Resources

2010 September 29

Blog posting on the latest rankings and report of who is on the rise and may make the cut next year.

http://postcards.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2010/09/29/the-2010-most-powerful-women-and-2011/

Source: Fortune
Type: Blog Entry

2004 April 1

For men, ambition is considered a necessary and desirable part of life. Most women, however, associate ambition with egotism, self-aggrandizement, or manipulation. Getting to the bottom of why this is so required study of what ambition consists of--for both sexes. In childhood, the research uncovered, girls are clear about their ambitions. Their goals are grand and they make no apologies for them. The underlying problem has to do with cultural ideals of femininity. Women face the reality that to appear feminine, they must provide or relinquish scarce resources to others--and recognition is a scarce resource. Although women have more opportunities than ever before, they still come under social scrutiny that makes hard choices--such as when and whether to start a family or advance in the workplace--even harder.

http://hbr.org/product/do-women-lack-ambition/an/R0404B-PDF-ENG?N=4294958509 516172 4294935049

Source: Harvard Business Review
Type: Research Report - Non Profit Org

2010 September

All mentoring is not created equal. There is a special kind of relationship—called sponsorship—in which the mentor goes beyond giving feedback and advice and uses his or her influence with senior executives to advocate for the mentee. Interviews and surveys alike suggest that high-potential women are overmentored and undersponsored relative to their male peers—and that they are not advancing in their organizations. Furthermore, without sponsorship, women not only are less likely than men to be appointed to top roles but may also be more reluctant to go for them.

http://hbr.org/2010/09/why-men-still-get-more-promotions-than-women/ar/1

Source: Harvard Business Review
Type: Research Report - Non Profit Org

2002 April 1

Although women have made enormous gains in the business world--they hold seats on corporate boards and run major companies--they still comprise only 10% of senior managers in Fortune 500 companies. What will it take to shatter the glass ceiling? According to Debra Meyerson and Joyce Fletcher, it's not a revolution but a strategy of small wins--a series of incremental changes aimed at the subtle discriminatory forces that still reside in organizations. It used to be easy to spot gender discrimination in the corporate world, but today overt displays are rare. Instead, discrimination against women lingers in common work practices and cultural norms that appear unbiased. Gender bias, the authors say, will be undone only by a persistent campaign of incremental changes that discover and destroy the deeply embedded roots of discrimination.

http://hbr.org/product/modest-manifesto-for-shattering-the-glass-ceiling-hbr-onpoint-enhanced-edition/an/9624-PDF-ENG

Source: Harvard Business Review
Type: Research Report - Non Profit Org

1995 September

Using research carried out in a variety of workplace settings, linguist Deborah Tannen demonstrates how conversational style often overrides what we say, affecting who gets heard, who gets credit, and what gets done. Tannen's linguistic perspective provides managers with insight into why there is so much poor communication. Gender plays an important role. Tannen traces the ways in which women's styles can undermine them in the workplace, making them seem less competent, confident, and self-assured than they are.

http://hbr.org/product/power-of-talk-who-gets-heard-and-why/an/95510-PDF-ENG

Source: Harvard Business Review
Type: Research Report - Non Profit Org

2007 September

Vestiges of prejudice against women, issues of leadership style and authenticity, and family responsibilities are just a few of the challenges women face in trying to reach the upper limits of their career ladders. Pressures for intensive parenting and the increasing demands of most high-level careers have left women with very little time to socialize with colleagues and build professional networks--that is, to accumulate the social capital that is essential to managers who want to move up. The remedies proposed--such as changing the long-hours culture, using open-recruitment tools, and preparing women for line management with appropriately demanding assignments--are wide ranging, but together they have a chance of achieving leadership equity in our time.

http://hbr.org/product/women-and-the-labyrinth-of-leadership/an/R0709C-PDF-ENG?N=100004 4294932922

Source: Harvard Business Review
Type: Research Report - Non Profit Org

When it comes to the right to work, the United States is well-situated, in the company of many other countries that ensure the equitable right to work across racial and ethnic groups, for men and women, regardless of age or disability. However, when it comes to ensuring decent working conditions, the United States is far behind in many areas. This is particularly true when one examines the working conditions that are needed to care for children and other family members.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/globalworkingfamilies/images/report.pdf

