Are You Intrepid? Want to Give Back? Enjoy the Land of the Eternal Spring!

You don’t really have to be intrepid – as you’ll see from the lovely accommodations and wonderful food we eat - but people will look at you incredulously when you tell them you’re going to Guatemala to help indigenous women create greater capacity for sustainable organizations.

We think of our program as Leading Women Without Borders™ and through it we create an opportunity for you to experience the profound satisfaction of realizing how the skills you have can transform the lives of others.

Watch the video above to get a taste of what last year’s women said about their experiences.

Our unique Leadership in Action program March 23^rd – 31^st combines personal leadership development and a focus on strategy, strategy execution and change with the opportunity to apply leadership skills in support of women's cooperatives around the shores of beautiful Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.

Lots more info here: http://www.leadingwomen.biz/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=340

Register here: http://www.leadingwomen.biz/cde.cfm?event=319850

Lead ON!
Susan
Susan Colantuono is CEO of Leading Women and author of No Ceiling, No Walls.
Follow her on Twitter |  LittlePinkBook  |  Facebook  |  LinkedInGroup |  LinkedIn

Generational Challenge for Women's Networks + More

The Vancouver Sun reports on the concept of "gender fatigue"

"Women bosses are no longer unusual in the corporate world, where many top-flight companies see gender and diversity programs as a "must-have."

Flexible working, parental leave, mentoring and women's networks have become the norm in many businesses.

But gender diversity's move into the mainstream gives an impression that gender issues at work have been "solved," which makes more subtle discrimination harder to spot and can even disadvantage young women starting their careers.

"Younger women find it difficult to connect to women's networks in the workplace, because they view these networks as something that belonged to their mother's generation," said Elisabeth Kelan, a lecturer in Work and Organisations in the Department of Management at King's College in London.

Kelan describes this situation as "gender fatigue," where people in the workplace lack the energy to tackle afresh something that they no longer see as a problem."

This reminds me of the 27 year old woman who said to me without any realization of the irony, "Where I work there is no discrimination and I'm not disadvantaged," and then minutes later in the same conversation, "I don't know why I didn't get the job that Jim got. I was definitely more qualified."

So internal (and external) networks face a challenge of how to make their relevance crystal clear. And older women members of this network can take an active role in mentoring younger women and helping them understand the value of connecting with other women.

This assumes that the networks are actually focusing on information and activities that add value to women's lives and careers. At Leading Women, we do several things.

1. Introduce successful women as role models.
   
2. Filling the Missing 33% of the career success equation for women
   
3. Supporting the alignment and relevance of internal women's networks.
   

COMMENTS Welcome: How is your company or network ensuring relevance for all generations?

If you haven't seen it, please take a look at the wonderful Female Factor video from the International Herald Tribune.

UPDATE: I just read Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's address to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Notable comments:

"Women are the majority of the world’s farmers, but are often forbidden from owning the land they tend to every day, or accessing the credit they need to invest in those farms and make them productive.
Women care for the world’s sick, but women and girls are less likely to get treatment when they are sick.
Women raise the world’s children, but too often receive inadequate care when they give birth. And as a result, childbirth remains a leading cause of death and injury to women worldwide.
Women rarely cause armed conflicts, but they always suffer their consequences. And when warring sides sit at one table to negotiate peace, women are often excluded, even though it is their future and their children’s future that is being decided.
Though many countries have passed laws to deter violence against women, it remains a global pandemic. Women and girls are bought and sold to settle debts and resolve disputes. They are raped as both a tactic and a prize of armed conflict. They are beaten as punishment for disobedience and as a warning to other women who might assert their rights. And millions of women and girls are enslaved in brothels, forced to work as prostitutes, while police officers pocket bribes and look the other way."

AND

"The other day I heard The New York Times columnist Nick Kristof, who has done so much to bring to a wide audience the stories of individual women who are working and suffering because of conditions under which they are oppressed. And he said, you know, in the 19^th century, the great moral imperative was the fight against slavery. And in the 20^th century, it was the fight against totalitarianism. And in the 21^st century, it is the fight for women’s equality. He was right, and we must accept – (applause) – and promote that fundamental truth. (Applause.)"

As I've written study after study correlates improvements in the status of women with overall improvements in the standards of living. I love Kristof's notion of the 21st century as the time to fight for women's equality.

Lead ON!
Susan
Susan Colantuono is CEO of Leading Women and author of No Ceiling, No Walls. She blogs on networking for PINK Magazine. Follow her on Twitter.

Happy International Women's Day

The statistics are stunning! Watch this slideshow to learn:

• There is no country in the world where women’s wages are equal to those of men.
• The value of women’s unpaid housework and community work is estimated at between 10 to 35% of the world’s gross domestic product — amounting to between US $4.7 trillion and $15 trillion in 2005.
• AND more...
  

Brought to you by the International Development Research Centre.

