By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
What’s keeping women from reaching the highest echelon of today’s top corporations? If you ask Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Founding President and Chairman of the Center for Worklife Policy, it’s certainly not a dearth of women’s initiatives, mentoring programs, and networking. Nor is it related to performance.
According to a new study produced by the CWLP in conjunction with the Harvard Business Group, a lack of sponsorship for women may be to blame. At a recent event hosted by American Express, Hewlett said, “34% of the marzipan layer, that layer just below senior leadership, is made up of women.” On the other hand, she said, only about 21% of senior leadership is female. And that number hasn’t increased in years.
“It’s about relationship capital,” said Hewlett.
Authored by Hewlett, with Kerrie Peraino, Chief Diversity Officer of Amex; Laura Sherbin Ph.D., Vice President, Director of Research at CWLP; and Karen Sumberg, Vice President, Director of Projects and Communications at CWLP, “The Sponsor Effect: Breaking Through the Last Glass Ceiling” outlines the ways in which women are missing out when it comes to sponsorship.
But more importantly, it is a detailed study into the sponsorship-protege relationship. It explains the urgent need for stronger sponsorship of women and how we can get it.
Intrepid Woman: Educating Children in Goa
Intrepid Women SeriesGoa: the smallest and the richest state in India; a former Portuguese colony, a place of beautiful golden beaches, swaying palm trees and over a million domestic and foreign tourists per year. The wealth brought by the tourists also brings an influx of economic migrants. In search of work and money, they travel to this tiny state in western India from other areas – hundreds and in some cases thousands of miles away.
I first visited Goa in 1999, have been back many times since then and have seen the volume of both tourists and of workers from other parts of India soar in the intervening years. Unsurprisingly, the Goan infrastructure is now creaking under this flood of people; from a tourist’s point of view, power cuts and water shortages are increasingly common but can be dismissed as being “part of the Indian experience.” However, what many tourists never see are the living environments of many of the migrant workers – and, more particularly, how this impacts the health and education of their children.
Before Christmas, I spent time undertaking volunteer work for a small Goan-based charity called Educators’ Trust India – I’m pictured here with some of the children on a trip to the beach. The charity was set up two years ago in order to provide practical assistance to the children of these migrant workers and they now, funded only by donations, run two schools, Leading Light and New Light, and a number of outreach projects where they work with migrant workers in the local slums.
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Female Lawyers Skirt Likeability Paradox – Here’s How
Office PoliticsHow does the likeability/competence double-bind affect female lawyers today? According to some new research, it doesn’t.
A new paper published in the Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy has surprising new insight into the classic likeability vs. competence dichotomy reviled by professional women. We’ve discussed this issue on The Glass Hammer in the past, that women tend to face disproportionate penalties when they are perceived as being “pushy” or “aggressive,” while a man displaying the same behavior would simply be perceived as “assertive” or “confident.”
But according to the study, Likeability v. Competence: The Impossible Choice Faced by Female Politicians, Attenuated by Lawyers, “in style and in effectiveness, there is no difference between how female and male lawyers are perceived.”
This flies in the face of many women’s experiences in the professional space – what are these women doing right?
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Key Issues and Developments for Women Managers in Asia
Managing ChangeAs we sit amongst the wreckage of the post-2008 ‘credit crunch’ and global financial crisis and consequent economic mess, several other business and management shibboleths have also seemingly come crashing down. These include those such as ‘the war for talent’, ‘work-life balance’, ‘managing diversity’ and so on. Some commentators may now argue these are less important. However, our all too common ethnocentricity may blind us to a clearer view of the situation. I will use the case of women managers in Asia to illustrate this. After all, we can learn more about our own systems and practices by looking at those of others.
Asia’s rapid economic growth led to a significant increase in demand for managers and professionals. Indeed, in parts of Asia women’s labour force participation rates ranked highly, aided by better educational participation levels and falling fertility rates requiring the best use of all talent. It seemed that as women became more educated and qualified for managerial positions, their numbers would rise. However, this is not an unalloyed picture of progress.
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10 Ways to be More Powerful
Expert AnswersMany women I work with have a love-hate relationship with Power. They want to be powerful, but the definition of power in their heads leaves a bad taste in their mouths. For many women, power conjures up pictures of a dictatorial, hierarchic, dominating, aggressive, “my way or the highway” person. So, without even realizing this, many women give away their power.
Women often try to fulfill what they believe is society’s version of an acceptable type of power for women, which is much nicer, much more accommodating. This leads to what Catalyst calls “The Goldilocks Syndrome.” Women find themselves in situations where they are perceived as either “too hard” or “too soft,” but never just right for that top job.
The interesting thing is that power is not just something that is bestowed from the outside. It is something that is developed from within, and when others recognize you as having personal power, the external power comes to you. The good news is that how powerful we are and feel is 100% in our control. Here are the 10 tips to BE more powerful.
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How Sponsorship Can Help Senior Women Break the Marzipan Ceiling
Featured, Office PoliticsWhat’s keeping women from reaching the highest echelon of today’s top corporations? If you ask Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Founding President and Chairman of the Center for Worklife Policy, it’s certainly not a dearth of women’s initiatives, mentoring programs, and networking. Nor is it related to performance.
