by Anna T. Collins, Esq (Portland, Maine)
When I first interviewed Patricia Gillette, an employment law expert and partner at Orrick in San Francisco, I noticed two things about the way she spoke about the future of the legal profession. First, despite the temptation to point fingers when discussing the ever-present wage gap in the legal profession, Pat Gillette focused on solutions. Second, she was optimistic about the possibility of change in the profession, especially due to the shifting economic reality. In Pat’s view, for example, women may be at an advantage as firms shift away from hourly fee structures – a shift that may be inevitable as the economy turns sour for law firms and clients. Women lawyers, in Pat’s experience, are at times more efficient at completing assignments. While the current billable hours system may not value the fact that they are able to complete work quickly, the legal profession of the future is likely to value this type of efficiency.
Pat’s focus on solutions and optimistic view of the possibilities for both women and men becomes less surprising and more poignant when one considers her work as co-founder of the Opt-In Project. The Project was partly a response to various articles published around 2003, which all examined what has been coined the “Opt-Out Revolution.” In articles such as “The Case for Staying Home,” “Mommy Madness,” and the infamous “The Opt-Out Revolution,” authors depicted the “trend” of women obtaining the highest levels of education, entering the workforce in record numbers, and then choosing to leave.
The founders of the Opt-In Project wanted to test the “Opt-Out” conclusion against the theory that women were actually being pushed out of the workplace. The ultimate mission of the Opt-In Project, created in 2006, was to “tap into the wisdom of industry leaders to find innovative strategies for the retention of professional women in the workforce.” Ultimately, the goal of the Project was to create a forum to take the discussion to the next level: Are there more sweeping measures that should be considered to create greater career sustainability for both women and men?
Despite its ambitious nature, the Project cannot be described as anything other than “a success.” Over a period of an entire year, the Opt-In Project brought more than 900 people together from a variety of industries for events in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Washington, D.C., and New York. Industry experts started each evening by presenting their ideas for improving retention and leadership opportunities for women. The conversation was then turned over to participants for smaller group discussions, which generated many ideas. These ideas, which are summarized below, are described in full detail in the Opt-In Project Report. The Report is available at the Opt In Project website.
Read more
Beyond Ideas: Making Global Impact: Women in Business Conference 2009
NewsThe ninth annual London Business School Women in Business Conference, Beyond Ideas: Making Global Impact, will address women’s evolving roles in today’s business world. Building on past themes such as “Challenging Norms: Changing the Face of Business” and “Opportunities in an Evolving Business World”, the conference will highlight the impact women are making in local and global marketplaces and how they are making it.The conference will profile influential women leaders and provide key takeaways on how participants may make greater impact in their respective countries and business environments.The following panels will be hosted to discuss specific topics on Global Impact:
The London Business School Women in Business Conference is widely recognised as a leading women’s conference in Europe. Join professionals, academics and students for a full day of events planned with distinguished speakers, panels and networking to promote impact beyond the day’s events.
Visit the website for the event schedule.
All Dressed Up and Someplace to Go
Office PoliticsAs Oscar Wilde put so eloquently, “It’s only the shallow who do not judge by appearance.” And if this is the case, I suppose the City is full of deep-thinking philosophers.
Ambitious young City girls looking to enter the City of London have an added layer of complexity in their mission that the boys don’t. You not only need to act smart, you need to look it.
We women obsess about our appearance not because we are vain or frivolous. It is because history has taught us that if we don’t get our appearance right, people won’t stop talking about it. It becomes an endless distraction from everything else we want to talk about. That skirt one-inch too short is like a virtual mute button.
Read more
Beyond the Storm: Opportunity & Risk in a New Era
NewsNow in its eleventh year, the CFO European Summit takes on a new life as CFO Outlook 2009. Featuring enhanced networking opportunities and increased interactivity, CFO Outlook 2009 will take a long view on how the outcomes of the global financial crisis will transform your expectations, your strategies, and ultimately your role.
The event is designed to foster candid discussion amongst your peers from across Europe. Underpinned by key insights from CFO Europe’s award-winning editorial team alongside expert opinion from a panel of industry leaders, we encourage an atmosphere of lively and relevant debate on the topics that matter to you.
