced throughout our career –can be harmless. However, if they present themselves frequently, leading us to frequently doubt our abilities, they can have a detrimental impact on our careers.

This phenomenon of feeling undeserving of our accomplishments despite evidence to suggest otherwise, was first coined as the Imposter Syndrome by Dr. Pauline Clance and Dr. Suzanne Imes in 1978. After studying 150 highly successful women, they found that although the women were high achievers in their various fields, they struggled to internalise their successes – pointing more to other factors such as luck, or support from others, as opposed to their own knowledge and skills. Now, over 30 years later, the imposter syndrome is still a concept widely used to explain –at least in part –the lack of female business leaders.

According to Ann Harriman, both women and men tend to define their successes or failures using four “attributional causes”: ability, effort, luck, and task difficulty. The first two attributes, ability and effort, are categorized as being stable and internal. Thus, successes attributed to these causes will likely be repeated because they result from internal capabilities. However, when someone attributes their success to external causes like luck or task difficulty, it is unlikely they will continue to build on their achievements. Instead of owning our successes, these external causes lead us to feeling like imposters.

The Imposter Syndrome and Women
It turns out that while men also experience the imposter feeling (albeit less frequently and with less intensity than women), they are more likely to see their successes as a result of stable and internal causes. Women, on the other hand, tend to select unstable and external causes when they are asked to identify the factors that led to their success. Moreover, women also have a tendency to assign stable and internal causes when acknowledging their failures. This, in turn, feeds the imposter syndrome.

Studies show that imposters are motivated to succeed in order to demonstrate that they are worthy of their position, rather than to meet longer term personal development goals. Imposters are also more likely to isolate themselves to avoid being exposed. According to Valerie Young’s research, these behaviours impact the talent pipeline and the overall success of organisations. She explains that employees who suffer from the imposter syndrome are less likely to take risks, procrastinate (for fear of being found not able to complete a task), and fall into the “expert trap” where they stick with what they know instead of seeking out promotions and other challenging opportunities to grow professionally.

How can we ensure that the imposter syndrome doesn’t negatively impact the gender balance of our leadership groups by keeping women out of the top spots?

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Asian-American Women and the Bamboo Ceiling

iStock_000003482002XSmallBy Kayla Turo

In celebration of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, we took a look at how we can increase the number of Asian-American women in top jobs in the Fortune 500 and financial services firms.

You probably already know Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, and Andrea Jung (former CEO of Avon), President, CEO and a director of Grameen America.

Perhaps you may even know some of the prominent Asian women working in Asian markets who rank highly in global business, but where is the next generation of Asian-American female leaders and what does their path to the top look like?

Status Update: where are we in middle, senior and board seats?
According to Catalyst, Asian women represented 4,037,000 people in the US labor force in 2012. This is an increase of over 1 million women in just two years. Moreover, of these over-4 million Asian women in 2012’s US labor force, approximately 46 percent held management and other professional positions (making up 3.4 percent of all management and business professionals).

However, of all Executive director positions available within Fortune 500 companies, Asian-American women only comprised of 3.3% as of 2013. Board representation are harder numbers to distill since reporting is sparse and grouped in a binary way- women white and women of color, which Catalyst reports as 3.2% of Board seats in the Fortune 500.

What are the obstacles?
According to Jane Hyun, Fortune 500 coach and author of Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling, Asian-American women can experience a “double-bind” that results from being both Asian and a woman.

Hyun believes, however, that Asian-American female professionals can effectively leverage their identities to create a win-win situation for them and the organizations they work for.

Hyun commented, “Asian women have cultural capabilities that organizations cannot afford to ignore, such as language, cultural know-how, and relationship building skills that must be leveraged effectively.”

Interestingly, according to the key findings from the Center for Talent Innovation’s 2011 study, “Asians in America: Unleashing the Potential of the ‘Model Minority’,” Asians are more ambitious than other groups and they struggled more than any other cultural group with the idea of “being themselves” at work.

Western Society vs. Eastern Values: Worlds Collide
“If you grow up in a traditional Asian home, you may get messages about how a ‘good daughter’ needs to behave that may be at odds with the corporate workplace,” explained Hyun. She continued, “Asian values include deference to authority, humility, hard work, harmony, and sacrificing for the future.”

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Encouraging Women’s Empowerment in the US & Japan: A Japan Society Forum

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japan.JPGBy Jarod Cerf

Although Japan and the U.S. occupy somewhat different rankings in The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report, both Yoriko Kawaguchi, Japan’s former Minister for Foreign Affairs (’02-‘04) and Environment (’00-’02), and Ruth Porat, Executive Vice President and CFO of Morgan Stanley, are confident that a call to empower women was essential to any country’s “core growth strategy”—as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe refers to his 2012 initiative.

