Contributed by Alana Elsner
This is a tale of two women, exactly three decades and one pond removed. One is the United Kingdom’s first female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher; the other, America’s first serious female presidential contender, Hillary Clinton. Both bobbed their hair and prepared for battle. Gender was a much-examined factor in both races, and the public was forced to consider the role of women in executive power. But identity politics did not tell the whole story, and both candidates were evaluated on the strength of their policy positions.
Looking back at both women’s campaigns reveals subtle nuances about the portrayal of femininity in leadership. Believing that men and women rule in the same way is a little like convincing yourself that a pantsuit compliments your figure. Just as women do not fit perfectly into men’s clothes, they cannot easily be placed into a same executive leadership style.
I was recently invited to speak at Columbia Business School’s annual Women in Business conference. The topic of this year’s conference was “Success… Your Way: Share Your Vision and Find Your Voice.” As often happens, many of the panel discussions, regardless of the specified matters at hand, turned to the work-life topic. At the networking event at the end of the day, one of the attendees asked the question on everyone’s mind: “Why do women in business spend so much time obsessing over work-life fit? And why don’t men spend an equal amount of time focused on the tricky navigation of a personal life while excelling in their careers?”
It was standing room only at London Business School on January 31, 2008, as executives from around London came to hear tips and stories from four senior women who have risen through the ranks while working flexibly. Kate Grussing, Managing Director and Founder of Sapphire Partners, moderated the panel. Some advice recurred throughout the evening:
If you listen to news reports about the subprime mortgage mess, you’d think the job market in finance is all gloom and doom. While opportunities in mortgages will be limited for some time, leading executive recruiters and career experts say that jobs are still out there for women in finance who possess the right skills and background. Here’s what financial insiders advise on where the job growth will be in 2008.
It used to be that big law firms were the old guard of the inflexible work day. Tied to the holy grail, the universal unit of measurement – otherwise known as the billable hour – law firms were late adopters of work-life balance innovations like flex-time and part-time schedules for working moms. But as the number of hours billed by the average associate crept up from 1600, flying past 1800, scooting by 2000 with little fanfare, and sneaking across the line of 2200, the misery quotient of young lawyers of both genders went up and so did attrition rates, particularly of female associates, who viewed life at a big law firm as incompatible with the possibility of starting a family.