By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
Recently Business and Professional Women’s Foundation launched a project to build a framework through which to view the choices Gen X and Gen Y women make in the workplace – the Young Careerist Project. And last week, BPW Foundation released the results of its focus groups on Gen Y women specifically.
Dr. Sheila Barry-Oliver, BPW Foundation Board of Trustees and Research & Education Committee Chair, explained why this research is important. She said, “Women represent 46% of the Generation Y workforce, which by 2025 will represent 42% of the US workforce. Given the size of this segment of the future workforce, it is critical that employers understand the career choices and challenges of Generation Y women, which are different from prior generations. With this insight, employers can adjust their policies as necessary to ensure the pipeline of talented women remains robust and thus maximize the contribution of Gen Y women to the US economy.”
She continued, “We believe that our initial qualitative research provides some insight but we are following up with a detailed online survey to gain greater insight.”
Young Careerist Project research consultant Kara Nichols Barrett explained, “We asked ‘how does Gen Y define work and work/life balance, perceive intergenerational workplace dynamics, and experience gender in the workplace.’”
Nichols Barrett continued, “I would describe Gen Y women as anxious super-women. We’ve been told all along that we can do anything, and yet we recognize that there are limits, and the workplace is still different for men and women.”
As these women begin to take on more responsibilities in the workforce, the information revealed by the Young Careerist focus groups can provide valuable advice for managing, mentoring, and developing them into effective leaders.
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Ask-A-Career-Coach: How to Get That Raise
Ask A Career CoachDear Ann:
I need your advice about how to start the conversation about getting a raise at work. I was recently reassigned, and that has increased my workload and requires way more of my time. I feel like I am doing more work, and I am not being compensated well. Add to that, I personally know that my colleagues (who have less responsibility than I do) get paid more money. Please help, what do I do?
Yolanda S.
Dear Yolanda:
Your situation brings me back! I faced the same situation in my first job after finishing my PhD coursework at New York University, before starting on my dissertation. I took a job as editor of a trade magazine, to start paying off those student loans. I enjoyed the work; it didn’t pay very well, but nothing in journalism ever did. Then one day I found out that the worthless advertising guy, fresh out of college, who spent most of his day gossiping his way from desk to desk, made more money than I! At that very moment, I left work for the day, stopped at the drugstore downstairs to buy a notebook, and went to the research library to begin my dissertation.
But I bet you’d rather get a raise.
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Balancing Elder Care and a Career
Work-LifeElder care is a modern fact of life. Just as women are reaching leadership roles in their careers, and developing a keen sense of their own worth and power in the workplace, many find themselves unexpectedly thrust back into the role of caregiver. A professional career woman, accustomed to a certain level of order in her life, is often unprepared for the significant demands that caregiving for a parent or elderly relative requires.
Gail Sheehy, author of Passages, wrote about “The Caregiving Boomerang” and struck a resounding chord with thousands of women caregivers. She wrote:
Caregiving often leads to significant disruptions in a woman’s work/life balance. Caregivers experience higher levels of stress, have more health issues themselves, and report more conflicts with other family members or colleagues. Typically, this added burden leads to absenteeism at work, or an inability to fully focus on the job. According to the MetLife Caregiving Cost Study, US companies lose up to $33 billion each year, as caregivers attempt to balance their careers and the needs of their family members. The high costs of absenteeism and lost productivity impact the bottom line, and many companies are starting to pay closer attention to recent trends in senior care that may assist their employees.
Employees, on the other hand, need to be upfront about issues that are affecting their productivity and ask for assistance before their job performance suffers. The benefits described below can help a caregiver balance the many different responsibilities she has.
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Voice of Experience: Mary Cecola, CIO Asset Management Business Solutions, Deutsche Bank
Voices of Experience“I started my career as an Assembler programmer 23 years ago and wanted to be technically focused, but discovered that I had a innate talent for leadership and management,” explained Mary Cecola, Head of Asset Management Business Solutions at Deutsche Bank.
For 20 years, Cecola has built her career in the Technology space. She has relied on her interest in building strong teams to keep moving forward. “There have been so many moments throughout my career – so many challenges – that made a difference. And there have been a myriad of accomplishments with my team,” she said.
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5 Reasons to Continue Volunteering at Every Stage of Your Career
Women and PhilanthropyMany women who are featured or profiled on The Glass Hammer have sung the virtues of volunteering – from serving on non-profit boards to working in soup kitchens, many women are breaking the glass ceiling while taking part in philanthropic efforts.
Some have described how volunteering has helped their careers, and some have discussed how volunteering has helped them grow closer to their families. And still others have explained how volunteer work can help build the next generation of female leaders.
Why should professional women consider volunteering? Here are five voices from The Glass Hammer on what volunteer work has done for them.
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Board Diversity Slipping: Is It Time to Name and Shame?
Industry Leaders, LeadershipReleased last week, the 2010 Alliance for Board Diversity Census revealed some discouraging news. Despite the efforts of many organizations to highlight the importance of board diversity, despite the overwhelming business case for diversity of thought in the boardroom, and despite the high-level push for shareholder education on the value of diverse boards, today we have less diverse boards than we did six years ago.
Many people anticipated that the effects of the global recession would illuminate the fact that business as usual isn’t working. But, according to the ABD Census, boards have gotten whiter and more male.
As Janell Ross wrote in the Huffington Post last week, “The pattern raises questions about corporate America’s commitment to diversifying corporate boards and the efficacy of decades-long efforts by advocacy groups to reshape them.”
