Diversity in Leadership

What's A Girl Gotta Do to Break The Glass Ceiling?

Teaser:

Nell Merlino asks: What’s it going to take to see more women consistently occupying leadership positions in the US and around the world?

Editorial:

From Forbes:

We all know that women and girls are not showing up on a leadership trajectory, a position that would otherwise seem consistent with their increased rates of higher education, business ownership, workforce participation and other factors.

It’s not like folks aren’t trying.

When she’s not doing push ups with Ellen DeGeneres, one of First Lady Michelle Obama’s top priorities is mentoring girls so ‘there isn’t any room you can’t walk into.’

The Girl Scouts of America have just launched a major public awareness campaign to highlight the urgent need to help girls become leaders,www.togetherthere.org.

Nike has a global effort, www.girleffect.org, with a similar message. Here’s the data the Girls Scouts point to.

Back in 1993, I created a high-profile initiative called Take Our Daughters To Work that bears many similarities to the new campaign from the Girl Scouts and Nike’s campaign. Carol Gilligan’s seminal book, ‘In A Different Voice,’ provided the research orientation and Take Our Daughters To Work succeeded in mobilizing more than 70 million people on behalf of girls.

Yet, the research, the campaigns, and the web sites just keep on coming.

[...]

Source:

Forbes

URL:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nellmerlino/2012/02/07/whats-a-girl-gotta-do/

Date:

February 8, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Facts on Women Officeholders, Candidates and Voters

Submitted by asklar on Mon, 02/06/2012 - 1:07am

CAWP offers fact sheets, graphics, research reports, and other information organized both by topic and by level of office. Additional research can be found in our Research & Scholarship section. Includes current numbers of women in elective office, data and analysis for current and past races with women candidates, by election year, data and analysis of women's voting behavior, facts, research, and resources for and about women of color in elective office, state-by-state fact sheets, firsts for women in U.S. politics, etc.

URL:

http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/fast_facts/index.php

Member Organization:

Center for American Women & Politics

Female candidates for Congress on upward trend

Teaser:

The roster of congressional candidates for this year's elections is taking shape and one trend is emerging: 2012 could be another "Year of the Woman" in American politics.

Editorial:

From USA Today:

The moniker was famously applied in 1992 when four women were elected to the Senate, a high watermark for the chamber that has never been surpassed.

This year, however, a notable number of candidates are running in potentially competitive races in both the House of Representatives and Senate that could send a wave of female lawmakers to Washington in November. If so, it would reverse the 2010 election trend that saw the first dip in female representation in the House since 1978 and only sent one woman, New Hampshire Republican Kelly Ayotte, to the Senate.

In the 2012 Senate lineup, there are 10 female candidates — four Republicans and six Democrats — seeking office. Of the six states with female Democratic candidates — Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Dakota and Wisconsin — none has ever elected a woman to the Senate.

Republican women are running in Connecticut, Hawaii, Missouri and New Mexico.

"Both parties have made a concerted effort to attract more women candidates," said Jessica Taylor, a senior analyst for the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report. Taylor said campaign operations are cognizant of seeking out diverse candidates and female candidates can be particularly appealing because independent female voters are often a decisive voting bloc in elections.

[...]

Source:

USA Today

URL:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/story/2012-01-18/more-women-in-congressional-races/52875624/1

Date:

January 30, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

African American women see their own challenges mirrored in Michelle Obama’s

Teaser:

As black women watch Michelle Obama on the national stage, they search — sometimes nervously — for nuances often lost on the larger culture. How she handles criticism, how she raises her children, even her style of dress, has the potential to counter negative stereotypes.

Editorial:

From the Washington Post:

In a nationwide survey conducted by The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation, black women described themselves as relating to Michelle Obama and sensing that she understands them. Nearly eight out of 10 black women say they personally identify with the first lady, and when asked to give a one-word description of Obama, among the words most commonly used were “intelligent,” “strong” and “classy.”

In follow-up interviews, black women say the first lady’s racial and gender identity are essential to the deep connection they feel they have to her. They call her a role model, someone familiar to them — like a sister or aunt.

That emotional stake makes watching Obama navigate the world stage both “thrilling and terrifying,” says Melissa Harris-Perry, a professor of political science at Tulane University who has written aboutthe first lady’s impact on black women.

