Business & Entrepreneurship

RESEARCH

Center researchers are currently analyzing the results of the Faculty Work-Life Study, a joint project of the Center for the Education of Women and the UM Center for Research on Learning and Teaching. The survey of UM faculty included questions about climate, workload, sources of satisfaction and stress, and incorporate AAUDI questions for comparison to similar institutions.  This project also provides comparison to the 1998 FWLS.

Contingent Faculty in a Tenure Track World - CEW researchers held focus groups with full- and part-time non-tenure track (NTT) faculty at twelve research universities across the country. In total, we conducted 24 ninety-minute focus groups with a total of 343 full- and part-time NTT faculty. A report of the project is available  and a video based on the project explores the responses of focus group members. The project was funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The National Clearinghouse on Academic Worklife  (www.academicworklife.org) combines into a single website information resources and community discussions to support those who study or participate in academic work.  Up to date articles and policy examples are available on topics ranging from family-friendly benefits, tenure attainment, and faculty satisfaction to policy development, productivity, and demographics.  An email newsletter is also available free to subscribers. This clearinghouse was developed  through a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

The Dual Career Ladder Project, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, resulted in several publications based on the findings of our institutional survey of U.S. institutions of higher education.  highlighting the numbers, working conditions and perceived contributions of non tenure track faculty.  These are available on the CEW website.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

CEW’s Advanced Leadership Program offers middle management University of Michigan staff, recommended by their supervisors, an eight-month skill development workshop series and accompanying change management project.  This program has been offered annually for nearly 10 years. 

Focus on Leadership, addresses the need for leadership development and training for staff not yet in key middle-management positions or not yet ready for the more extensive Advanced Leadership Program.  Offered to approximately 30 individuals annually, this program offers participants an introduction to leadership concepts while it assists participants in developing an identity as a potential leader.

Emerging Leaders Iniative  CEW is currently developing an innovative nine-month program for emerging leaders (those with less than 6 years in their career fields) over the course of two years. The program will focus on women from a specific Michigan urban region, combining those from the private and the non-profit sectors.  The program combines in-person sessions, career coaching by senior leaders, and ongoing support and learning using web 2.0 tools including social media and online learning. 

PROGRAMS

CEW offers about 50 programs each term, covering topics such as careers, career change and job searching, work-life balance, leadership development, and focused programs for graduate students and post-docs.  In addition, CEW brings special events and speakers to the campus and community. 

In addition, CEW leads three support networks for University of Michigan women: Women of Color in the Academy Project and Junior Women Faculty Network for women faculty and the Women of Color Task Force for women staff.  These networks offer support, mentoring, and learning opportunities for participants.  The Task Force delivers a campus-wide career conference annually, with about 550 participants. 

CEW provides free counseling to students, faculty and staff of the University as well as to women and men in the community.  Each year over 1,000 adults are seen by CEW’s professional counselors.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM CEW

Developing a Transparent Tenure Process (Resources for Deans and Chairs)

Enabling Junior Faculty Success (Resources for Deans and Chairs)

The Gender Impact of the Proposed Michigan Civil Rights Initiative. Susan Kaufmann

Post-Apartheid South Africa: Creating Critically Leaderful Schools that Make a Difference
Juliet Perumal, University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) and CEW Visting Scholar, 2007.

How American Men's Participation in Housework and Child-care Affects Wives' Careers. 
Renge Jibu, CEW Visiting Scholar

Making the Best of Both Worlds: Findings from a National Institution-Level Survey on Non-Tenure Track Faculty

Michigan Women and the High-Tech Knowledge Economy. Susan Kaufmann

Principles for Best Practices: A Collection of Suggested Procedures for Improving Climate for Women Faculty Members.  Jean Waltman and Carol Hollenshead

MORE PUBLICATIONS

Visiting Scholar Program

The Visiting Scholar Program is an opportunity for scholars to pursue research projects relevant to women using the vast resources available through the Center for the Education of Women (CEW) and the University of Michigan. Scholars must hold a Ph.D. or equivalent degree. A scholar's stay at the Center can range from one to twelve months, as appropriate to the scholar's research needs. Visiting Scholars prepare a working paper based upon their research, which is published as part of the Center's series of occasional papers.

