Diversity in Leadership

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

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Associated Issues & Expertise:

Women's eNews Announces 21 Leaders for the 21st Century 2012

Teaser:

Chosen from a reader-nominated list, the lives and work of 21 Leaders for the 21st Century 2012 continue to impress; their work ranges from organizing trash pickers in Cairo, Egypt, to supporting female candidates running for the U.S. Senate. Many have spent decades perfecting their strategies; others have recently created their own approaches. All are clear that much more work needs to be done before women and girls enjoy full equality.

Editorial:

See also the main 21 Leaders for the 21st Century page.

Source:

Women's eNews

URL:

http://www.womensenews.org/story/21-leaders-the-21st-century/111229/womens-enews-announces-21-leaders-the-21st-century-2012

Date:

January 3, 2012

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Iowa Caucus: What's in it for Women?

Teaser:

The U.S. ranks 40th in the world for women's political empowerment and we're losing ground.

Editorial:

From the Huffington Post:

Last Friday in the "Forum" section of The Washington Post, political scientist Jeanne Zaino asked an important question: Given the fact that Iowa has no record of electing women to our legislature or as governor, should it have the distinction, honor and power of holding the first and very important caucus?

No. It should not have that honor. It's like rewarding it for sexist obstinacy. Trivializing and ignoring it's deplorable record is a way of rewarding bias, sexism and inequality. It's how we continue to pay lip service to the concept of gender equality without taking it to it's logical gender conclusion. Can you imagine a world where these gender numbers were reversed? Now, that would be a "boy crisis" you could really sink your teeth into.

But, the truly sad and shocking fact is how not alone Iowa is. According to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, although there are four states (Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi and Vermont) that have never sent women to Congress, half of all states have never elected a female senator or governor.

I know that there are people and organizations, partisan and non-partisan, working very hard in Iowa and across the country to change this. Organizations like Emerge, She Should Run, The White House Project and Off The Sidelines, and others are dedicated to building infrastructures to address this imbalance at local, regional, state and national levels.

...

Source:

Huffington Post

URL:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/iowa-caucus_b_1178741.html

Date:

January 3, 2012

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Associated Issues & Expertise:

Girls Grow: A Vital Force in Rural Economies

Submitted by asklar on Fri, 12/30/2011 - 7:30pm

In August 2010, The Chicago Council announced an initiative to bring attention to the role of girls in rural economies of developing countries and identify opportunities to increase investment in women and girls as a tool for economic growth and social stability. Catherine Bertini, currently a Chicago Council senior fellow and Professor of Public Administration and International Affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, served as chair of the project.

URL:

http://www.thechicagocouncil.org/files/Studies_Publications/TaskForcesandStudies/Girls_and_Rural_Economies.aspx

Women moving into college athletic deprtments

Teaser:

In 2005, at age 49, Arizona State University hired Lisa Love as vice president for athletics, the highest-ranking job in the department. Six years later she is one of just five women to occupy the top athletics administrative position at a Division I-A school.

Editorial:

From the article:

Some believe the lack of women serving as athletic directors is about to change, with qualified women rising up the ranks. Others believe it would have changed already if not for qualified women — and men — who are happy occupying the No. 2 spot and who have no desire to take on the far more public role of athletic director.

Still others believe it's as simple as not having enough university presidents and chancellors willing to hire a woman to lead a major athletic department.

"I think it's a long journey that we've been taking for more than 40 years where half the population has said, 'Treat me fairly,'" said Chris Voelz, a former women's athletic administrator at the University of Minnesota and current leadership gifts officer at Women's Sports Foundation founded by Billie Jean King. "If we were to switch positions, would the men still be pleased with the position women have? To that end we have not arrived."
...

Source:

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

URL:

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/college/s_773711.html

Date:

December 26, 2011

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Does Your Female Boss Really Have Your Back?

Teaser:

Barbara and Shannon Kelley critique a Swedish study, from the Institute for Labour Market Policy Evaluation (IFAU) and the Uppsala Center for Labor Studies (UCLS) at Uppsala University, that suggests that women managers are no more likely to eradicate the wage gap as their male counterparts.

Source:

Huffington Post

URL:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shannon-kelley/does-your-female-boss-rea_b_1164167.html

Date:

December 26, 2011

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Diversity in Workplace Enhances Bottom Line

Teaser:

The more diverse a company’s workforce is, the more loyal, happy and productive its employees tend to be, according to a new study led by a Ryerson University professor.