Source: Harvard School of Public Health
Type: Research Report - Non Profit Org

2008

Through different words and frames, diversity practitioners, diversity think tanks, and women executive councils generally agree about what needs to be done. Many excellent papers, articles, and books have been published extolling the virtues and outlining the nuts and bolts of the best practices for advancing women into leadership roles. These practices, well executed, will yield results, but only incrementally. We need to look beyond best practices to new paradigms, because today’s corporate structure and assumptions around professional advancement inherently prevent women from taking their rightful seats at the leader table. Right now, the corporate rhythm and the professional women’s rhythm are not in sync.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Women+in+Leadership+at+a+Crossroads:+Why+Current+Best+Practices+Will+Not+Be+Enough+to+Shatter+the+Glass+Ceiling&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Source: Hewitt Associates
Type: Research Report - For Profit Org

ICRW publishes reports, policy briefs, toolkits and position papers on a range of topics for researchers, policymakers, program implementers and others.

http://www.icrw.org/icrw-library

Source: International Center for Research on Women
Type: Research Organization

2010
Sevi Simavi, Clare Manuel, and Mark Blackden.

Promoting women's economic empowerment is increasingly seen as one of the most important driving forces behind economic growth and the fight against poverty. Women's economic participation as entrepreneurs, employees, and leader is recognized as a measure of a country's dynamism and viability. This book provides fresh solutions to common issues that women entrepreneurs face and presents actionable tools for promoting gender sensitive reforms.

http://www.ifc.org/genderIC

Source: http://www.amazon.com/Gender-Dimensions-Investment-Climate-Refor
Type: Book

2010 January

This whitepaper from McKinsey focuses on the role that the private sector can play in women's economic empowerment by enabling women to develop marketable skills, helping women find and retain employment, and supporting women in obtaining equal social and economic rights and achieving leadership positions.

http://www.mckinsey.com/App_Media/Reports/SSO/EmpWomen_USA4_Letter.pdf

Source: McKinsey & Company
Type: Research Report - For Profit Org

2010 January

Few companies make social investments specifically aimed at empowering women in developing economies, but we believe that supporting this goal is good business and good practice for all companies. The benefits to businesses come from enlarging their markets, improving the quality or size of their current and potential workforce, and maintaining or improving their reputations. Companies whose social investments focus on women in developing economies, the survey and our other research show, benefit not only women and their societies but also themselves.

https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Economic_Studies/Productivity_Performance/How_helping_women_helps_business_2513

Source: McKinsey & Company
Type: Research Report - For Profit Org

2008 September

Through interviews with 85 women across the globe in a variety of fields and leadership positions, McKinsey distilled a leadership model comprising five broad and interrelated dimensions: meaning, or finding your strengths and putting them to work in the service of an inspiring purpose; managing energy, or knowing where your energy comes from, where it goes, and what you can do to manage it; positive framing, or adopting a more constructive way to view your world, expand your horizons, and gain the resilience to move ahead even when bad things happen; connecting, or identifying who can help you grow, building stronger relationships, and increasing your sense of belonging; and engaging, or finding your voice, becoming self-reliant and confident by accepting opportunities and the inherent risks they bring, and collaborating with others.

https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Centered_leadership_How_talented_women_thrive_2193

Source: McKinsey & Company
Type: Research Report - For Profit Org

2010 October

As the number of women participating in the workforce grows, their potential influence on business is becoming ever more important. Seventy-two percent of respondents to a recent McKinsey survey believe there is a direct connection between a company’s gender diversity and its financial success. Indeed, the share saying so has risen in the past year, even in the face of continued economic turmoil. Yet companies have not so far successfully bridged the gap between men and women in the top levels of management. This is not surprising, since the survey shows that diversity isn’t a high priority at most companies and that there’s great variability in the number of gender-diversity policies that companies have pursued.

