By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

Since the 1980s, we’ve designated March as the month when we celebrate women’s history, to reflect on how far we’ve come, and honor those women who’ve helped us get here. This month on The Glass Hammer, we’re examining one of the most critical factors in our progress up to now and beyond: women helping women.

As former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright’s oft-repeated quote goes: “I think there is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.” This month, we want to focus on the ways women have reached out and pulled other women up. It’s time to celebrate those women who have taken a chance on us, lent an ear, lent advice, spoken up for us behind closed doors, pushed for our promotions, and supported us at the table of power. And it’s also time to pay that forward.

Besides the warm fuzzy feeling you get from helping someone else, helping other women up the ladder can help you build stronger relationships and navigate your own career more strategically – no matter what your level in your organization. Here’s how.

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By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

According to a new study produced by The Girl Scouts of the USA, four out of ten girls say they have had no opportunities to interact with successful women during the last school year. That could be why so many of them (38%) said they weren’t sure if they were cut out to be a leader.

The study, conducted by Roper Research, polled 1,000 girls between the ages of eight and seventeen. Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA believes “ToGetHerThere: Girls’ Insights on Leadership” shows that role models must be made more visible to girls everywhere, so that they see themselves as leaders.

“It is abundantly clear that our girls have a vision of their leadership potential that is incompatible with what we know they can achieve,” she said.

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By Jacey Fortin (New York City)

Jeanine Conley is on the fast track to a senior position in the legal field. After practicing law for only nine years, she’s already a junior partner at Baker Hostetler, a firm with offices all over the country. And she’s not stopping now—Conley has ambitious goals for continued advancement.

Now, thanks to an initiative by New York’s U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, she’s getting some extra help along the way.
In October of this year at the first annual Women’s Economic Empowerment Summit in New York City, Gillibrand stood with Kathryn Wylde, President and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, and Chloe Drew, the executive director of the Council for Urban Professionals (CUP), to kick off a new state-wide mentorship program. She asked the Partnership to find 100 senior executives who were willing to share their time and expertise with up-and-coming professionals, and she asked CUP to find 100 young women looking for career guidance.

The recruiting efforts progressed without a hitch. “The Partnership for New York City has a network of civically engaged business executives,” said Wylde. “We reached out and simply asked who would be willing to become a mentor. From our membership in the city, we got 80 volunteers from a very senior-level group. The rest are coming from upstate organizations, which are reaching out to their communities to make this a state-wide effort.”
Drew was also able to drum up participants quickly. “CUP has a broader network of about 15,000 people,” she said. “We sent invitations out to the community via social networking, emails, Facebook and Twitter. Applicants sent in resumes and letters of interest, explaining why this was important to them. People could nominate either themselves or other young women.”

Conley nominated herself for the program. “I think mentorship at every stage of your career is critical,” she said. “When I learned that the program would pair women who are junior in their career with more senior women, I knew it would be a huge benefit.”

To date, all of 200 the mentees and mentors have been found and matched up. Now, it’s up to Conley and her peers to be proactive about maintaining their new relationships.

“We tell mentees that it’s their job to do the outreach,” explained Drew. “The relationship has to be driven by the mentees, not the mentors. The goal is that they will meet once a quarter this year, and we’ll check in with them along the way.”

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By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)

The past few weeks have seen a spate of high profile departures from top companies, as senior leaders have left big jobs for greener pastures (or perhaps under less ideal circumstances). In an economic environment like this, where budgets are being cut regularly and everyone is doing more with less, job security is top of mind. Even high performing individuals need to be sure they have access to the unseen network of power within their organization, to have a sponsor advocating for them behind the scenes.

Late last year, Catalyst published groundbreaking research on the subject, explaining how sponsorship is key to narrowing the gender pay gap. Shortly thereafter, the Center for Work Life Policy followed suit, with research showing how sponsorship can help keep women in the pipeline to the top, and clarifying the two-way relationship between a sponsor and a protege.

In the months following, we’ve published advice on why you need a sponsor, how to find a sponsor, how to be a sponsor – you might call 2011 the year of the sponsor. But one question remains – what if you lose your sponsor?

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