Robin Wright Graduate Fellowship

The Center for the Education of Women announces the Robin Wright Graduate Fellowship with a grant of up to $3,200. The fund will support research by a graduate student from the Islamic World or Africa matriculating in the Rackham Graduate School.

Projects:

Leadership and Leadership Development

Women's Leadership Development: Catalyst has conducted national studies on women's leadership that have generated new insights into the progress women have made; the barriers they face; strategies to improve women's advancement; and issues specific to various industries and professions. Reports include, but are not limited to, the following: women scientists; census of corporate top officers and earners; census of female board directors; and women of color in corporate management.

Women in Corporate Leadership: A European Business Imperative. Catalyst and the Conference Board Europe released their first-ever joint study of women and men leading major corporations and firms in Europe. The research was featured at a two-day conference held on Tuesday, June 18th and Wednesday, June 19th. int hie ground-breaking study, Catalyst and the Conference Board Europe surveyed nearly 700 women and men in 20 European countries to determine the success factors and barriers for women in business and identify company initatives that advance women.

Leadership Careers in High Tech: Wired for Success. High tech companies make up an exciting, evolving, and still relatively new industry-one that has changed the way we look at work and careers and indeed all of our lives. This study provides young women in high tech with an easy-to-use road map that they can use to shape their own careers. Though initially intdended for women, this road map is useful for anyone interested in puruing a career in high tech.

The Next Generation: Today's Professionals, Tomorrow's Leaders. This study examines the generation of men and women born between 1964 and 1975 who are now employed in corporations and professional firms. We hear frequently from leaders in the business community how different this generation seems to be and yet how little is known about them. Our goal is to understand more clearly these women and men and their current attitudes toward work and the balance between work and personal life.

Science and Technology

Women in Science. Catalyst reports explore issues of recruitment and retention of women scientists in both academia and the scientific profession.

Women of Color -- Employment Issues

Women of Color in Corporate Management. Catalyst recently held a press breakfast devoted to the topic of women of color in corporate management to highlight the findings of a multi-year, multi-phase research project undertaken by Sheila Wellington. The project concentrates on opportunities and barriers for women of color in managerial roles.

Women of Color: Three Years Later. Now, more than ever, women of color are taking charge of their careers. Building on its groundbreaking research on women of color in corporate management, Catalyst tracked a core group of women of color managers over the past three years to ascertain their career movement and determine the factors behind it. Although current job and career satisfaction is high, these women report a decline in opportunities to advance to senior leadership and are less satisfied with their prospects for further advancement at their current employer.

Work and Family

Workplace Flexibility and Family Support. Catalyst also completes research on workplace flexibility and family support to highlight the work-family barriers faced by women and the support they need to maintain their professional advancement. Research has also been done on what strategies work most effectively to implement this support.

Business Career

Advancing Women Leaders: The Connection Between Women Board Directors and Women Corporate Officers (2008).     This research shows that the number of women on a company’s board of directors impacts the future of women in its senior leadership.

Advancing Women in Business: The Catalyst Guide to Best Practices from the Corporate Leaders (1998).

Women in Financial Services: The Word on the Street. This report on women in financial services shedes light on experiences, perceptions, and attitutudes of women in the industry and how they compare to those of male colleagues.

Women in Law: Making the Case. Catalyst's pioneering study of men's and women's career paths in the legal profession, Women in Law explores the obstascles to women's full integration into the legal profession. The report offers recommendations for legal employers on how to achieve strategic goals by retaining and developing women.

Child Care

Child Care Centers: Quality Indicators (1993). A guide for assessing a child care center by adult-child ratios, group sizes, staff qualifications, the work environment, cost, and utilization.

