Happy Monday!
As a follow up to last week’s letter, here is the full article from the Harvard Business Review appropriately titled: “Ambitious Women Face More Obstacles than Just Work-Life Balance” This is an important read, and the full article can be found here: https://hbr.org/2013/09/ambitious-women-face-more-obst
And also from the HBR this week, there was an insightful article on managing office politics for women – interestingly, given our strong interpersonal skills, office politics tops the list of things that make women uncomfortable at work. To learn how to conquer the issue, read on: https://hbr.org/2015/01/my-best-advice-for-women-navigating-office-politics
As I am sure you are all aware, the Davos Economic Forum was last week. This year 19% of 2500 delegates were women. This is a number that has barely changed since a (widely ignored) quota system was put in place to increase female participation. The interesting thing about that 19% number is that it is roughly the same percent of women on corporate boards, in senior management and in finance today. Given that we are 51% of the population and earning more degrees and advanced degrees, it will be interesting to see when this number starts to budge: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB22656413643910774604204580416163266663180?autologin=y
We have great events in store for you all in February – in Austin, we have a happy hour at the iconic Shady Grove. Hopefully we will have a beautiful evening to be outside. In Dallas, we have some amazing speakers for our C-Suite Dinner. This is filling up fast, so register early – you will not want to miss being able to have a small format dinner with these amazingly accomplished women. And in Houston, we have a fun evening planned at the Queen Vic Pub & Kitchen. Come out and meet our new committee members and share your ideas for future events!
Kind regards
Christine