Women's & Girls' Leadership

From prime ministers to grass roots organizers, women and girls are attaining leadership positions in increasing numbers across government, civil society and the economy. But the glass ceiling is still firmly in place in many countries including in the US, where women are still vastly under-represented in government and senior leadership positions. Explore the resources listed below, including Related Categories links, or use the Keyword Search for more information.

The Women and People of Color Who Invented the Internet

Teaser:

Ms. examines the whitewashing that accompanies NYT's David Streitfeld's declaration that men invented the internet.

Editorial:

From the Ms. Blog:

A Sunday New York Times article by David Streitfeld has the feminist and tech worlds up in arms. Reporting on a sexual harassment suit filed by a junior partner in a venture capital firm, Streitfeld begins by proclaiming that “MEN invented the Internet” (those CAPS are his). I came across Streitfeld’s article after a friend suggested I check out tech journalist Xeni Jardin’s Twitter feed. Jardin’sresponse to Streitfeld:

WTF: “MEN invented the internet.” I’m sorry, did NYT just breeze past half a century of women in computer technology?

Herein lies the issue: Though Streitfeld primarily covers Ellen Pao’s lawsuit, he undermines his piece by leading with an emphatic and incorrect statement about men as sole inventors of the Internet. I’m not certain if Streitfeld was being tongue-in-cheek or if he simply has a narrow view of Internet history. But his article does incite, albeit unintentionally, necessary dialogue about the roles women–and racial and ethnic minorities–have played in Internet innovation. While some apparently assume that men alone developed the Internet, a quick glance at the Internet Hall of Fame’s 2012 inaugural inductees and the Early Internet Leaders list prove otherwise. (I also recommend reading History of the Internet).

In reality, the genesis of the Internet was a collaborative effort. It took decades of developments in computer programming and network technology. We can’t let the current cult of tech fandom around “white” men–such as Steve Jobs, whom Streitfeld name checks–obscure the women and the racial and ethnic minorities from around the world who contributed to the birth of the Internet.

Source:

Ms. Magazine

URL:

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2012/06/04/the-women-and-people-of-color-who-invented-the-internet/

Date:

June 7, 2012

Affiliate:

How women are changing the tech world

Teaser:

USA Today profiles a new generation of female tech start-up founders.

Editorial:

From USA Today:

Reshaping a time-worn narrative isn't easy. Social revolutions rarely are, especially when you're a woman trying to break into the boys' club that is Silicon Valley.

But an emerging class of early-stage tech start-up executives is helping dispel the notion that there isn't a leading role for them in the male-dominated valley.

Company founders and leaders are coming out of Google, Salesforce.com and elsewhere for the excitement of shaping a young business.

The emergence of young female tech founders and executives reflects sweeping change in the worlds of start-up companies and angel funding, where wealthy investors give money in return for a stake in a company. It underscores the enormous purchasing prowess of women online that is transforming the Web economy. As more consumers reach for their smartphones and tablets to shop and communicate, there is a pressing need for commerce sites that cater to women, who control 70% of online purchases worldwide, according to Lisa Stone, CEO of BlogHer, a digital media company.

Many of these inroads are being made by female-led start-ups that are fueling innovation and the digital economy. Women will influence the purchase of $15 trillion in goods by 2014, according to Boston Consulting Group.

[...]

Source:

USA Today

URL:

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-06-04/female-tech-executives/55382536/1

Date:

June 7, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

The Depressing Gender Gap at the Nation’s Top 71 Venture Capital Firms [SLIDESHOW]

Teaser:

Betabeat calculates the FEM, or Female Equality Metric, for the nation's largest venture capital firms.

Editorial:

From Betabeat:

Click through the slideshow for a firm-by-firm breakdown of the numbers.

[...]

The FEM Study: METHODOLOGY

All the data for assets under management comes from the National Venture Capital Association, which sent us their latest list from Thomson Reuters, current as of Q1 2012. The list included private equity firms that also do venture capital investing, which we attempted to identify and omit. However, some may still be included in the final list of 71 firms.*

Next, we went to each firm’s website and tallied up the number of partners and managing directors, noting how many were women. Obviously, the structure is different at different firms. For consistency, and to give firms the greatest benefit of the doubt, we counted anyone as a partner who had “partner” in his or her title, including venture partners, founding partners, administrative partners and other variations. We also included managing directors, who are senior partners. We did not include vice presidents, principals or associates. When partner titles were unlisted or ambiguous, we called and asked for the numbers.