Child Care in Corporate America: Model Programs (1993). An analysis of corporate-sponsored child care, issues pertaining to quality, a discussion with experts, and six model programs.

Corporate Women -- Employment Issues 

Catalyst.  2010. Making Mentoring Work. Written by Sarah Dinolfo, and Julie S. Nugent.

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/365/making-mentoring-work

Catalyst. 2010. Making Mentoring Work—Business Case Framework . Writtent by Sarah Dinolfo,  and Julie S. Nugent.

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/366/making-mentoring-workbusiness-case-framework

Catalyst. 2010. Making Mentoring Work—Sample Mentoring Scorecard. Written by Sarah Dinolfo, and Julie S. Nugent.

 http://www.catalyst.org/publication/369/making-mentoring-worksample-mentoring-scorecard

Catalyst. 2010. Making Mentoring Work—Sample Mentor and Mentee Career Development Action Plan. Written by Sarah Dinolfo, and Julie S. Nugent.

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/368/making-mentoring-worksample-mentor-and-mentee-career-development-action-plan

Catalyst. 2010. Making Mentoring Work—Formal Mentoring ROI Spreadsheet Tool. Written by  Sarah Dinolfo, and Julie S. Nugent.

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/367/making-mentoring-workformal-mentoring-roi-spreadsheet-tool

Catalyst 2009. 2009 Catalyst Census: Fortune 500 Women Board Directors. Writtent by Heather Foust-Cummings and Emily Pomeroy.

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/345/2009-catalyst-member-benchmarking-report

Cracking the Glass Ceiling: Strategies for Success (1999). Case studies on how major corporations remove glass ceiling barriers.

Catalyst Census of Women Directors of the Fortune 500 (1998). Published annually since 1993, it lists the women who serve on Fortune 500 boards and how many women are on each company's board.

Catalyst Census of Women Corporate Officers and Top Earners (1998). An annual census showing how women rank among the highest paid executives, which companies and industries have the most female officers, and which states have the highest concentration of women at the top.

Closing the Gap: Women's Advancement in Corporate and Professional Canada (1998). Based on a survey of more than 400 high-level women and nearly 200 chief executives in Canada's largest corporations and professional firms, this study includes the varying perspectives of senior women and chief executives on what holds women back from the top.

Women in Corporate Leadership: Progress and Prospects (1996). A survey of top women managers offering testimony from the women who have made it, as well as the views of Fortune 1000 CEOs.

Knowing the Territory: Women in Sales (1995). Sales representatives, human resources professionals, and sales managers from major American companies discuss what sales organizations can do to attract, retain, and advance women.

The CEO View: Women on Corporate Boards (1995). America's Fortune 1000 CEOs discuss what they expect from female directors and offer insight into the written and unwritten criteria for board nomination.

Women on Corporate Boards: The Challenge of Change (1993). A report about female directors' backgrounds, their expectations of and experience on corporate boards, their feelings about advocacy for women's issues, and the ways in which they relate to female employees of companies on whose boards they serve.

Mentoring: A Guide to Corporate Programs and Practices (1993). A report describing how to identify and advance high-potential women, recruit and train new employees, and avoid common problems.

Creating Successful Mentoring Programs: A Catalyst Guide. This guide teaches you how to identify and advance high-potential women, recruit and train new employees, and avoid common pitfalls of formal mentoring programs. This recently updated report takes you step-by-step through implementing a formal mentoring program.

Women in Corporate Management: Model Programs for Development and Mobility (1991). A report on 17 Fortune 500 companies with exemplary programs for women and why these initiatives are successful.

Creating Women's Networks: A How-To Guide for Women and Companies. A guide to starting and sustaining women's workplace networks based on Catalyst's work.

On The Line: Women's Career Advancement. A report outlining barriers women face and recommending strategies for overcoming them, including examples of America's newest and most creative policies for helping women advance.

Entrepreneurship

Women Entrepreneurs: Why Companies Lose Female Talent and What They Can Do About It (1998). A joint project with the National Foundation for Women Business Owners and The Committee of 200, it discusses the fact that women are starting new businesses at twice the rate of men.