[...]

Source:

Washington Post

URL:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/african-american-women-see-their-own-struggles-mirrored-in-michelle-obamas/2012/01/19/gIQA5k4DMQ_story.html?hpid=z4

Date:

January 25, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

White Women: The Sponsors Women of Color Must Have in the 21st Century

Teaser:

Imagine a time with equal representation of ALL women on boards, at the CEO position and in the c-suite. There'd be no more talk of "breaking the glass ceiling." There would be no glass ceiling. Nor would there be talk of "being the first." The presence of strong female leaders would be the norm.

Editorial:

From the Huffington Post:

In 1965, affirmative action was established. It was amended in 1967 to ensure that women and minorities were provided opportunities to be considered for job placement. In theory, it served as the catalyst for creating opportunities. Unfortunately, not everyone was ready to meet the new employee requirements. As a result, even in the 21st century women are still struggling to find their place and voice in corporate America.

According to The Atlantic, in 2010, women became the majority of the workforce for the first time in U.S. history. For every two men that got a college diploma last year, three women did the same. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that women now hold 51.4% of managerial and professional jobs -- up from 26.1% in 1980. They make up 54% of all accountants and hold about half of all banking and insurance jobs. About a third of America's physicians are now women, as are 45% of associates in law firms -- and both those percentages are rising quickly.

The pink elephant in the living room that isn't being talked about is this: White women have been the biggest beneficiaries of affirmative action. So much so that their presence at mid- to senior-levels dramatically outpace women of color by 4 to 1. In Fortune 500 companies, 2010 numbers show that white women held 12.7% of board seats as compared to women of color holding 3% of the board seats.

[...]

Source:

Huffington Post

URL:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/trudy-bourgeois/white-women-the-sponsors-_b_1197421.html

Date:

January 19, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Political Parity’s Drive to Help Women Win

Teaser:

After years of progress, the number of female lawmakers in the U.S. slipped in the last election cycle. Leslie Bennetts on a new drive to change that—and why the country will be better off for it.

Editorial:

From the Daily Beast:

“Women are 51 percent of the population, but we have flatlined at 17 percent in Congress, with 17 women in the Senate, six women governors, and 23 percent of state legislators around the country,” says Tracey Hyams, director of Political Parity, a non-partisan coalition of leaders who have joined forces to increase the number of women in office.

In the last election cycle, frustration turned to alarm as women’s representation actually lost ground. “There was a net loss of 81 legislative seats for women,” reports Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. “It was the first time we’ve gone down in 30 years.”

[...]

Source:

The Daily Beast

URL:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/01/19/political-parity-s-drive-to-help-women-win.html

Date:

January 19, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Harness the Economic Power of an Aging Population

Teaser:

Policy institutions, like the Institute for Women's Policy Research need to start asking the right questions--questions that go to the economic value of working longer.

Editorial:

From the Fiscal Times:

As the debate over American market capitalism takes center stage in thepresidential campaign, it’s a good time to focus on the relationship between economic growth and our senior population, since the greatest social movement of the coming decades will be our aging citizenry. As we work to harness the potential of this changing demographic group, presidential candidates might consider an interesting parallel with the integration of women into economic life in the last half of the 20th century.

Women's economic empowerment met steady opposition early on, based on the mistaken view that females would take jobs away from males. But as history has shown, an economy that includes women is an economy that grows. And a growing economy has room – and the need – for new entrants. If American market capitalism teaches anything, it is that we need to prevent barriers into economic life for people of all genders, races, and ages, and indeed, to help make these new entrants part of the very engine that drives growth. If it was never true that women would take men’s jobs, it’s equally untrue that keeping an aging workforce active will not take younger generations’ jobs, as has been documented by Axel Boersch-Supan in his groundbreaking work onintergenerational cohesion. He concludes, “…We find no evidence that the burden of population aging…is systematically related to broad array of indicators of intergenerational conflict”.

[...]

Source:

Fiscal Times

URL:

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Blogs/Age-and-Reason/2012/01/17/Harness-the-Economic-Power-of-an-Aging-Population.aspx#page1

Date:

January 18, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones Announces Insurance Diversity Task Force

Teaser:

California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones announced the formation of an Insurance Diversity Task Force to consider and make recommendations about diversity in the insurance industry, including the diversity of corporate governing boards and procurement from diverse businesses.