According to a new study produced by the CWLP in conjunction with the Harvard Business Group, a lack of sponsorship for women may be to blame. At a recent event hosted by American Express, Hewlett said, “34% of the marzipan layer, that layer just below senior leadership, is made up of women.” On the other hand, she said, only about 21% of senior leadership is female. And that number hasn’t increased in years.
“It’s about relationship capital,” said Hewlett.
Authored by Hewlett, with Kerrie Peraino, Chief Diversity Officer of Amex; Laura Sherbin Ph.D., Vice President, Director of Research at CWLP; and Karen Sumberg, Vice President, Director of Projects and Communications at CWLP, “The Sponsor Effect: Breaking Through the Last Glass Ceiling” outlines the ways in which women are missing out when it comes to sponsorship.
But more importantly, it is a detailed study into the sponsorship-protege relationship. It explains the urgent need for stronger sponsorship of women and how we can get it.
Read more
E.U. Considers Lengthening Maternity Leave – What About U.S.?
Work-LifeIn October of last year news broke that the European Parliament, which covers 27 nations, was attempting to extend maternity leave from 14 to 20-weeks on full pay. On January 7, 2011 European Union ministers rejected the move, citing the cost as the biggest hindrance. Among the countries lobbying against the plan were the UK, France, and Germany. Assessments said the proposed measure would cost UK businesses approximately $3.8 billion a year; France estimated it would mean extra healthcare costs of about $1.75 billion; and Germany put its additional costs at $1.6 billion.
The plan also included paternity leave and a stipulation that pregnant workers would have their job or an “equivalent” position reserved for them. Also, the plan specified that women returning to their jobs could not be dismissed for six months once their maternity leave drew to a close.
In order to reach a happy medium, The European Commission has proposed extending the plan to just 18-weeks as a way of improving work-life balance. Belgium, the current holder of the EU presidency, is showing early support for the 18-week plan, but no deal is expected until at least 2012.
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Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!
NewsDear Readers, we are taking the day off in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We are inspired by Dr. King’s vision of a better future for all people, and it is our hope that The Glass Hammer provides you with the tools and inspiration to work toward workplace equality as well. As Dr. King said, “The time is always right to do what is right.”
Intrepid Woman: From Futures Trader to Microfinance Film Maker
Intrepid Women SeriesI was working as a Futures Trader on the European shift – in the middle of the night, Chicago time – in September 2009 when I first came across an op-ed in The New York Times written by Nick Kristof the month before, “The Women’s Crusade.” I was completely floored by the article – it told the stories of women in the developing world, facing terrifying, seemingly insurmountable odds. And some of these women were able to overcome these odds using a development tool I’d heard little about – microfinance. I was intrigued. Microlending seemed to help women, and it seemed to be a high-return financial investment – both topics of high interest to me.
I’d studied film in undergrad, as well as Economics and English. I’d loved movies since I was a kid.
It occurred to me that this could make an amazing topic for a global documentary film.
But I’ve never made a feature documentary before; I’d made a few shorts in school, and beyond that I knew virtually nothing about production. It was imperative that I surround myself with professionals who could compensate for my own greenness. And I got lucky; I was able to put together a wonderful group of people who are highly seasoned professionals just as passionate about the project as I am, and what’s more, they were willing to volunteer.
So we got started. While maintaining my trading job, the crew and I traveled to South America and filmed in Paraguay in 2010, and we’re only getting started – we’ll continue filming throughout this year.
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Voice of Experience: Rhonda Mims, President, ING Foundation & SVP, Corporate Responsibility and Multicultural Affairs, ING
Voices of ExperienceRhonda Mims, President, ING Foundation & SVP, Corporate Responsibility and Multicultural Affairs, ING, said she was glad to have learned the value of a non-linear career.
Having begun her career as an attorney, then working for the government, and finally moving to the corporate space, Mims has had a broad range of experiences. She explained, “For a number of years, I have understood the fact that every career doesn’t have a straight linear curve.” Looking back though, she said, “When I started, I was so focused that I may have missed opportunities to go to the left or the right, instead of going straight up.”
Mims now leads the ING Foundation as well as corporate responsibility and diversity and inclusion initiatives at ING. “It’s an incredible job,” she added.
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Ask-the-Career-Coach: Before the Resolutions, Conduct a Career Audit
Ask A Career CoachOkay, enough! Enough with all the talk about New Year’s resolutions. It may be a great way to sell gym memberships, but it’s not effective for much of anything else. For one thing, it takes more than a resolution to bring about substantial career change.
Is this the year you’re going to make your move? A high-profile assignment, or client? That promotion you’ve been coveting? A relocation? The top company in your industry, or one outside of your current industry altogether? Your own startup?
Declaring the “resolution” is hardly the end of the process. Defining the goal is only the beginning. Once you clearly define—in specific and measureable terms—what it is you want to achieve by the end of the year, then you need to conduct a career audit. The audit will make plain where you are positioned vis-à-vis your goal and the gap you need to close. In the career economy, there are four basic categories of capital with which you can create growth: functional capital, human capital, political capital, and brand capital.
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