Contributed by Jane Sanders, President, GenderSmart® Solutions
Yes, things in the corporate world are getting better for women. And yes, we still have a ways to go. Women in leadership and executive positions stare down a double-edged sword daily. If their style is primarily assertive, decisive, task vs. relationship oriented, etc., they are labeled as too tough and masculine…the ‘b’ word. So does this mean don’t act like a man? Or, if a woman’s style is predominantly collaborative, supportive, and friendly, she is perceived as nice but less competent. So does this mean don’t act like a woman if she wants to advance? But what’s left – how is she supposed to act?
Managing Gender Stereotypes
Women must walk a fine line in the corporate world, especially in longer-established industries such as financial services, insurance, automotive, and manufacturing. Using solely one gender communication style or the other can often backfire, much more so than it would for a man, as this inflexible behavior will illicit stereotyping and misperceptions of women’s competence and personality. Such behavior by men can cause judgment too, but less often and less severe, with milder consequences.
Eliminating these gender stereotypes is a valid but lofty goal and, for the foreseeable future, completely unattainable goal. So instead of focusing on eliminating stereotyping, the world would be better served by becoming aware of gender styles, accepting them merely as differences rather than right or wrong behaviors, and learning how to work with them more effectively. In a way this is a form of eliminating typecasting, but it approaches the issue by managing stereotypes, not expecting them to disappear.
NALP Findings No Cause for Concern – Yet
Managing ChangeLate last year, The National Association for Law Placement (NALP) reported that the representation of women and minority lawyers among law firm associates declined between 2009 and 2010, most likely the result of the massive lawyer layoffs that took place during the recession. The findings made headlines across the country, though the actual drop in the representation of women and minorities was quite small and occurred mostly among associates, not partners.
Despite these facts, some newspapers reported that these findings were significant because they were the first diversity reversals in the NALP’s 17-year history and represent the reversal of what had been, up until 2010, a constant upward trend.
So, are these findings important or not? According to the NALP, aggregate statistics about the representation of women and minority lawyers at law firms do not tell the whole story. For example, among the employers listed in the 2010-2011 NALP Directory of Legal Employers, just over 6 percent of partners were minorities and 1.95 percent of partners were minority women, and yet many offices reported no minority partners at all. In addition, the representation of minorities by specific race and ethnicity varies considerably by size of law firm and geography. The NALP also found that the drop in minority representation among associates was not uniform across specific racial/ethnic groups, which also influenced their findings.
Others believe that while the NALP’s findings are interesting, women in law have bigger fish to fry.
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Voice of Experience: Linda Rappaport, Partner, Shearman & Sterling
Voices of Experience“Don’t be afraid to speak up for yourself,” advises Linda Rappaport, a senior partner at international law firm Shearman & Sterling LLP and Practice Group Leader Emeritus of the firm’s Executive Compensation & Employee Benefits/Private Client Group. “And be really prepared – there’s no substitute for being good at what you do.”
Rappaport knows all about being good. She has earned a reputation as one of the top executive compensation lawyers in the US and Europe, working with major financial services firms, entertainment companies and other organizations.
Her rise to prominence was no accident. Rather, Rappaport says, it was the product of traditional business values: hard work, a commitment to client service and a genuine interest in the area in which she practices. “Make sure you enjoy what you do,” she said. “You’re not going to enjoy every moment of every day, but if you’re excited by the ideas, people will sense that and will respond with enthusiasm as well.”
“You want work to be challenging. Never in one day of my life at Shearman & Sterling have I been bored – and I consider that a gift. I’ve been engaged, excited, challenged and occasionally even scared or nervous, which is perfectly appropriate sometimes. That’s a wonderful thing,” she added.
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Facing Failure: Why Resilience Must be Part of Leadership Development
Next LevelBy Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
“The public seems to hold the belief that the fight for parity has been won,” said Sara Manzano-Diaz, Director of the Women’s Bureau at the United States Department of Labor.
She continued, “We know that’s not the case.”
Manzano-Diaz spoke Monday afternoon the National Council for Research on Women‘s panel discussion on building the pipeline of women for leadership in the public, private, and non profit sectors. Linda Basch, President of the NCRW explained, “Today we’re exploring a particularly vexing problem… the stalled pipeline to women’s leadership.”
“When I run into young women today… many think the world is their oyster and that anything is possible,” she continued. “But a few years out, I see some frustrated and demoralized young women.”
Statistics show that females are outpacing males at almost every level during their education. Yet, women drop off the career path in their early 30s in startling numbers. The result is that only about 15-18% of leadership roles in the United States are held by women. The panel discussed possible reasons why larger numbers of women are not making it to the top layers of the leadership pyramid, while highly educated and capable women are in no short supply at its base.
One key issue panelists settled on is resilience – that today’s young women are unprepared to face adversity.
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Op-Ed: Overcoming the Main Barriers to the Advancement of Women in Law
Expert AnswersAs a female attorney, I often witness firsthand the barriers that women face in advancing careers in finance, law, and business. Rarely are women promoted as often as men in these fields, and more tragically, their salaries typically remain lower.
According to a recent research study in 2010 from the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL), a majority of staff attorneys at large law firms are women. Women make up about 60% of the staff attorneys at a large law firm, which means they have little to no chances of receiving promotions or moving up to partner. In addition, further research from the NAWL found that over 90% of law firms terminated lawyer positions in the year of 2010 for economic reasons. While the numbers of men and women laid off were in equal percentages, the highest number of terminations occurred amongst part-time attorneys. Unfortunately, a majority of women hold positions as part-time attorneys, meaning more women than men were let go. In 83% of firms that let go part-time attorneys, women made up a larger percentage than men.
Even more disheartening, women only currently make up 15% of the partners at law firms across the country. This number also compares with the business field, in which only 11% of senior executives at Fortune 500 companies are women.
