RBG's Advice for Life/Male Board Members Don't See a Need for Women/ Activism in Action/The Cost of Sexual Harassment on Women's Careers

Happy Monday:
To start, for our attorneys in the group, Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote an Op Ed titled “Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Advice for Living” to coincide with the release of her new book. Politics aside, it is amazing to consider that when she entered law school in 1956, women accounted for less than 3% of the legal profession in the US. In the article she details her experience of raising children while attending law school and her best advice for all of us including the importance of respect and collegiality. My other favorite piece of advice is that one of the secrets to a long happy marriage is to “sometimes be a little deaf.” The full article can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/opinion/sunday/ruth-bader-ginsburgs-advice-for-living.html?_r=0
PwC just issued the results of its survey on corporate boards. Women represent 1 in 5 board members at S&P 500 companies and PwC surveyed the men on these boards about the importance of adding women. The response in effect was “We don’t see a need.” Apparently the board members surveyed missed the statistics on the improvement in corporate performance that adding women brings. It also sheds light on why this problem is so intractable – if the folks that could add women to boards don’t see a need to do so, then how will it ever happen? The full article can be found here: http://www.businessinsider.com/pwc-survey-many-see-no-need-for-equal-representation-on-boards-2016-10
One way is for investment firms like Trillium, Pax and Arjuna to use their power as shareholders to advocate for diversity. To quote from the article: “This is not only a social justice issue, it’s a business issue,” says Natasha Lamb, director for equity research and shareholder engagement at Boston-based Arjuna Capital. “More diverse teams lead to better financial outcomes.” The full article can be found here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-14/how-three-activist-firms-confront-big-companies-and-prevail
Sexual harassment has been front and center in the news these past few weeks and one article focuses on the cost to women. Nancy Long, a law professor likens it to a tax on opportunity for women. Her logic goes that men are free to seize opportunities that present themselves, but some of these same opportunities can put women in a compromised position. Consider “a business dinner, when drinking gets heavy and the clients start to seem awfully friendly, is it worth staying in the hope that the sale will close and things won’t turn uncomfortable, or worse?” The full article can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/business/a-special-tax-on-women-trump-tape-is-a-reminder-of-the-cost-of-harassment.html
Finally, from the bad news file, the UN just rejected 7 female candidates trying to become the first female president of the organization. Many countries this year advocated for a female president as a way to lead by example on the subject of gender equality but it was not to be. However, as a way to promote women and girls, it chose the cartoon figure Wonder Woman as its mascot. I have no words, well printable ones anyway. The full article can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/13/world/americas/wonder-woman-united-nations.html
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