Government Policy as an Agent of Empowerment
“There are three critical components driving Abe’s proposal,” Kawaguchi explained at the Japan Society’s forum on policy, culture, and business practice as a means for providing greater opportunities. “The first is a declining birth rate and the resulting reductions in our future labor force; the second is the need for greater diversity in skills, background, and expertise—which is where women, both foreign and Japanese, can serve as a catalyst for growth.”

Though traditionally Japan has held to a promise of promotion, described by Kawaguchi as “seniority assistance” or “lifetime employment”, women who leave the workforce to raise and tend to their families often find it difficult to return to the same company or at the same level as their peers who remained employed.

To counter this, the Japanese government is funding a series of public day care and educational facilities near transportation hubs, investing in training programs for women and the companies who employ them, and providing assistance for those who seek to develop their own businesses.

“The last component,” as Kawaguchi noted, “is the evolving notion, in Japan, of gender equality as a means of ensuring our human rights; that we can no longer afford to do without the contributions of women in our effort to create a more just society.”

Changing Culture through the Practices We Employ
According to Porat, though, such a change or shift in culture is often subject to gradual progress and unusual proponents. “When the U.S. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964,” she explained, “there were, allegedly, certain Congress members who supported the inclusion of women’s rights under the belief that the modified bill would be seen as too outrageous to pass.”

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What do sports teach women for business?

Successful multi ethnic peopleHadley Catalano

The path to professional success for many corporate elite women was set in motion on the playing field, according to research by Ernst & Young (EY) that links the accomplished attributes of women in leadership business roles to their sports participation.

The EY perspective on sport and team survey, from the company’s Women Athletes Business Network, is the latest in the sports and leadership conversation that legitimizes the connection between organized sport participation and the strength of women in professional leadership positions. In 2002, OppenheimerFunds of MassMutual Financial Group commissioned a survey which demonstrated that of 400 senior women executives, 81 percent participated in organized sports as a youth. Now, over 10 years later, EY has reaffirmed this correlation.

Of the women senior managers and executives that took part in EY’s online survey, 90 percent participated in sports at some level, be it in secondary school, university, or beyond. The percentage of participation rose to 96 percent among C-suite women. By comparison, a larger proportion of women executives participated in collegiate sports than their lower-level managers with nearly 67 percent of the elite group partaking in sports as a working adult, compared with 55 percent of other managers.

Locker Room to Boardroom
Participation in organized team athletics has been connected to successful corporate leadership qualities, including behavioral, emotional, and economic development. The majority of executive women surveyed said that sports helped them develop the leadership skills that contributed to their professional success.

“This new global survey validates and underscores the fundamental role that participation in sports plays in developing women leaders,” Beth Brooke, Global Vice Chair, Public Policy, for EY said in the company’s press release. “Not only do the majority of senior women executives have sports in their background, they recognize that the behaviors and techniques learned through sports are critical to motivating teams and improving performance in a corporate environment.”

The Oppenheimer Funds survey confirmed the usefulness of sports-related attributes by career women, indicating that, of those who played after grade school, 86 percent said sports helped them to be more disciplined, 81 percent said sports helped them to function better as part of a team, 69 percent said sports helped them to develop leadership skills, 68 percent said sports helped them to deal with failure, and 59 percent said sports gave them a competitive edge over others.

Kathryn Kolbert, the Constance Hess Williams Director of Barnard College’s Athena Center for Leadership Studies, explained that she is familiar with many women executives that have participated in sports during high school and college.

“I have long believed that athletic experience develops several successful traits of leadership, particularly teamwork and team building, as well as resilience; the ability to fail, recover and learn from your failure. A really good coach is going to strategize with their team about what they can do better, both individually and collectively, rather than focus on the individual shortcomings,” said Kolbert, who was a tri-sport athlete in high school and a lacrosse player at Cornell. She continued, “In addition, if young women are team leaders early in their lives, they also experience leadership without the double binds they face in the workforce and thus are better able to take ownership of their leadership. Lastly, I think that participation in sports enables women to be ambitious. It’s okay to want to win the league, city or state championship.”

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Catalyst Awards Conference 2014: Leaders Make the Difference in Diversity

Image via Catalyst

Image via Catalyst

By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Last week marked the 2014 Catalyst Awards Conference, a celebration of successful diversity and inclusion programs. The two winning companies – Kimberly-Clark and Lockheed Martin – managed to substantially increase the percentages of women in leadership through innovative programming, target setting, and incentivizing management to promote and retain women through enterprise-wide goals.

Leaders from both companies were on hand to describe what worked. According to the speakers, the breakthrough was building the business case for diversity into the culture of the company, with programs strongly supported by active and vocal leadership.

“We’ve been doing diversity and inclusion for 30 years,” said Thomas J. Falk, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Kimberly-Clark, explaining that the company had done diversity initiatives when the time and resources were available.

