Barriers & Challenges to Advancement

The stigma for women to pursue STEM careers starts at an early age. Stereotypes about the difficulty of certain subjects and subtle cultural and societal cues about “masculine” and “feminine” subject matter discourage girls from pursuing these studies. Also, technology toys and video games tend to be designed and marketed for boys rather than girls. According to the National Center for Women and Information Technology, high school girls associate computer science with “male geeks,” and tend to avoid science and technology clubs and activities. In higher education and STEM careers, women often report feeling isolated, marginalized and hampered by a lack of female mentors and role models. More effort is needed to encourage women to pursue advanced studies and careers in STEM through networking, hiring more women into positions of seniority and instituting parent-friendly advanced degree programs and research projects.

Catalyst

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New York, NY 10005
Ph. 212-514-7600
Fx. 212-514-8470
http://www.catalyst.org
info@catalyst.org


Founded in 1962, Catalyst is the leading nonprofit membership organization expanding opportunities for women and business. With offices in the United States, Canada, Europe, and India, and more than 500 preeminent corporations as members, Catalyst is the trusted resource for research, information, and advice about women at work. Catalyst annually honors exemplary organizational initiatives that promote women's advancement with the Catalyst Award.

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Principal Staff

Ilene H. Lang, President & Chief Executive Officer
E-mail: ilenelang@catalyst.org

Nancy M. Carter, Senior Vice President, Research
E-mail: ncarter@catalyst.org

Michael J. Chamberlain, Vice President, Brand Management & Events
Email: mchamberlain@catalyst.org

Jan Combopiano, Vice President & Chief Knowledge Officer
E-mail: jcombopiano@catalyst.org

Jennifer Daniel-Davidson, Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President, Finance, HR & Administration
E-mail: jdaniel@catalyst.org

Heather Foust-Cummings, Ph.D., Vice President, Research
E-mail: hfoust-cummings@catalyst.org

Deborah Gillis, Chief Operating Officer
E-mail: dgillis@catalyst.org

Katherine Giscombe, Ph.D., Vice President, Diverse Women & Inclusion Research
E-mail: kgiscombe@catalyst.org

Areas of Expertise:

Advancing Women's Leadership, Barriers & Challenges to Advancement, Business & Entrepreneurship, Barriers & Opportunities, Diversity & Inclusion, Glass Ceilings & Barriers, Disparities, Diversity & Inclusion, Successful Strategies & Programs, Mentoring, Women's Leadership, Women's, Gender & Feminist Studies, Work - Life Balance, Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

Member Experts:


Projects & Campaigns

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.

Reports & Resources

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. June 7, 2013. Managers as Spnosors Toolkin Tool 7: Monitoring Your Progress-- A Sponsorship Tracker.

http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/managers-sponsors-toolkit-tool-7-monitoring-your-progress-sponsorship-tracker

Catalyst. June 7, 2013. Managers as Sponsors Toolkit Tool 6: Consolidating Your Toolkit Responses—A Management Method.

http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/managers-sponsors-toolkit-tool-6-consolidating-your-toolkit-responses-management-method

Catalyst. June 17, 2013. Women CEOs and Heads of the Financial Post 500.

http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/women-ceos-and-heads-financial-post-500

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/knowledge/making-mentoring-work%E2%80%94formal-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.

 

International

Catalyst. June 12, 2013. First Step: India Overview. 

http://www.catalyst.org/knowledge/first-step-india-overview

 

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/

Center News

Opportunities, Grants & Fellowships

Supporter/Global Supporter
  • Catalyst Relationship Manager (RM): Your RM will contact you on a regular basis to help you match Catalyst resources to your needs.
  • Online access to members-only content including:
    • Tools: Action-oriented materials that enable professionals to translate information and knowledge into ready-to-implement programs for making change. The tools are tailored for a variety of audiences.
    • Practices: Over 100 detailed descriptions of effective organizational initiatives to advance women and diverse groups into leadership.
    • Can’t find what you are looking for? Contact the Catalyst Information Center (IC) for access to its professional librarians and issue specialists. The IC creates products  to help you gather information for presentations, make the business case for diversity, and much more.
  • Member-only events: Check our Events Calendar to find out about virtual and in-person events around the world.
  • Corporate Board Services: This program includes board-readiness consulting for individual women at member companies and the Corporate Board Resource, in which member companies with board vacancies can request a list of highly qualified women candidates sponsored by CEOs of other member companies.
  • Vital Signs: A unique approach to workforce statistics—the “Vital Signs” of workforce health—that’s not just for metrics experts. Vital Signs will provide insights that enable you diagnose where your organization excels and where it is stuck, allowing you to define appropriate goals and solutions that lead to change, no matter where you are on your diversity and inclusion journey.
  • Your organization's name on the Catalyst website, in the Catalyst Annual Report, and in the Catalyst Awards Dinner Program. Special rates for engaging Catalyst researchers, consultants, and executivesthrough our Speakers Bureau.
  • Strategic consulting services through Catalyst's Global Member Services (fee-for-service).
  • Supporter Membership Pricing:
    • Catalyst regions available: United States, Canada, Europe, India
    • 1 Region: $12,500 / € 12.500 / 300,000 Rupees
    • 2 Regions: $18,750 / € 18.750 / 600,000 Rupees
    • 3 Regions (Global Supporter): $22,000 / € 20.000 / 1,000,000 Rupees
    • 4 Regions (Global Supporter): $26,000 / € 22.000 / 1,200,000 Rupees
Premium Supporter (Europe Only)
  • All Supporter benefits.
  • Strategic Focused Intervention: Real-time strategic guidance from a Catalyst expert, including up to 14 hours in a calendar year.
  • Premium Supporter Pricing: €20.500

 


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Balancing the Equation: Where are Women and Girls in Science, Engineering, and Technology?

Balancing the Equation identifies the gains made in science, engineering and technology, the key challenges that remain, the lessons learned, and new issues that must be addressed. A Resource Guide in the report provides the reader with material to pursue further research about successful programs, many of which were established by NCRW member centers. Also included are Recommendations, which emphasize that an increase in women and girls' participation in all levels of science, engineering and technology requires strong leadership, changes in cultural values and practices, and systemic reform.

Click here to order a copy.

Teaser: 

Balancing the Equation identifies the gains made in science, engineering and technology, the key challenges that remain, the lessons learned, and new issues that must be addressed. A Resource Guide in the report provides the reader with material to pursue further research about successful programs, many of which were established by NCRW member centers. Also included are Recommendations, which emphasize that an increase in women and girls' participation in all levels of science, engineering and technology requires strong leadership, changes in cultural values and practices, and systemic reform.

TO ORDER A COPY, Download Order Form.

 

Cover Image: 

MISSING Information About Women's Lives

National researchers, policymakers, and the media have voiced major concerns in recent weeks about a pattern of distorting knowledge-based information and science in the service of political goals under the current administration. Now, the National Council for Research on Women brings you the story from the women's research and policy perspective.

The Report
MISSING: Information About Women's Lives is a 24-page report that documents how crucial data on women and girls is disappearing. Download the report in PDF format (PDF, 408 KB) or order a copy ($10 plus shipping).

Executive Summary
To download the executive summary in PDF format, click here (PDF, 172 KB).

Press Release

Teaser: 

Over the past few years, vital data has been deleted, buried, distorted, or has otherwise gone missing from government websites and publications. The National Council for Research on Women has documented in this report, the deletion and omission of such information and outlined how these actions directly affect women's lives.

Cover Image: 
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