The South African Advancement of Women Conference will gather professional women who work for major global and South African based companies for an exploration of best practices, a dialogue on diversity, innovative strategies and concrete programs that make a difference in supporting women. The conference will ensure networking, learning and knowledge sharing in a safe environment.

WHY SOUTH AFRICA?
With approximately 700 companies in South Africa, the US is the second largest investor in South Africa behind the UK. Come together to learn how to strengthen your company’s global influence and take strides toward international business success.

YOU’LL LEARN THE HOW TO’S

• How to target challenges in the workplace
• How to find solutions to obstacles
• How to take full advantage of your benefits
• How to build powerful relationships
• How to MOVE UP in your company

DISCUSSION TOPICS WILL INCLUDE:

• Building relationships to leverage your network
• Eliminating obstacles for female executives
• Internal policies for supporting professional women
and what companies have them
• Overcoming systemic barriers
• How to enhance partnership among global women
• Flexible work arrangements and how to use them

To Register: contact Jacqueline.LaBrocca@workingmother.com

For more information

This WSTA seminar is designed for both business and technical stakeholders in data storage, information lifecycle, data transformations and decision support.

Keynote Speaker: James Dow, CTO, CS Technology

Keynote Presentation: “Command and Control in the Integrated ITIL Data Center Environment” James Dow, CTO, CS Technology.
In this presentation, the audience will be presented with a structured approach for developing an effective and efficient data center command and control environment, learn some best practices, and become aware of common pitfalls experienced by their peers within the industry. Attendees should expect to leave this presentation with an understanding of how to structure a program to deliver command and control, how to present command and control to senior management, and understand the provider capabilities in the space today.

Presentations by:
Forsythe Technology/EMC
Business-Driven Capacity Management
Tim J. Arland, Principal Consultant, Storage Solutions, Forsythe Solutions Group.
Business driven capacity management enables an organization to effectively manage the acquisition, distribution, and cost structure of IT resources, specifically server and storage infrastructure.

For more information and to register

*The WSTA welcomes members of the Press to attend its seminars as guests. Registration will require that you provide the publication(s) for whom you write. The WSTA reserves the right to limit the Press Pass to one individual from the publication. Based on the information provided the WSTA may, at its sole discretion, request additional information or reject a press registration. You will be contacted via email if additional information is needed to complete your registration.

by Erin Abrams (New York City)

Last week, we posited that women are being hit harder by job loss than men in this recession. This week, we bring you some compelling evidence for that theory. On July 22, 2008, the Majority Staff of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, led by Senator Charles Schumer and Rep. Carolyn Maloney issued a report with their findings. Called “Equality in Job Loss: Women Are Increasingly Vulnerable during Recessions,” this report argues that women began losing jobs in the recession of 2001 and never fully recovered in the labor market, making this downturn all the more painful.

In the 2001 recession, job loss was greatest in industries such as manufacturing, trade, transportation and utilities, professional and business services and information technology, areas in which had all made great gains before the downturn. In 2008, increasing cuts in the financial sector have rolled back gains that women have made on Wall Street. While women still don’t make up a proportionate number of employees in finance, some high profile women, like Zoe Cruz of Morgan Stanley and Erin Callan of Lehman Bros, have been the first to take the fall in tough times on the Street.

These kind of changes have reverberated up and down the corporate ladder, and have caused some to argue that high profile women in finance are discriminated against because of gender stereotypes. For example, in a down economy, ideas among male executives that women in finance are not “tough enough” to weather the storm, or an unspoken policy of cutting back on access to flex-time and maternity leave have made financial jobs less hospitable to the best and brightest women.

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by Heather Cassell (San Francisco)

In May 2008, The Center for Work-Life Policy (CWLP), a New York-based research organization, released The Athena Factor report, an in-depth examination of women’s career paths in science, engineering, and technology (SET) companies. The research project, undertaken by 43 industry experts—dubbed the Hidden Brain Drain Task Force—included four online surveys, 28 focus groups in global cities, and one-on-one interviews conducted over a two-year period.

“This is the first look at women in SET in the private sector,” says Karen Sumberg, The Athena Factor co-author and CWLP Assistant Vice President of communications and projects. Studying women in science, engineering, and technology isn’t new. What is new, Sumberg says, is that this report is about women in real-life careers in these fields in Corporate America or globally, rather than academia.

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by Jane Lucken (London)

The annual Women in the City (WIC) Lunch & Awards celebrates the achievements of professional women working in London, Canary Wharf and Mayfair. This year’s event will be held on November 28, 2008, at which time the winner of the prestigious Woman of Achievement Award will be announced.

Nominations are now being accepted for the women working in any of the following categories: Accountancy, Alternative Investment, Financial Services, Insurance Services, Legal Services, Management Consultancy, Property & Facilities Management. The winner of each category will be announced on October 28th. Winners are selected from a short list made up of the Category Winners and are chosen based on demonstrable leadership skills, as well as their ability to develop women in their own teams, build and nurture networks and promote women’s progress within their sector and the wider business world.

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