We then calculated, for each firm on the list, the percentage of partners who are female. Rather than call it POPWAF, we decided to call this number the Female Equality Metric, or FEM. (At first we called it the Kleiner number, but decided to reserve that term for “number of discrimination lawsuits filed.”)

A firm with all male partners has a FEM of zero. A firm with all female partners (LOL, JK) would have a FEM of 100. If you think gender diversity is important, a low FEM is bad and a high FEM is good. If you think women should stay at the receptionist’s desk and out of the corner offices, a low FEM is good and a high FEM is bad. And if you think Silicon Valley is a meritocracy, as does Greg McAdoo of Sequoia Capital, which coincidentally has zero women partners, then you’ll probably dismiss these numbers as meaningless.

But page through this list of venture capital’s heavyweights, and it’s striking to see how few women have made it to the upper ranks. Also striking was the perfect 100 POFR, or percentage of female receptionists, at the 26 VC firms we called. We paged through team page after team page—the staff at a venture capital firm is almost universally called the “team”—where men’s faces lined the top rows and women’s faces appeared further down, if anywhere. “We have female administrative assistants,” explained one woman who picked up the phone, when asked whether any of the partners and managing directors were women.

[...]

Source:

Betabeat

URL:

http://betabeat.com/2012/05/female-partners-venture-capital-firms-fem-kleiner-perkins/

Date:

June 7, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

Women Kill the Buzz for Guys Who Hire, Fire Them

Teaser:

Susan Antila looks at several decades of sexual harassment in the financial industry.

Editorial:

From Bloomberg:

We’ve seen this movie before and the ending still stinks.

The sex-discrimination lawsuit by Ellen Pao against the Silicon Valley venture-capital firmKleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers may be the gender and workplace story of the moment. But let’s get one thing straight: This doesn’t describe anything that’s new. It seems to happen routinely. Just yesterday, at a hearing in London, a lawyer for Latifa Bouabdillah, a former Deutsche Bank AG director, said the woman’s male colleagues were paid bonuses “double or triple that of the claimant” for the same work.

Swap out Pao for Pamela Martens, who led the class-action “Boom-Boom Room” lawsuit against Smith Barney in the 1990s, or Allison Schieffelin, who sued Morgan Stanley in 2001, or Carla Ingraham, who sued UBS AG in 2009, and you wind up with some combination of the same old complaints: coworker come-ons, power meetings for guys only, higher pay for men and retaliation against the uppity women who have the nerve to complain.

In the venture-capital world, where you get more than the usual share of people who are prone to thinking their every experience is novel, there is shock over news that a highly qualified woman has filed a suit against a celebrity firm. But sex discrimination isn’t the iPad, folks. It’s more like the electric typewriter.

[...]

Source:

Bloomberg

URL:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-06/women-kill-the-buzz-for-guys-who-hire-fire-them.html

Date:

June 7, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

In 'new Egypt', mobs sexually assault women with impunity

Teaser:

The Associated Press reports on that reports of assaults on women in Tahrir Square have been on the rise.

Editorial:

From MSNBC / AP:

The late Tuesday assault was the last straw for many. Protesters and activists met Wednesday to organize a campaign to prevent sexual harassment in the square. They recognize it is part of a bigger social problem that has largely gone unpunished in Egypt. But the phenomenon is trampling on their dream of creating in Tahrir a micro-model of a state that respects civil liberties and civic responsibility, which they had hoped would emerge after Mubarak's ouster.

'It shouldn't be happening'
"Enough is enough," said Abdel-Fatah Mahmoud, a 22-year-old engineering student, who met Wednesday with friends to organize patrols of the square in an effort to deter attacks against women. "It has gone overboard. No matter what is behind this, it is unacceptable. It shouldn't be happening on our streets let alone Tahrir."

No official numbers exist for attacks on women in the square because police do not go near the area, and women rarely report such incidents. But activists and protesters have reported a number of particularly violent assaults on women in the past week. Many suspect such assaults are organized by opponents of the protests to weaken the spirit of the protesters and drive people away.

[...]

Source:

MSNBC

URL:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47717050/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/#.T9C4DLBfGeA

Date:

June 7, 2012

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Associated Issues & Expertise:

Top 100 Women Financial Advisors 2012

Teaser:

Barron's list of the top female financial advisors in 2012.

Editorial:

From Barron's:

Here are America's top women financial advisors, as identified by Barron's. The ranking reflects the volume of assets overseen by the advisors and their teams, revenues generated for the firms and the quality of the advisors' practices. The scoring system assigns a top score of 100 and rates the rest by comparing them with the top-ranked advisor. A ranking of "N" indicates the advisor was not ranked in the specified year.