Despite the best efforts of outspoken organizations, companies continue to keep women and minorities out of the boardroom. And while ABD does highlight those companies that have achieved relatively high levels of diversity (although only a handful of Fortune 500 company managed a diversity level of 50% or more), it also published a list of 37 “stale, male, and pale” Fortune 500 companies that are failing the diversity imperative abysmally – with zero female or ethnically diverse board directors.
Most board diversity advocacy efforts have been focused on the carrot – explaining what companies can gain by improving leadership diversity (studies show that board diversity improves business). But what the report seems to show is that it’s time for the stick – naming and shaming those companies that stubbornly refuse to elect anyone but white men to the board.
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Five Tips for Developing Gen Y Women
Featured, Next LevelRecently Business and Professional Women’s Foundation launched a project to build a framework through which to view the choices Gen X and Gen Y women make in the workplace – the Young Careerist Project. And last week, BPW Foundation released the results of its focus groups on Gen Y women specifically.
Dr. Sheila Barry-Oliver, BPW Foundation Board of Trustees and Research & Education Committee Chair, explained why this research is important. She said, “Women represent 46% of the Generation Y workforce, which by 2025 will represent 42% of the US workforce. Given the size of this segment of the future workforce, it is critical that employers understand the career choices and challenges of Generation Y women, which are different from prior generations. With this insight, employers can adjust their policies as necessary to ensure the pipeline of talented women remains robust and thus maximize the contribution of Gen Y women to the US economy.”
She continued, “We believe that our initial qualitative research provides some insight but we are following up with a detailed online survey to gain greater insight.”
Young Careerist Project research consultant Kara Nichols Barrett explained, “We asked ‘how does Gen Y define work and work/life balance, perceive intergenerational workplace dynamics, and experience gender in the workplace.’”
Nichols Barrett continued, “I would describe Gen Y women as anxious super-women. We’ve been told all along that we can do anything, and yet we recognize that there are limits, and the workplace is still different for men and women.”
As these women begin to take on more responsibilities in the workforce, the information revealed by the Young Careerist focus groups can provide valuable advice for managing, mentoring, and developing them into effective leaders.
Read more
Are You A Transformational Leader? Part 2
Ask A Career CoachAre you achieving success in your career but still feel like you are not making the impact you have the potential to make? Are you successful but not deeply fulfilled by the work you do?
Beyond your achievements, if you truly want to make a contribution – like many women do – you have the potential to be a transformational leader. Transformational leaders are able to tap into the discretionary energy, the full creativity and potential within themselves and within the people around them. These are the type of leaders organizations need now.
They are purpose-driven, finding ways to connect the mission of the organization, their own mission, and that of the team to the work needed to be done. They play the role of mentor and coach to the people around them. They constantly encourage intellectual stimulation, dialogue, and debate and they inspire others by creating a culture of trust and high integrity. For a more detailed description of how transformational leaders are different, read here.
Why is this particular leadership style is so needed in today’s organizations?
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Voice of Experience: Telle Whitney, CEO and President, Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology
Voices of Experience“One of the most important things I’ve learned is how much the ability to influence the ideas of others is so important for your success,” began Dr. Telle Whitney, CEO and President of the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology.
After earning her PhD in computer science, Dr. Whitney began her career in the Bay Area working in chip design. But it wasn’t long before she realized she had a passion for developing business, which led to her current role with ABI, influencing the world’s largest technology companies and helping women achieve their career aspirations.
“It’s not just about your ideas, but it’s about taking the rest of the world with you,” she explained.
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More Flexibility Necessary for Attorney Retention
Work-Life“The Project for Attorney Retention’s mission is to reduce unwanted attrition of lawyers,” explained Manar Morales, PAR‘s Executive Director. One particularly sore spot for attorneys (male and female), she explained, is the issue of work/life balance. PAR was founded by Cynthia Calvert and Joan Williams to address these issues. “One of our hallmarks is to create best practices for law firms around research,” she said.
“Women are graduating law school in record numbers, but they’re not making it into the partnership ranks,” Morales explained. “It’s not a pipeline issue, but a retention issue.”
“Work/life flexibility is important for women and men, and as long as this is solely a women’s issue progress is going to be slow,” she added. According to Morales, flexibility is a key issue for retaining diverse attorneys – and as the business case for diversity becomes more well-known, firms will have to respond with more flex opportunities.
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The Accounting MOVE Project Takes a Look at Millennials
NewsIn the past, the annual Accounting MOVE Project has revealed the best accounting firms for women; has shed light on why firms fail to advance and retain women; and has revealed why women leave at certain levels. But the 2011 report released earlier this month revealed some promising news: the next generation of top accounting professionals will bear little resemblance to the male-dominated leadership ranks currently occupying corner offices.
Joanne Cleaver, president and founder of the research firm Wilson-Taylor Associates, spearheaded the study, which focuses on figuring out millennials. According to the study, millennials are “confident and assertive. They’re loyal — to technology and to their own ambitions. They’re smart. And in accounting, they’re women.” Half of today’s accounting grads are women, which is why the report asserts that public accounting firms will have to realign their professional development programs to reflect the ambitions of these professionals. “If they do not,” the report says, “firms simply cannot remain competitive and will not have enough partners for an orderly transition when baby boomers are ready to retire.”
Based on dozens of interviews, reviews of best practices at 25 firms, and statistical analysis, the report found that some of the most progressive and promising firms are successful because of how proactive they are concerning the issues that face millennial women in the accounting industry.
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