But recently, the company began incorporating diversity goals into its business strategy. “That was a tipping point for us, making it about what we do every day,” Falk said.

Sue Dodsworth, Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President of Executive Development at Kimberly-Clark explained that the goal of the program was to make sure employees and executives throughout the global organization looked more like the people who use its products – mainly women.

“It truly is a competitive strategy,” she said.

Likewise, Lockheed Martin’s program is also designed to capitalize on the strategic benefits of diversity.

“We realized several years ago… this is definitely a business imperative for us,” said Marillyn A. Hewson, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer at Lockheed Martin, pointing out that only nine percent of aerospace engineers are women. “We needed all the best talent at our table.”

“The more diverse perspectives we have on the issue the better our product is going to get,” she said. The company may have great facilities and laboratories, she said, “but nothing gets done without top talent. That’s what connected with the leaders.”

Shan Cooper, Vice President and General Manager at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, added, “We were very intentional in making diversity work part of our everyday work.”

Mentoring and Sponsorship
Speakers from the winning companies also touched on the importance of mentoring and sponsorship. Cooper explained how Hewson was critical in helping her get her job. “We have a formal mentoring program with a mandate that 50% of participants are women and minorities,” she said.

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International Women’s Day: The Power of Improving Women’s Standing

networking groupsBy Tina Vasquez

Each year on March 8, the world celebrates International Women’s Day (IWD), a time to reflect on progress that’s been made and also, shine a bigger spotlight on the battles women continue to face, including poverty and access to education. In honor of IWD, Catalyst released a powerful new report that gathers information from around the world, exploring women’s status through the lens of three global concepts: shifting demographics, improving education, and stalled progress toward equality for women.

The Ripple Effect
Emily Troiano, author of Catalyst’s Women in the World report and Senior Director of the organization’s Information Center, says that that the idea behind the report was to synthesize a great deal of research in hopes of providing answers to big, complex questions about the current state of affairs for women.

“What all of this research really says is that when women’s standing is advanced, there is this outstanding ripple effect that benefits many,” Troiano said.

In essence, empowering women improves not only the lives of women, but the lives of children, families, and societies, resulting in increased economic prosperity everywhere. Big change doesn’t happen quickly, Troiano says, but things are shifting.

If nothing else, the real takeaway from the report is the understanding of what could be if more of an effort was made to champion the success of women. For example, the report found that fuller employment of women across the globe could result in significant improvement and growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of many countries. Specifically, increasing the levels of female employment could help raise the GDP by 5 percent in the United States, 9 percent in Brazil, 9 percent in Japan, 11 percent in Italy, 12 percent in the United Arab Emirates, and a whopping 27 percent in India.

These numbers are particularly telling in light of findings that the pool of employable talent is shrinking as the global population ages, which will prove to be a serious drain on many economies. According to Women in the World, women are a solution. By implementing policies and creating environments “to take advantage of an underutilized and competent labor pool”, meaning women, companies and governments have the power to change the economic equation for the better.

Enormous Advances in Education
Women in the World also sheds light on education, reporting that women have made enormous advances in education worldwide. Catalyst reports that overall, secondary education for girls leads to wage boosts of 15 – 25 percent. It also reveals that increasing the share of girls in secondary education by just one percentage point will boost a country’s annual per capita income growth by 0.3 percentage points.

Globally, women represented 51 percent of those enrolled in tertiary education in 2007, a 5 percent increase from 1990. Defined as academic, advanced vocational, and professional education, the average global participation of women in tertiary education is 27 percent, surpassing men’s 25 percent.

“What’s clear is that investing in the education of girls and women leads to tremendous economic gain,” Troiano said. “If we give a little, we get a lot – and the value is almost immediately apparent.”

STEM’s Visibility Problem
Sadly, women still have limited opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Troiano says this speaks more to visibility than it does the long-held assumption that women aren’t geared toward these fields.

“When girls excel in science, they’re not expected to enter STEM fields so they’re not encouraged. There is definitely a lack of role modeling,” the study’s author said. “If they can’t see themselves in STEM or see themselves reflected in the field, then it stops being an option. What’s frustrating is that women are in some STEM fields, but there’s this assumption that they’re not. In the U.S., more than 50% of biologists are women.”

Give a Little, Get a Lot
The “give a little, get a lot” approach mentioned by Troiano earlier rings true in countries that passed laws and policies around employment, minimum schooling, and access to credit for women. Not only did these countries have smaller pay gaps, but they also had more women doing paid work and more women in senior roles.

On this International Women’s Day, we need to continue pushing for the economic empowerment of women and helping others to understand the power of its many ripple effects.

“This report is full of a lot of information and a lot of statistics, but what I hope doesn’t get lost is what we’re really talking about, which is people,” Troiano said. “We can use this information to impact real change for people across the globe – and we should want that not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it will change the prosperity of the economy.”

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