https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Moving_women_to_the_top_McKinsey_Global_Survey_results_2686?pagenum=2

Source: McKinsey & Company
Type: Research Report - For Profit Org

2008 September

Women in developed economies have made substantial gains in the workplace during recent decades. Nevertheless, it’s still true that the higher up in a company you look, the lower the percentage of women. But some companies have moved successfully to increase the hiring, retention, and promotion of female executives. Their initiatives have included efforts to ensure that HR policies aren’t inadvertently biased against women or part-time workers, to encourage mentoring and networking, to establish (and consistently monitor at a senior level) targets for diversity, and to find ways of creating a better work–life balance. Changes like these have a price, but there are business advantages to making them—above and beyond the branding benefit that might accrue to companies viewed as socially progressive.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/A_business_case_for_women_2192

Source: McKinsey & Company
Type: Research Report - For Profit Org

NCRW is a network of 120 leading research, policy and advocacy centers dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls. Their website provides a wide range of reports and publications on all subjects pertaining women and girls.

http://www.ncrw.org/reports-publications

Source: National Council for Research on Women
Type: Research Organization

2009 June

In the report, Women in Fund Management: A Road Map for Achieving Critical Mass – and Why it Matters, the National Council for Research on Women argues for greater diversity in fund management and calls on the financial services industry to implement a Critical Mass Principle with measurable action steps to bring more women into the field. Achieving critical mass will confer the vital benefits experienced in other sectors when significant numbers of women are included in decision-making as well as the distinct advantages that women bring to financial management.

http://www.ncrw.org/programs/271/women-in-fund-management

Source: National Council for Research on Women
Type: Research Report - Non Profit Org

2010 March 21

Playing the stock market is a constant ricochet between panic and euphoria. There’s a reason the burnout rate is high. But the formula for succeeding in a high-stress financial environment is simpler than you might think. If you ask a trader, or someone who studies them, what the single most important factor is in determining whether a person will be good at trading, they will say that it’s the ability to control one’s emotions. Recent studies suggest purely rational behavior may not come as naturally to men as gender stereotypes would suggest.

http://nymag.com/news/businessfinance/64950/

Source: New York Magazine
Type: Article

Articles in this series examine the most recent shifts in women's power, prominence and impact on societies around the world, and try to measure the influence of women on early 21st century development.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/world/series/the_female_factor/index.html

Source: New York Times
Type: Article

2010 April 1

One of the more intriguing — yet unanswerable — questions that has arisen in the wake of the financial crisis is whether all that alpha-male testosterone at the top of Wall Street firms helped to ratchet up the excessive risk-taking, inflating the housing and securitization bubbles, the bursting of which led to a credit freeze and the worst recession in generations. Would the presence of more women in the C-suites have led to a different outcome? It’s the Wall Street version of the age-old question, “If women ruled the world … ?”

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/does-wall-street-need-an-estrogen-injection/?dbk

Source: New York Times
Type: Article

2010 January 29

Women have always been drawn to finance in smaller numbers than men. But after nearly two decades of increased hiring and promotion of women on Wall Street, their ranks appear to be shrinking again. The reasons are varied and unclear. But some finance executives say that as the work force has shrunk over all in finance, there was bound to be a noticeable impact on women because their numbers were smaller to begin with. They also cite the big banks’ increasing reliance on trading, a part of the business that has been especially difficult for women to penetrate.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/looking-for-women-in-wall-streets-top-ranks/

Source: New York Times
Type: Article

2009 February 7

Banks around the world desperately want bailouts of billions of dollars, but they also have another need they’re unaware of: women, women and women.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/opinion/08kristof.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Mistresses of the Universe&st=cse

Source: New York Times
Type: Article

2009 December 11

It seems that in the hedge fund industry, female fund managers come out on top — at least according to a new study from Bloomberg L.P. and the National Council for Research on Women. BusinessWeek notes that according to the research, from January 2000 through May 31, 2009, hedge funds run by women delivered nearly double the investment performance of those managed by men.

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2009/12/11/women-outperform-men-in-hf-returns-study-says/

Source: New York Times
Type: Article