Newsletter May 18, 2015

Happy Monday!
The big news last week was the fact that the City of Austin Manager’s office believed that with the incoming City Council being made up of a majority of women meant that special training was needed to deal with this majority of women.  They hired a former city manager from Florida whose qualifications included the fact that he had worked with a majority women city council in the past and has an 11 year old daughter. The points he made – women ask more questions and don’t listen to financial arguments. Horrifyingly the audience that was subjected to this training also included a majority of women. The full article can be found here and there are a ton of u-tube videos out there as well:http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/14/austin-greets-first-majority-female-city-council-session-with-special-training-on-dealing-with-women/
On a positive note, studies have shown that having a working mother has educational, economic and social benefits for children. The full article can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/upshot/mounting-evidence-of-some-advantages-for-children-of-working-mothers.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0
Which leads me to a fascinating article on upper East Side stay-at- home moms who have advanced degrees, engage in ‘intensive mothering,’ and get year- end bonuses from their husbands based on their performance. Makes having a full time job sound less complicated and more enjoyable than dealing with this minefield: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/opinion/sunday/poor-little-rich-women.html
One of the symptoms of too few women in VC, female-led start ups dropped in 2015 to 37%. Women-run companies received just 3% of VC funding and 9% of seed funding. The full article can be found here:http://www.wsj.com/articles/women-started-smaller-percentage-of-u-s-businesses-in-2014-1431560888
And from the doing your job better file, the new advice on how to deal with stress is not to avoid it, but to embrace it:http://www.wsj.com/articles/use-stress-to-your-advantage-1431700708  And one of my favorites for the week: The Tyranny of Constant Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/17/style/the-tyranny-of-constant-contact.html
We have a terrific line up of events for May. Come out and meet our new committee members and share your ideas for future events! Register early to avoid disappointment!
 
Kind regards
 
Christine
 
 

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