Happy Monday
Huge congratulations to the US Women’s soccer team for their win yesterday. Nike created an inspiring commercial that is a must watch that can be found here. For those that did not watch the match, right after the US women won, the crowd started chanting “equal pay.” The prize money for this year’s Women’s World Cup is $30 million versus $400 million for the men’s 2018 world cup despite the fact that from 2016 to 2018 women’s matches generated $50.8 million in income versus $49.9 million for the men’s matches. The stories can be found here and here.
My readers are familiar with the concept of the glass cliff – when a situation is dire, a woman is appointed to the helm of the enterprise on the brink. There have been some great successes, notably Mary Barra at GM, Janet Yellen at the Fed and Christine Lagarde when she took over the International Monetary Fund in 2011. Well, it seems Ms. Lagarde is ready for her next balancing act in her new role as president of the European Central Bank beginning on November 1st. The full article can be found here.
Today, the Wall Street Journal published a section highlighting their 130 years of news coverage. I cannot provide links to each article, but the full section can be found here. I did want to highlight a few articles and their dates as significant, because here we are forty plus years later still writing about the same subjects. I will list each title with the publication date, and you can scroll through the section to read each article.
Women at Work: Pressure is Mounting on Companies to End Sex Bias on the Job 9/21/70
Career Women Decry Sexual Harassment by Bosses and Clients: Spurning an Advance Risks Dismissal. They charge; ‘Bug Off’ Doesn’t Work 1/29/76
The Glass Ceiling: Why Women Can’t Seem to Break the Invisible Barrier that Blocks Them from the Top Jobs 3/24/86
These headlines are depressingly familiar forty years later. Hopefully this is news we can all put behind us.
Finally, the presidential debates last week illustrated another way the playing field is not level for women, namely how women are viewed if they try to dominate a conversation by interrupting. To quote from the article” because of gender stereotypes, people often respond positively to assertiveness in men but negatively to the same behavior in women. “This means male candidates are free to interrupt, while female candidates face a double bind: stay silent and fail to be heard, or speak up and get judged as too aggressive,” Dr. Grant explained.” The full article can be found here.
You may notice a new addition to our homepage. We have created the Limitless jewelry line to both inspire women and help us in our philanthropy mission of supporting the Young Women’s Preparatory network. Proceeds from the purchase of the Limitless charm go directly to the Young Women’s Preparatory Network. Designed for us by one of the nation’s preeminent jewelry manufacturers, this beautiful, inspirational charm comes in both silver and 14 carat gold and can be worn every day on a bracelet or necklace. Please help us support these deserving students while inspiring all the wonderful women in your life.
I would ask each of you to consider corporate sponsorship of TXWSW. Benefits include attendance at our flagship events and recognition for your firm. To learn more, you may find our sponsor information here. Additionally, we would be happy to create a custom sponsorship for you. Please contact Bianca King at developmentdirector@txwsw.com
Kind regards
Christine