Editorial:

From Insurance News:

"Insurance is a $125 billion industry in California," said Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. "I am hopeful this task force will help us identify, measure and increase what the insurance industry procures from California's minority- and service-disabled veteran-owned businesses."

According to the Small Business Administration and the Center for Women's Business Research, diverse business enterprises constitute one of the fastest-growing segments in the U.S. economy, with minority-owned businesses generating an estimated $1 trillion in annual revenue. MBEs also employ nearly 6 million workers, while women-owned businesses employ about 19 million people and generate $2.5 trillion in annual sales. Further, with more than 25 million veterans in the country, 1 in 7 small businesses are veteran-owned.

"Expanding small businesses - especially diverse and disabled veteran-owned businesses - will help turn our economy around,'' added Commissioner Jones. "The goal of this task force is to make it easier for the insurer community to contract with these talented enterprises."

Task force members will identify and promote insurance companies that are doing a good job on diversity issues, examine the diversity of insurance company governing boards, identify actions the Department of Insurance can take to encourage insurance companies to utilize diverse suppliers, and make recommendations for changes to the law. Commissioner Jones recently requested voluntary supplier diversity data from the top 200 insurance companies. Assembly Bill 53, authored by Assembly Insurance Committee Chairman Jose Solorio, would require top insurance companies to report their diversity efforts.

[...]

Source:

Insurance News

URL:

http://insurancenewsnet.com/article.aspx?id=325929

Date:

January 17, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Men Rule: The Continued Under-Representation of Women in U.S. Politics

Submitted by asklar on Fri, 01/13/2012 - 11:42am

New report from American University's Women & Politics Institute, "Men Rule: The Continued Under-Representation of Women in U.S. Politics," details the results of a survey of nearly 4,000 leaders, all of whom are well-situated to run for office and why even with the emergence over the past ten years of high-profile women in politics, the authors find that the gap between women and men's interest in running for office is the same today as it was a decade ago.

(From the Press Release)

URL:

http://www.american.edu/spa/wpi/upload/2012-Men-Rule-Report-web.pdf

Corporate Boards: Shifting From Aging Men To New Generation Of Women?

Teaser:

Sylvia Ann Hewlett of the Center for Talent Innovation argues that, with the imminent retirement of the over 1,1000 F1000 directors over 70, demand is surging for a new generation of directors, one which better reflects the 21st-century marketplace.

Editorial:

From ForbesWoman:

Now nearly 100 years later, the dearth of women on America’s corporate boards is as striking as is the need for them. Women control nearly 75 percent of consumer purchasing decisions, yet there are still 29 Fortune 1000 consumer companies with no women on their boards, according to research by CTPartners, a global executive search firm. In a time of economic turmoil and political instability, male CEOs and directors repeatedly told CTPartners that having women in the boardroom leads to better-informed discussions and more thoughtful decision-making, sentiments backed up by a 2011 Catalyst studyshowing that major companies with three or more female directors outperformed companies with zero women on boards by 46 percent of return on equity – yet among the Fortune 1000, there are 144 boards that have no women directors, and women comprise fewer than 15 percent of all directors.

But there’s good news: More than 1,100 directors currently serving on F1000 boards are over 70 years old. With their retirement imminent, demand is surging for a new generation of directors, one which better reflects the 21^st-century marketplace. How can qualified women ensure that they’re considered as candidates to fill those slots?

....

Source:

Forbes

URL:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/sylviaannhewlett/2012/01/06/corporate-boards-shifting-from-aging-men-to-new-generation-of-women/

Date:

January 9, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

GET INVOLVED

What We Do

NCRW is a network of leading university and community based research, policy, and advocacy centers with a growing global reach dedicated to advancing rights and opportunities for women and girls. We also have a Corporate Circle comprised of senior diversity professionals from leading U.S. and global member companies and a Presidents Circle of college and university leaders who share our commitment. NCRW harnesses the collective power of its network to provide knowledge, analysis, and thought leadership on issues ranging from reducing women’s poverty to building a critical mass of women’s leadership across sectors.

NCRW Blog

Diversity in Leadership

Search NCRW