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