Feminist Thought and Scholarship

The Catalyst Award: Setting the Standard for Women's Advancement. Details Catalyst Award winning initiatives from 1987 to 1997.

Science and Technology

Women in Engineering: An Untapped Resource (1992). Recommendations of what companies can do to attract, retain, and advance women engineers, including initiatives that address barriers, perceptions of male counterparts, and job satisfaction.

Women Scientists in Industry: A Winning Formula for Companies. A study identifying factors in the corporate culture that contribute to or impede the career advancement of women scientists.

Women of Color -- Corporate Women

Catalyst. 2009. Women of Color in U.S. Law Firms - Women of Color in Professional Services Series. Written by Deepali Bagati.

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/344/women-of-color-in-us-law-firmswomen-of-color-in-professional-services-series

Women of Color in Corporate Management: Opportunities and Barriers (1999). The third part of the study that looks at women of color's expectations, experiences, and perceptions of corporate culture and how they affect the women's job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intent to stay with the company.

Women of Color in Corporate Management: Dynamics of Career Advancement (1998). A discussion of what African-American, Asian-American, and Latina women perceive as barriers to advancement in corporate America. Read Catalyst's recommendations on what companies can do to retain and advance this important segment of their talent pool.

Women of Color in Corporate Management: A Statistical Picture (1997). A combination of census data and previously unpublished information from Catalyst's Women in Corporate Leadership study presents a demographic overview of women managers of color.

Work and Family

Catalyst. 2008. Making Change-Beyond Flexibility: Work-Life Effectiveness as an Organizational Tool for High Performance. Written by Lisa D'Annolfo Levey, Aimee Horowitz, and Meryle Mahrer Kaplan. 

http://www.catalyst.org/publication/318/making-changebeyond-flexibility-creating-champions-for-work-life-effectiveness-spanish-version

Two Careers, One Marriage: Making It Work in the Workplace (1998). Based on the responses of almost 1,000 dual-career earners and aimed at employers, this study describes the issues that mean the most to these couples.

A New Approach to Flexibility: Managing the Work/Time Equation (1997). An assessment of flexible work arrangements describes strategies and solutions.

Making Work Flexible: Policy to Practice (1996). A guide on helping organizations and managers implement and manage flexible work arrangements in corporations and professional firms.

Flexible Work Arrangements II: Succeeding with Part-Time Options (1993). Findings from the first longitudinal study of flexible work arrangements and their effect on employees' career growth.

The Corporate Guide to Parental Leaves (1992). A manual to help employers plan or update a cost-effective parental leave policy, created before the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 went into effect.

Weekly Blog:

www.catalyst.org/etc/wordpress/

Membership Benefits:

Catalyst members join a rich global community of organizations striving to develop and improve ways to attract, retain, and advance women in the workplace. Three benefit packages—Supporter, Research Partner, and Premium Supporter (Europe only)—are offered to accommodate member priorities.

Supporter

• Online access to members-only knowledge products, designated by a circled M, including:
  • Tools—action-oriented materials enabling information to be turned into ready-to-implement programs for making change.
  • Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Practices—detailed descriptions of effective organizational initiatives to advance women into leadership.
  • Eye on D&I—a weekly global news roundup.
• Invitation to participate in Catalyst member benchmarking, allowing you to compare your workforce statistics to competitors' and to Catalyst Award winners.
• Access to Catalyst’s Information Center and its professional librarians, as well as to Catalyst issue specialists.
• Invitation to participate in virtual and in-person events.
• Your organization's name on the Catalyst website, in the Catalyst Annual Report, and in the Catalyst Awards Dinner Program.
• Link to the Catalyst website from your organization's intranet.
• A Catalyst Member Liaison to pair Catalyst resources to your needs.
• Special rates for engaging Catalyst researchers, consultants, and executives through the Speakers Bureau.
• Access to Catalyst's Corporate Board Services, a referral and assessment program.
• Strategic consulting services through Catalyst's Advisory Services (fee-for-service).
• Coming in 2010! The Catalyst Member Activities Planner (MAP) for tracking new research and virtual and in-person events.

