Happy Monday,
We are less than one month out from our flagship State of the Markets event in Dallas on April 26th! With the recent market turmoil, you will not want to miss hearing from award-winning CIOs including McCall Cravens of Hunt Global Investments, Tom Tull of the Employees Retirement System of Texas, and Catharine Burkett of LCG Associates. We are also thrilled to have Fed soothsayer Danielle DiMartino Booth joining us again as well, so you get access to the best minds in the business, cocktails, and networking all in support of a great cause! Please register early to avoid disappointment. The link may be found here.
To underscore the point that adding women to the workforce is not some ‘nice to have to make us all feel inclusive’ thing, a recent Bloomberg article notes that the recent Saudi economic overhaul driven by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman relies in large part on engaging women in the economy. The Crown Prince has loosened restrictions on driving, event attendance and is seen as welcoming women into the workforce in an unprecedented way. The full article can be found here.
A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that while Americans have become more accepting and less judgmental about working moms, 61% of women and 43% of men still believe that men do not accept women as equals in the workplace. This is very damaging to women, their career options and earning power. It also has real economic consequences considering that in 2018, 49% of all working women report that they are the primary wage-earners for themselves and their families; up from 37% in 2000. So, these outdated attitudes towards professional women are harmful to not only the women in question but to our economy as a whole. The full article can be found here.
Joanne Lipman, formerly the editor in chief at USA today recently published a new book that tackles the subject in the forefront of our national conversation. The title: “That’s What She Said: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) About Working Together” says it all and should be required reading for all of us in the workforce. The book review can be found here.
To follow up on the rudeness in the workplace topic from last week, a reader sent in the next article “Women Report More Rudeness at Work from Other Women.” The article discusses the queen bee syndrome, namely that as women rise in the ranks, they tend towards incivility towards other women, however, what the article failed to touch on is that this behavior towards other women is fear-based and justifiably so. Studies have shown that when men add one woman to a senior position, they think they have checked the diversity box and move on to other things. They have their token woman and life is good. The issue is then when another talented woman comes along, rather than adding her to the mix, the first one gets shown the door and they maintain the statistic of one token woman. This behavior instills fear in senior women for good reason. My comments on this come with a big BUT – but, it is still up to women to see this behavior for what it is. If we allow ourselves to stoop to rudeness among our ranks, we allow ourselves to be divided. The moral? A little kindness goes a long way. The full article can be found here.
Finally, on the subject of mass shootings, a recent article in Harper’s Bazaar notes that they are a product of toxic masculinity. Of all the mass shootings since 1982, only 3 have been committed by women, although women do comprise 50% of the victims. The article notes that these shootings seem to be driven by “a catastrophic sense of entitlement” which the rise of women standing up for themselves appears to be aggravating. The fascinating thing with all this is that when the perpetrator is a white male (case in point, the Austin bomber), the press is sympathetic to the cause – the language described him as a nice boy. Really? These mass murderers are also handed the ‘mentally disturbed’ cloak. However, as the article notes “The problem at hand here isn’t that shooters are mentally disturbed. After all, 23 percent of U.S. women have a diagnosable mental illness (compared to only 16.8 percent of men), and they do not go around shooting people. The problem is that some men do not have the coping skills to deal with the fact that everyone does not think that they are special. Everyone does not want to employ them just because they happen to exist. Sometimes, even people who are very good at their jobs get fired, and that’s something we all need to deal with.” This article is a must read for everyone raising sons today. The full article can be found here.
To help us celebrate our ten-year anniversary, I would ask each of you to consider corporate sponsorship of TXWSW. Benefits include attendance at our flagship events and recognition for your firm. To learn more, you may find our sponsor information here. Additionally, we would be happy to create a custom sponsorship for you. Please contact Bianca King atdevelopmentdirector@txwsw.com.
We have some terrific events lined up for you in 2018 including our ten-year anniversary celebrations in August! We look forward to seeing you all at an event in 2018! To learn more about our 2018 events, please visit www.txwsw.com