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Honoring Trailblazers at the NCRW Women of Vision Awards
Industry Leaders, LeadershipLast night the National Council for Research on Women hosted this year’s Making a Difference for Women Awards Dinner. Honorees included Michelle Bachelet, Under-Secretary for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, United Nations; Peter and Patricia Gruber, Founders of the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation; Ed Gilligan, Vice Chairman of American Express; Dr, Ruth J. Simmons, President of Brown University; and Muriel Siebert, Founder & CEO of Muriel Siebert & Co., Inc.
Event emcee Natalie Morales, NBC Today Co-host and National Correspondent, noted, “Women and girls are showing us that they have the talent and the skills to inspire us, and can pretty much do it all.”
But, she continued, “we still have a long way to go.”
The individuals the NCRW honored last night have shown remarkable vision and effort toward advancing women. Yet they each recognized that there is more work needed before gender equality becomes reality.
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Voice of Experience: Vanessa Lau, Group CFO, Global Rolled Products, Alcoa
Voices of ExperienceVanessa Lau, Group CFO for Global Rolled Products at Alcoa has never shied away from a challenge. Named on Crain’s New York’s 40 Under 40 list last year, Lau has had the drive to fuel an exciting and esteemed career from the very beginning.
Her advice? Don’t be shy about your goals.
She said, “I find that my male colleagues are more willing to show their ambitions and my female colleagues are less willing to show their ambitions. They feel like they are being pushy.”
“But management really values transparent discussion. Be ambitious.”
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Managing Leadership Styles and Overcoming Stereotypes
Expert AnswersYes, things in the corporate world are getting better for women. And yes, we still have a ways to go. Women in leadership and executive positions stare down a double-edged sword daily. If their style is primarily assertive, decisive, task vs. relationship oriented, etc., they are labeled as too tough and masculine…the ‘b’ word. So does this mean don’t act like a man? Or, if a woman’s style is predominantly collaborative, supportive, and friendly, she is perceived as nice but less competent. So does this mean don’t act like a woman if she wants to advance? But what’s left – how is she supposed to act?
Managing Gender Stereotypes
Women must walk a fine line in the corporate world, especially in longer-established industries such as financial services, insurance, automotive, and manufacturing. Using solely one gender communication style or the other can often backfire, much more so than it would for a man, as this inflexible behavior will illicit stereotyping and misperceptions of women’s competence and personality. Such behavior by men can cause judgment too, but less often and less severe, with milder consequences.
Eliminating these gender stereotypes is a valid but lofty goal and, for the foreseeable future, completely unattainable goal. So instead of focusing on eliminating stereotyping, the world would be better served by becoming aware of gender styles, accepting them merely as differences rather than right or wrong behaviors, and learning how to work with them more effectively. In a way this is a form of eliminating typecasting, but it approaches the issue by managing stereotypes, not expecting them to disappear.
Read more
Playing Politics: Three Tips to Develop Your Career Savviness
Office PoliticsLast week, the New York City Bar Association hosted an intimate women in law career workshop with Ida Abbott, co-founder and Director of the Hastings Leadership Academy for Women at the University of California Hastings College of the Law, co-Chair of the Women in Law Empowerment Forum, and a lawyer development consultant.
Women in any career walk a fine line – between assertive and aggressive, collaborative and accommodating, bold… and the b-word. And in a relationship-focused field like law, these tensions become even more concentrated.
Abbott said, “I remember years ago, a lawyer referred to me as a dragon lady – and he didn’t mean it as a compliment. I took it that way anyway.” She continued, “Politics is not something you can ignore – it’s a process for reconciling competing interests. As a leader, you have to find ways to persuade people with different interests to do things they might not want to do.”
There are ways to gain the upper hand in a politically charged workplace – here are three pieces of advice Abbott recommended.
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Voice of Experience: Yolanda Seals-Coffield, Principal, Office of the General Counsel, PwC
Voices of Experience“Women should understand that your potential is limitless,” she said. “How far ones goes should be defined by what one wants to do, not by what people tell them they can do.”
“There are many things I have learned over the course of my career – but I wish I had known from the beginning that I had more input and accountability in driving my career If I knew then what I know now, I would have had the confidence in the early years to be more proactive and seek out the opportunities that interested me rather than waiting to be tapped on the shoulder” she explained.
“It would have been advantageous to know that I had a lot more flexibility around who I wanted to be, where I wanted to go, and the impact I wanted to make,” she said. Seals-Coffield, who now supports the human capital function at PwC, is doing her best to open doors and clear a pathway for the women climbing the ladder behind her – and blazing her own trail as well.
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Advice for Managing Millennials
Expert AnswersOne of the biggest challenges for businesses today is integrating the Millennials twenty-somethings into a Baby Boomer culture. They are the newest generation to enter the labor market, arriving with their distinct ideas about what they expect from their jobs. They are our future leaders and our next generation of revenue-generators. So who are the Millennials and how do we manage their expectations while maintaining high performing organizations?
How Millennials Operate
The Millennial Generation was born between 1977 and 1998. They are 75 million strong in size and were raised by “helicopter parents,” who doted on them, giving them an ample supply of attention and validation. Because they were heralded with high expectations, Millennials tend to display an abundance of self-confidence and believe they are highly valuable to any organization from day one. They are extremely focused on developing themselves and thrive on learning new job skills, always setting new challenges to achieve. They are also the “can do” generation, never worrying about failure, for they see themselves as running the world and work environments.
Unlike other generations, the Millennials are very connected to their parents. As they move through their twenties, they still speak to their parents frequently and turn to their parents for personal and career advice. Some are still even living at home, not uncomfortable with the arrangement. Organizations must remember the parent involvement factor when dealing with this group.
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