Source:

Barron's

URL:

http://online.barrons.com/report/top-financial-advisors/women

Date:

June 7, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

2012 Women’s Research—The Path Forward

Submitted by asklar on Thu, 06/07/2012 - 10:12am

An Accenture survey released as part of our 2012 celebration of International Women’s Day found that despite their current job dissatisfaction, more than two-thirds of all respondents said they do not plan to leave their current employers, with nearly the same number citing flexible work arrangements as the reason for staying put.

Most respondents said they are taking a variety of steps to actively manage their careers—including accepting a different role or responsibility, receiving more education or training, and working longer hours.

URL:

http://www.accenture.com/us-en/company/people/women/Pages/insight-womens-research-2012-path-forward.aspx

Do Men Really Earn More Than Women? [infographic]

Teaser:

PayScale calculates the gender wage gap in several different fields.

Editorial:

From PayScale:

Special Features » Infographics » Gender Pay Gap
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YOU Should Be Paid
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for your exact position.
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Do Men Really Earn More Than Women?
[infographic]

inShare
29
Yes, men do earn more than women on average, but not that much more when they work the same job and they have similar experience and abilities. Take a look at what PayScale has discovered about the gender pay gap.

See the methodology for the infographic below.

Embed this graphic. Click to select:

Methodology

Difference in Annual Pay: To compare male and female pay on a level playing field, we found the median pay for all men in a given job, as well as breakdowns of important compensable factors such as years of experience, location, education level, etc. Then, using PayScale's proprietary MarketMatch™ Algorithm, we determined what the female median pay would be using the exact same blend of compensable factors as our control male group.

What we created was an apples-to-apples comparison of what men and women make, all other factors held equal, according to actual market data. For example, the male software developer median, annual salary is $65,700, which is 4 percent more than the median female value of $63,300.

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Source:

PayScale

URL:

http://www.payscale.com/gender-lifetime-earnings-gap

Date:

June 5, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

NYT-“MEN invented the internet”

Teaser:

Xeni Jardin critique's The New York Times' piece on the Ellen Pao/Kleiner Perkins sexual harassment lawsuit, and gender discrimination in Silicon Valley.

Editorial:

From BoingBoing:

What a steaming turd of an opening line in David Streitfeld's otherwise serviceable New York Times piece about the Ellen Pao/Kleiner Perkins sexual harassment lawsuit, and gender discrimination in Silicon Valley.

Here's the opening graf (bold-ing, mine):

MEN invented the Internet. And not just any men. Men with pocket protectors. Men who idolized Mr. Spock and cried when Steve Jobs died. Nerds. Geeks. Give them their due. Without men, we would never know what our friends were doing five minutes ago.

You guys, ladies suck at technology and the New York Times is ON IT.

Radia "Mother of the Internet" Perlman and the ghosts of RADM Grace Hopper, Ada Lovelace and every woman who worked in technology for the past 150 years frown upon you, sir. Women may have been invisible, but the work we did laid the groundwork for more visible advancements now credited to more famous men.

"Men are credited with inventing the internet." There. Fixed it for you.

[...]

Source:

BoingBoing

URL:

http://boingboing.net/2012/06/03/nyt-men-invented-the-inter.html

Date:

June 5, 2012

Affiliate:

‘Glass Escalators’ Move Pink-Collar Guys Ahead

Teaser:

Men are more likely than ever to join female-dominated professions--and they're also more likely to out-earn their female colleagues.

Editorial:

From Women's eNews:

But attitudes are shifting fast in our hard-pressed economy. Men are now gravitating toward female-dominated occupations, according to a recent analysis of census data by the New York Times.

The Times analysis showed that from 2000 to 2010, occupations that are more than 70 percent female accounted for almost a third of all job growth for men, double the share of the previous decade.

And as men move into what used to be female territory, they are doing very well; better than women in fact. In the 20 most common occupations for women, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Women’s Policy Research, men out-earn women in all but two. For example, the median weekly earnings for female social workers is $798, while for men it is $902.

White men in these fields are climbing aboard what’s coming to be called the "Glass Escalator." They get a double boost from being white and being male and rise more quickly than equally qualified women in position, pay and benefits.

This is in stark contrast to what happens to women who move into male-dominated fields. Historically, “token women” have faced discrimination and marginalization and were often overlooked for a promotion, even when their work was stellar.

[...]

Source:

Women's eNews

URL:

http://womensenews.org/story/equal-payfair-wage/120601/%E2%80%98glass-escalators%E2%80%99-move-pink-collar-guys-ahead

Date:

June 5, 2012

Affiliate:

Associated Issues & Expertise:

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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.

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