For more information or to Register.
Why Laura isn’t CEO – Chicago Booth Global presentation series
NewsMore and more women are getting a business education but few of them seem to make it to the top … why are there so few female CEOs?
Various explanations have been proposed, including the suggestion that women are still discriminated against, or that women just don’t have what it takes to compete in the often cut-throat business environment. Current research led by Chicago Booth Professor Marianne Bertrand explores the reasons behind the gender gap in business. Unsurprisingly, her research confirms that female MBAs have not done as well as male MBAs in the labor market.
What may surprise you, however are some of the reasons why they have not done as well. Attend Chicago Booth’s Global Leadership series to hear Professor Bertrand discuss factors that explain the large and rising gender gap in earnings between MBA graduates of an elite business school. Her findings will provoke a re-assessment of personal career choices, offer insight into human resource policies, and provide broad guidance to those responsible for organisational practices.
With a reputation for excellence and personal service, the London Capital Club, based in the heart of the City, is the City’s premier private members Club for men and women, which combines the grace and integrity of a traditional city club with a modern understanding of business needs.
This event is free to attend but seats are limited. To secure a place, visit Chicago Booth School of Business.
The “Opt-In Project” Inspires Change In The Legal Profession
Breaking the Glass CeilingWhen I first interviewed Patricia Gillette, an employment law expert and partner at Orrick in San Francisco, I noticed two things about the way she spoke about the future of the legal profession. First, despite the temptation to point fingers when discussing the ever-present wage gap in the legal profession, Pat Gillette focused on solutions. Second, she was optimistic about the possibility of change in the profession, especially due to the shifting economic reality. In Pat’s view, for example, women may be at an advantage as firms shift away from hourly fee structures – a shift that may be inevitable as the economy turns sour for law firms and clients. Women lawyers, in Pat’s experience, are at times more efficient at completing assignments. While the current billable hours system may not value the fact that they are able to complete work quickly, the legal profession of the future is likely to value this type of efficiency.
Pat’s focus on solutions and optimistic view of the possibilities for both women and men becomes less surprising and more poignant when one considers her work as co-founder of the Opt-In Project. The Project was partly a response to various articles published around 2003, which all examined what has been coined the “Opt-Out Revolution.” In articles such as “The Case for Staying Home,” “Mommy Madness,” and the infamous “The Opt-Out Revolution,” authors depicted the “trend” of women obtaining the highest levels of education, entering the workforce in record numbers, and then choosing to leave.
The founders of the Opt-In Project wanted to test the “Opt-Out” conclusion against the theory that women were actually being pushed out of the workplace. The ultimate mission of the Opt-In Project, created in 2006, was to “tap into the wisdom of industry leaders to find innovative strategies for the retention of professional women in the workforce.” Ultimately, the goal of the Project was to create a forum to take the discussion to the next level: Are there more sweeping measures that should be considered to create greater career sustainability for both women and men?
Despite its ambitious nature, the Project cannot be described as anything other than “a success.” Over a period of an entire year, the Opt-In Project brought more than 900 people together from a variety of industries for events in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Washington, D.C., and New York. Industry experts started each evening by presenting their ideas for improving retention and leadership opportunities for women. The conversation was then turned over to participants for smaller group discussions, which generated many ideas. These ideas, which are summarized below, are described in full detail in the Opt-In Project Report. The Report is available at the Opt In Project website.
Read more
Are You Challenged?
Breaking the Glass CeilingWomen may feel unchallenged at work but that isn’t stopping them from taking risks and proactively managing their own careers. According to new research from Accenture, almost half of female business professionals around the world (and a similar number of men) believe they are insufficiently challenged. Yet these same women feel confident in their skills and capabilities.
The global consulting firm reported this information after surveying 3,600 professionals in medium to large organizations in 18 countries across Europe, Asia, North America, South America and Africa. Forty-six percent of the women surveyed said they are not significantly challenged in their current roles. This, despite the fact these respondents feel confident in their abilities to manage their workloads, meet deadlines, delegate and negotiate.