Editorial:

From the press release:

The commitment to diversity must be more than superficial, the researchers say.

“There are organizations that are doing what research and popular practice tells them to do. They are showing pictures of diverse workers on their website and say they have a commitment to diversity, but they’re not really going beyond what people may see as simply window dressing,” said Kristyn Scott, lead author of the study, The Diverse Organization: Finding Gold at the End of the Rainbow, and a professor with Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management. “That’s contrasted with an organization that has woven diversity into every fibre of its corporate culture and business practices.”

Scott and her co-authors, Professor Joanna Heathcote of University of Toronto at Scarborough, and Professor Jamie Gruman, University of Guelph, conducted a review of about 100 studies, mostly from the U.S. but some from Canada and elsewhere, from 1991 to 2009. They evaluated the studies based on six key advantages of corporate diversity as outlined by Cox and Blake’s framework, a U.S.-based study published in 1991, which are: recruitment, greater creativity, problem-solving, flexibility (better reaction to change), cost (employee turnover) and marketing (i.e. – stronger financial performance).

...

Scott, K. A., Heathcote, J. M. and Gruman, J. A. (2011), The diverse organization: Finding gold at the end of the rainbow. Human Resource Management, 50: 735–755. doi: 10.1002/hrm.20459 [fee]

Abstract
The breadth and depth of research on organizational diversity reveals the complex nature of diversity in organizations. Indeed, research in the realm of human resource management focuses on diversity applied to a variety of topics, including recruitment, retention, succession planning, and work-life management, among others. In this article, we use Cox and Blake's (1991) advantages as a framework to review the diversity literature and suggest that organizational culture may be key to understanding when organizations will benefit from a diverse employee base. Specifically, organizations that emphasize inclusion and integrate diversity into all policies and practices may benefit to a greater extent compared with organizations focusing on diversity as a stand-alone practice. Through an examination of academic research and the award-winning diversity program of Campbell Soup Company (Catalyst, 2010), we make culturally based propositions to further diversity research in, and the practice of, human resource management. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Source:

Newswise press release

URL:

http://www.newswise.com/articles/diversity-in-workplace-enhances-bottom-line-study

Date:

December 20, 2011

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Associated Issues & Expertise:

GEM 2010 Women's Report

Submitted by asklar on Fri, 12/16/2011 - 11:17am

The Report found that, in 2010, more than 104 million women between 18-64 years old were actively engaged in starting and running new business ventures, contributing significantly to entrepreneurship in all 59 economies studied. Another 83 million women were running established businesses that they started over 3½ years earlier. Taken together, 187 million women were involved in creating and operating enterprises, ranging from just over 1.5 percent to 45.4 percent of the adult female population in these 59 economies. Although entrepreneurial activity among women is highest in emerging economies (45.5 percent), the proportion of all entrepreneurs who are women varies considerably among the economies: from 16 percent in the Republic of Korea to 55 percent in Ghana–the only economy with more women than men entrepreneurs. A multi-year analysis shows that this gender gap has persisted across most economies for the past nine years (2002-2010).

URL:

http://www.gemconsortium.org/news/757/gem-2010-womens-report-

Gender Imbalance in the Boardroom: Opportunities to Change Course

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 12/15/2011 - 11:10am

The ION 2011 Status Report on women directors and executive officers of public companies provides a breadth and depth of regional information not available anywhere else. It addresses the issue of board turnover and the extent to which public companies continue to miss significant opportunities to increase the gender diversity of their boards. “Gender Imbalance in the Boardroom: Opportunities to Change Course” includes data from Fortune 500 companies in 14 geographic areas, as well as hundreds of small and mid-cap businesses that comprise the backbone of U.S. regional economies. Now in its eighth year, the 2011 ION report also offers nominating committees, sitting directors and executive recruiters specific suggestions on how they can increase the momentum of change.

URL:

http://www.ionwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/ION_StatusReport_2011_FINAL.pdf

The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance and Women’s Representation on Boards (2004-2008)

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 12/15/2011 - 10:37am

The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance and Women’s Representation on Boards (2004–2008) is the fourth in Catalyst’s Business Case series. The business case for women in management contends that companies that achieve diversity and manage it well attain better financial results, on average, than other companies. In this report, Catalyst used three measures to examine financial performance: return on sales (ROS), return on invested capital (ROIC), and return on equity (ROE).

URL:

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/479/the-bottom-line-corporate-performance-and-womens-representation-on-boards-20042008

Member Organization:

Catalyst

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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.

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