Happy Monday!
Just 2 articles this week and all on Ellen Pao – in the first, the Wall Street Journal published the first interview with Ellen Pao post the trial – the title says it all Pao: Gender Issues Won’t ‘Go Away.’ http://www.wsj.com/articles/ellen-pao-says-gender-issues-wont-go-away-after-kleiner-trial-1428292861 Even though Pao lost the trial, her suit has brought national attention to just how few women there are in the VC space and raises the question why that is. Certainly some of the behavior at Kleiner itself is to blame like male partners on the road showing up at a female associate’s room in a bathrobe and drink in hand – not something that anyone would want to face. Yuck. Disappointing though was the other women at Kleiner testifying on the firm’s behalf – Mary Meeker’s testimony that the atmosphere at Kleiner was an improvement compared to her time at Morgan Stanley back in the day – but the question is, is that saying much? And how much damage do we women do when we don’t support one another?
Which brings us to the next article – Glass Ceiling: Invisible but in the News” details the fact that we have been talking about the glass ceiling for THIRTY FIVE years, and it is still firmly in place. The analogy is always one of being on the ladder and breaking up through the ceiling. After all these years, maybe a better approach is not only coming from the bottom up, but all those women and men that care about diversity and the improved results it generates would be well served to be hammering at that ceiling from the top and lending a hand to pull more diverse candidates up. The full article can be found here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-phrase-glass-ceiling-stretches-back-decades-1428089010
And lastly, we have our biggest event of the year coming up April 23rd in Dallas – you will not want to miss this as we have an all-star lineup of investors giving their global market outlook including Mary Erdoes of JP Morgan, Katie Stockton of BTIG, Elena Ranguelova of Investcorp and Lilian Zhou will be joining us from Shanghai. Britt Harris from TRS will be moderating and we look forward to his questions. The event supports the Young Women’s College Preparatory network that supports 7 schools in Texas that provide a college preparatory education to underserved young girls across the state. And why is girls’ education so important? Studies show that if you change the outcome for a young girl, you change the outcome for future generations – an investment that pays dividends. And young girls trying to get an education are under siege:http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/world/schoolgirls-are-facing-more-threats-united-nations-reports.html?_r=0
Men and women are welcome to attend the April 23rd event, so please help us get the word out – it is a great event with TWO cocktail hours, so plenty of great networking as well as great content!
We have a terrific line up of events for April. Come out and meet our new committee members and share your ideas for future events! Register early to avoid disappointment!
Kind regards
Christine