Happy Tuesday!
I hope you all enjoyed the long holiday weekend and were able to have time off with your friends and family.
To add to your summer reading list, two of the first four women ever admitted to Harvard’s MBA program back in 1970 wrote a survival guide for women in business. Much of their advice including having a strong network and speaking up still ring true today. The full article can be found here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/shelliekarabell/2016/05/14/10-commandments-for-women-in-leadership/2/#6dbf437651c7
The NY Times did a follow up article 20 years after the landmark boom-boom room sexual discrimination lawsuit to see how things have changed from women on Wall Street. The short answer? Not much. The full article can be found here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/23/business/dealbook/decades-after-boom-boom-room-suit-bias-persists-for-women.html?_r=0
It turns out bias is not limited to Wall Street – it seems the Supreme Court also doles out the favor of ‘friend of the court’ chits to predominately white men. A recent Cornell study showed that while women presented 23% of the arguments over the period, only 10% of appointments went to women, and only 5% of the invited lawyers appeared to be black or Hispanic. Read on: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/17/us/politics/when-appointing-friends-of-court-justices-are-friendliest-toward-white-men.html
As you know, Europe has taken the lead with instituting quotas to get women on boards. Britain is now facing this issue and disappointingly from the Economist, they are pushing back against these laws saying quotas are introducing less-qualified female board members to the ranks and thereby endangering shareholder value. This becomes like a chicken and egg situation – if cronyism and bias are alive and well even in the face of evidence which shows diversity benefits performance, then what is the path forward? The full article can be found here: http://www.economist.com/node/15661734
And finally, from the WSJ, we all know that women are punished for assertiveness, however, apparently, when women do it through non-verbal means, they are not. It is not a long term solution to bias, but good information nonetheless. The full article can be found here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-price-women-leaders-pay-for-assertivenessand-how-to-minimize-it-1464660240
We thank you all for your continued support as we continue to grow and look forward to seeing you all soon! Also, don’t forget to join our Facebook page and private Linkedin Group both of which give you the opportunity to engage with your fellow members online!