...and the Filly Did It!

Okay, I admit, I'm giddy times 3.

1. Rachel Alexandra beat the boys in the Preakness,
   
2. Ursula Burns is taking over from Anne Mulcahy at Xerox (the first woman CEO-to-woman CEO handoff in Fortune 500 history and the first African-American woman to head a F500 company) and
   
3. President Obama has nominated Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

So, I guess the headline should read, "and the fillies are gettin' it done!"

About nominee Sonia Sotomayor:
Should having another woman on the Supreme Court matter? No, it would be nice to think that justice is gender neutral.

Will having another woman on the Supreme Court matter? Absolutely, because justice in America has not been gender neutral just as executive decisions have not been gender neutral. Here's just one example, if companies were run in a gender neutral way, there would be no wage gap. Instead what we see is that the wage gap decrease to 91¢ in companies where there are a critical mass of women at the top.

So, I am giddy. I know the battle will be fierce, but I am rooting for Judge Sotomayor to be confirmed...and to live to see gender parity on the Court in my lifetime.

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

You've GOT to be Kidding Me!

If this is the kind of thinking widely represented on corporate boards, no wonder our economy is in such trouble. The lack of logic is mind-boggling!

The search firm, Heidrick & Struggles and the University of Southern California surveyed directors of publicly traded companies. More than 55% said they would not want to diversify their boards by increasing minority representation. Here's where the lack of logical thinking comes in:

"...while there is little commitment to increasing representation on the board, many directors (82 percent) recognize that having a diverse board can be beneficial to the company because diversity contributes to a broader range of decision options for consideration."

Let's see if I understand. They're saying they know diverse boards are good for business, but >55% of them don't want to diversify. Who's holding directors accountable?

On another note, among the <45%> who...

"...would like to increase board diversity, 30 percent of them are giving special consideration to women, 21 percent to African Americans, 17 percent to Hispanics/Latinos and nine percent to Asian Americans."

If you dare, you can read more about the September, 2008 study, you'll find it here.

Hard Row to Hoe...and up to #13

It's patently obvious when looking at the numbers that African American women have a difficult time getting to the top of organizations. The Executive Leadership Council surveyed 150 CEOs and directors, EVPs and VPs to dig into the reasons why. Their just released findings include:

• 31% of respondents say that challenges to getting to the top are due to weaker or less strategic networks available to African-American women.
  
• 24% cite inaccurate perceptions of African-American women's capabilities
  
• 23% point to work/life balance demands as preventing or slowing down their rise.

As remedies...

• African-American women should seek high-visibility stretch assignments to improve their access to C-Suite positions, (73 percent);
• African-American women should set career goals and create the action plans necessary to achieve them (67 percent);
• African-American women should work with executive coaches to prepare for and take full advantage of critical feedback (57 percent).
• "Not only should senior executives cultivate more trusted and strategic relationships with high-potential black women executives, it is important for black women executives to have and execute detailed plans for advancement and demonstrate a passion for the values and culture of their companies."

Glad they put some of the burden for change on the executives who aren't African-American Women!

Now, for #13
Ellen Kullman stepped into the CEO role at DuPont this month, becoming the 13th woman FORTUNE 500 CEO.

USA Today has one of the BEST reports on the performance of women CEOs. In 2003 and 2004 women outperformed men. In '05 the women underperformed and '06 and '07 performance was about even. With devastating losses, the F500 women CEOs underperformed the DOW in '08.

In spite of the huge losses suffered last year, Susan Ivey at tobacco company Reynolds American Andrea Jung at Avon and Anne Mulcahy at Xerox have had stellar performances over time. Avon is up 65% during Jung's nine years, and Xerox is up 1% during Mulcahy's 6½ years (rising like a Phoenix from near bankruptcy). Reynolds is up 21% since Ivey began in 2004.

New from Catalyst

The researchers extraordinaire at Catalyst have released a new study on the heels of their summer study on women on corporate boards. The headline on the news release of its most recent reads:

Lack of Strategic Relationships Impacts Advancement of Women of Color in U.S. Securities Firms

I highlighted the mention of strategic relationships because it's an area that we emphasize in all our leadership programming. Study findings include:

"The report finds that women of color experience exclusion from key workplace relationships. They were more likely to be dissatisfied with overall managerial interaction and support, distribution of key client engagements, access to influential mentors, and access to business development opportunities. These disadvantages ultimately impact a firm’s ability to benefit from the talent that women of color bring to the work environment."

Read the release here.

The corporate boards study (about which I've reported in my newsletter) is here. Key findings:

"Findings: Our results showed that there is a clear and positive correlation between the percentage of women board directors in the past and the percentage of women corporate officers in the future. This finding holds for three different measures:

• The percentage of women on a company’s board.
• Company quartile when ranked by percentage of women board directors.
• The number of women on a company’s board.

In addition, women board directors appear to have a greater effect on increasing the percentage of line positions held by women than they do on staff positions held by women. Put simply, women board directors are a predictors of women corporate officers."