As Hillary Clinton said during her confirmation hearing:

"If half of the world's population remains vulnerable to economic, political, legal and social marginalization, our hope of advancing democracy and prosperity will remain in serious jeopardy. We still have a long way to go and the United States must remain an unambiguous and unequivocal voice in support of women's rights in every country, every region, on every continent."

This is why the World Economic Forum issues its Gender Gap report (see earlier post). This is why women's history month is worth celebrating - the history of women's experience must remain in our awareness.

We Got The Entire Cabinet!
I'm happy to report that President Obama created an interagency Council on Women and Girls. President Kennedy created the first Commission on the Status of Women. President Clinton created a White House Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach, which was abolished by President Bush. From NOW.

I follow the Women's Museum on Twitter and they sent a link to their International Women's Day blog. It's worth a look.

Lead ON!
Susan
Susan Colantuono is CEO of Leading Women. She blogs on networking for PINK Magazine. Follow her on Twitter.

Recent News of Note and Happy Women's History Month

Reiterating that companies whose boards have the highest percentage of women directors outperform those with the lowest by huge margins (42% higher Return on Sales, 53% higher Return on Equity, and 66% higher Return on Invested Capital) margins, I have been hypothesizing why that is. I believe it's because outside women directors have a lesser stake in "we've always done it that way" thinking. I found this quote from Davia Temin, President and CEO of Temin and Company (she will be speaking to Women Corporate Directors on The Role of Boards During Times of Crisis) most interesting:

"Do you remember when 'Maximize Shareholder Value' was the mantra of corporate board directors? Today's mantra is much shorter -- Survive...In times of crisis, corporate directors' first responsibility is to cut through denial, understand that this is not business as usual, and begin to think through, with management, a full range of crisis scenarios. These days, every organization needs to fully develop a series of bad to worse case strategies, and it is the board's obligation to make sure that happens." (e.a.)

I continue to believe that we are facing a crisis of leadership competence in the financial and automotive companies that are dragging down our economy. Denying the market forces that put them in jeopardy is only one example of missing out on the fact that their failed strategies were based on "business as usual"...and an unsustainable house (pun intended) of cards.

It's Women's History Month and 98 out of the 100 news releases I've read about celebrations focus on the accomplishments, achievements and contributions of women. What's missing? A focus on the history of being a woman - the movements that have provided us with the vote, reproductive rights, civil rights, equal employment opportunities, equal pay legislation (note I didn't say equal pay). Would that the celebrations looked more clearly through that lens.

Excellent career advice from Down Under: The entire article is excellent - here's the first of 15 tips: to get ahead stop being so good at your job. GREAT counterintuitive advice!

A Harvard Business Review study "found that while women outshone men on most of the leadership dimensions measured, there was one startling exception – the ability to recognise new opportunities and trends, and develop a strategic direction for an enterprise.

Surely one exception should not matter – except that ability was the most highly prized by men when looking for leaders. Women, who are very strong on the technical elements of their job and have their nose to the grindstone, can be easily overlooked for promotion."

At Leading Women we've been beating this drum for 10 years! A whole chapter in my upcoming book addresses strategic acumen - as do modules in our leadership programs.

FORTUNE's Pattie Sellers is reaching out to mentor global women who have been part of Goldman Sachs' mentoring program. She writes,

"If you’re thinking now that Fortune is now in the business of helping the best and the brightest business women in developing countries, well, you’re right. But these are unusual times. And we’re all doing things outside our job descriptions."

To which I say, KUDOS!...and as a woman, caring about the status of women around the globe is part of all our job descriptions. History has proven that the improved equality and status of women rises families, communities and nations.

Dee Dee Myers' new book, Why Women Should Rule the World, has this fitting message for International Women's Day and Women's History Month:

"Without a doubt, the increased presence and power of women in public life has generated enormous, positive change. But getting to a place beyond double standards, where equality is not a slogan but a way of life, will demand more. It begins with acknowledging that men and women are different. And it embraces the idea that because they are different, women will bring with them a different mix of experience, values and points of view. That, in turn, will expand the range of what’s acceptable – and what’s possible. It won’t be easy; if it were, it would have already been done. But it’s in our economic, social and political interest to create a world that’s freer and fairer. Where women have more power – and are allowed to use it. Where everyone is judged by their performance – and their potential. Where double standards are only a distant memory."

Read the entire excerpt here.

Lead ON!
Susan
Susan Colantuono is CEO of Leading Women. She blogs on networking for PINK Magazine. Follow her on Twitter.

Oldie but Baddie

The Global Gender Gap report for 2008 will be released on November 12th. Until then, here's last year's status for the U.S.

"The United States slipped in this year's scorecard measuring equality between women and men while Nordic countries remained at the top of the list and Muslim countries at the bottom.

No country managed to close the gender gap entirely, the Swiss-based World Economic Forum found, but women in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland came closest to achieving equality with men in education, employment, health and politics."

Read more here.