The survey also revealed that 59 percent of the women believe their careers are successful or very successful and that their jobs require them to stretch beyond their expected responsibilities on the job.
Despite the lack of challenge from the top down, 81 percent of the women who categorize themselves as very successful, said they assume added responsibilities in order to advance their own careers. They also reported learning new skills, considering new positions and regularly asking for new challenges.
Read more
Volatility Forecasting & Trading Strategies 2009
NewsBoth on a national and global level, volatility has been continuing to radically escalate and experience wide swings. While some may use it as a means to hedge their portfolios, others are viewing volatility as an asset class on its own and have implemented ground-breaking arbitrage techniques to transform this recent surge into profits. During the current market crisis, institutional investors, asset managers and market players of all types, are forced to keep a close watch on volatility, while striving to build new strategies and systems to benefit from the vast amounts of returns it can provide.
This conference will fill a critical need to examine the evolving strategies, models, performance and different approaches to volatility trading on both a national and global stage. It will be the premier platform that will unite Hedge Funds, Asset Management Firms, Investment Banks, Quantitative Analysts, Portfolio Managers, Heads of Quantitative Research, Exchanges, CEO’s and Chief Risk Officers.
Visit the website for information on featured speakers.
Helping Management Through Times of Transition
Expert Answers, Managing ChangeIn our current economic climate, management-level executives are not only challenged to make difficult decisions to keep the organization going, they also have to deal with the very difficult task of letting people go and all that comes with it. For women, it can be especially difficult as we often feel a sense of empathy for the employee’s situation and will carry our concerns for their well being around with us for days.
Corporate decision-making is guided by the bottom line: financial cost and gain. A more accurate cost analysis, however, recognizes the psychological and emotional costs and impact of workplace events and policies on the company’s most important resources: its people. While people in leadership positions are charged with the responsibility of developing and implementing policies and organizational changes that will keep the organization afloat, they also grapple with the stress and dilemmas inherent in decision-making within an environment that may be characterized by urgency and fear.
According to the Chinese tradition of the I-Ching, every crisis is characterized by the potential for both danger and opportunity. The current economic crisis offers manifold opportunities to advocate for making lemonade from lemons.
Here are some practical tips that management can employ to help themselves and those who must be let go make the best of a challenging situation – and provide those left behind with greater confidence.
Read more
Global MBA Women’s Day Conference
NewsGender Balance: An Opportunity for Post-crisis management?Some companies are ‘hunkering down backwards’ to hide from this crisis, trimming and cutting all but the most tried-and-true success elements of their past. Others are ‘innovating forwards’, using this period to redesign their organisations for a very different future. The latter companies know that women offer skills and styles particularly suited to the 21st century…Are you seizing the opportunity of Women-omics?
International MBA Women Careers Day: March 4th, Online, on a PC near you
Avivah Wittenberg-CoxCEO 20-first, Publisher WOMEN-omics.comWOMEN-omics and MBA-Exchange.com will host an online careers day to celebrate Internatioanl Women’s Day. Our event is designed for women with MBAs from the world’s leading business schools and the companies interested in them.The day will include an online discussion, chaired by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, author of Why Women Mean Business, and Publisher of WOMEN-omics.com. The discussion will bring together speakers from companies as well as leading career experts to focus on:
For MBA women and enlightened employers, the link is www.mba-exchange.com/womenHope to see you there (virtually).
Risk and Reward:The 6th Prowess Annual International Conference 2009
NewsMake the most of the networking opportunities at the Prowess 2009 conference!Make sure you book your place before 12 February to be included in the
Who’s Who of Women’s Enterprise Development
The Who’s Who is a fantastic networking tool profiling up to 300 key contacts in the women’s enterprise sector, and a great way to profile you and your organisation. The Who’s Who is part of the Prowess Conference handbook, and is sent out to all registered delegates one week before the event to help you plan networking.
If you have already booked your place, please send your profile text for inclusion in the Who’s Who to j.orourke@prowess.org.uk at Prowess by 5pm on Thursday 12 February.
Conference booking form
For further information call the Conference Booking Hotline: +44 (0)1603 762355 or email Conference@prowess.org.uk