Research Partner

• All Supporter benefits.
• Sponsorship recognition in all Catalyst research reports produced in the calendar year.
• A registration-fee discount of $100, per person, for up to five people, at the Catalyst Awards Conference.
• Participation in Catalyst-wide, invitation-only events.
• Complimentary Catalyst Speakers Bureau engagement.

Premium Supporter (Europe)

• All Supporter benefits.
• Strategic Focused Intervention (SFI), real-time strategic guidance from a Catalyst expert, up to 14 hours in a calendar year.
• Participation in Catalyst-wide, invitation-only events.

* Employment

"Navigating a Consumer Marketing Career" panel discussion: A panel featuring consumer marketing careers, which attracted over 180 male and female students to hear four alumnae panelists discuss strategies and tactics on how to break into the consumer marketing field.

"Decisions in My Corporate Career": An event featuring four highly-successful corporate women and the choices they made throughout their careers.

"Career Strategies: A Woman's Perspective": A half-day student event focused on a variety of career-related panel presentations including; The Interviewer's Point of View, Executive Presence: The "It" in "She's Got It". Creative Strategies for Success in a Tough Market, Job Transition Success Stories and " How Do You Do It?" Work-Life Balance.

* Entrepreneurship

"Women in Family-Owned Businesses" (August 2003) : This ground-breaking first look at what makes woman-owned family businesses different was led by CWL and sponsored by MassMutual Life Insurance Company. The study compares and contrasts the businesses owned by women versus men. Highlights of the study show that woman-owned family businesses: h ave increased by 37% in the last five years, to 15.6% across the U.S; tend toward higher rates of productivity as well as philanthropy ; a nticipate a positive future for their companies (by a two-to-one ratio among respondents), despite a continued poor economy.

Gatekeepers of Venture Growth: The Role and Participation of Women in the Venture Capital Industry: Office Depot Women represent less than 10 percent of high-level venture capitalists, and they have been leaving the industry at twice the rate of men, according to a first-ever study released by the Kauffman Foundation at the Small Business Administration's entrepreneurship conference in Washington , DC . The study, Gatekeepers of Venture Growth , is the latest report of the Diana Project, a multi-year, multi-university study of women business owners and business growth opportunities. The research, coauthored by Undergraduate Dean Patricia Greene, ultimately seeks to determine whether having more women in decision-making roles in the venture capital industry would provide greater access to women entrepreneurs who seek funding.

The Top Woman-Led Businesses in Massachusetts : 2002 Results (November 2003): Research on over 225 woman-led businesses shows these firms leading the economic recovery:

* Revenues among the Top 100 woman-led businesses in the state exceeded $6.5 billion in 2002, with permanent employment of over 32,300 people.
* Woman-led businesses continue to thrive in professional services, high technology, and construction, industries that drive economic development.

* Growth at woman-led businesses has outpaced the general economy

"Women Building Businesses": a co-sponsored event with the Babson Entrepreneurial Exchange that brought dynamic female entrepreneurs to campus who discussed their journey and growing ventures.

* * Institutional Change

"Women Leading Change" Conference: A full-day conference focused on providing attendees with the tools they need to drive change, shape change, and lead change in their personal and business worlds.

* Work and Family

"Both Sides of Work and Family": A panel discussion with dual career couples on how they have achieved work/life balance.

New Research

CWL Newsletter: This monthly newsletter is available for online subscription at http://www.babson.edu/cwl/newsletter. It includes information about upcoming events, research, and Center news.

CWL and The Commonwealth Institute. The Top Woman-Led Businesses in Massachusetts: 2008 Critical Issue Survey.

Allen, I. Elaine, PhD, Nan Langowitz DBA, and Maria Minniti, PhD. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2006 Report on Women and Entrepreneurship.

Grants and Scholarships