It’s been a great weekend for women in the news.  In Kuwait, four women won parliamentary seats in Saturday’s elections after just being allowed the right to vote in 2005!

At the Preakness, a filly, Rachel Alexandra beat all the boys to be the first filly in 85 years to win!

Okay, so part serious and part silly but I’ve been thinking about this a lot since hearing Rayona Sharpnack, Founder and CEO of Institute for Women’s Leadership, lead a program entitled, “Women Empowering Women - Why We Don’t and How We Can.”

It was an interesting discussion amongst the group as we could all remember at least one occasion when a woman was not quite as “empowering” as she could have been.  And, we can probably all think of at least one occasion when perhaps we weren’t as gracious as we should have been towards another woman.

One attendee shared a story of how she was nervous recommending a good friend who is also a skilled consultant for a particular role as she was concerned on how it might reflect on her if the woman crashed and burned.  She eventually did recommend her and the work turned out well but this was an example of a common story.  I’ve heard the same reasons stated for why one woman on a Board of Directors does not recommend another qualified woman she might know.

In Rayona’s work, she talks about how our culture and upbringing create the contexts for how we perceive life today.  Then we create assumptions that masquerade as facts that justify the decisions that we make.

One of my “contexts” is that you have to work more than twice as hard as everyone else just to stay even.  After hearing Rayona, I really started thinking more about the effect this has had not just on me but also on my team as I continue to push them to strive above and beyond.

There is a quote attributed to Madeline Albright, former Secretary of State under President Clinton, where she shares that there is a special place in hell for women who don’t support other women.

What contexts do you notice in your life?  In Rayona’s language, what can you “trade up” to in order to show support for other women?  Does it make a difference?  What do you think?

What a compelling title!  Claire Shipman, Senior National Correspondent ABC News and Katty Kay, Anchor BBC World News have been thrilled by the reception this new book has been receiving. Read the authors’ blog to learn more about the book and the buzz.

Published just last week on June 2nd, the publisher has already moved into it’s 2nd printing due to the unprecedented demand.  And FWE&E is very proud to be the only venue in the Bay Area hosting Claire and Katty to share their perspectives in person.  Register today for our event at Oracle on June 16th.

So, what’s all the buzz about?  Claire and Katty feel that we are in a unique period in history where women have a chance to take a stand and create a life, both work and personal, that works better for them.  The last time in history where there was such a confluence of events occurred when Rosie the Riveter entered the workforce in droves during World War II.  In Chapter 1 of their book, they list compelling statistics such as the fact that women account for more than half of the educated workforce; more women than men are graduating with advanced degrees; many studies exist showing that companies with the best records for promoting women outperform their competition by every measure of profitability - equity, revenue, and assets.

When I first started reading the book, I wondered how it might apply to me as I don’t have a partner, children, or elderly parents to worry about.  Am I qualified to “Write My Own Rules for Success?”   Then I realized that, even though my story was different, it still fit the need to do some rewriting.

Several years ago, when I was Managing Director of legal publishing company, and then later as SVP of another large division - I lead a life of constant travel, meetings, stress and pressure with the motto of “no pets, no plants, no partner”.  I stopped using that moniker when I realized I was scaring my team but I also stopped using it when I realized that this lifestyle was not exactly fulfilling.

When my health and general well being were at their lowest, I made a drastic decision to quit my job, change careers, and move across the country.  If I had read Womenomics, I might have instead negotiated my current situation to give myself the time and space I needed to lead a healthier, more fulfilling life.

Things worked out in that I live somewhere I love, doing work I find fulfilling, with an enriching community of friends, a cat named Pebbles (yes, same name as Susan Boyle’s cat!) and even some plants that I try not to kill on a regular basis.  Having read Womenomics

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, I see that there are many ways to write your own rules and some of the keys are to be really clear about what you want; be fact based and employer-oriented in the “ask” (meaning consider what’s important to them and your team as well as you), and then over-communicate about how you’re adding value in your new way of working.

Let’s go out there and be role models for women and men about how to lead more fullfilling lives!   Continue this discussion here or in the Event Gallery in our members-only Online Community.

I’ve been absolutely amazed at the number of articles I’ve seen recently about sexism in America that segue into the alarming statistics on the stagnation and slippage of women’s advancement in corporate America. What’s driving the numbers and why is there such emotion around the topic - from both men and women? For example, check out the recent article in Conde Nast’s Porfolio entitled Sexism in the Workplace. Some really “interesting” statistics include: (and there are many more):

• American Bar Association shows female attorney weekly wages amounted to 70.5% of male lawyer’s in 2006 compared with 77.5% in 2005.
• Number of women holding Fortune 500 board seats increased steadily between 1995 and 2005 but has been essentially flat for the past 3 years.
• Number of female corporate officers at Fortune 500 companies has dropped in each of the past three years.

What’s even more interesting is reading the blog comments of the readers. The venom represented by both men and women shows mass stereotyping, fear, anger and a general sense of powerlessness on the part of women. The Wall Street Journal had a front page article on Saturday March 29th titled At the Barricades in the Gender Wars talking about Hilary Clinton’s campaign and the fear her supporters have about a sexist backlash. A lot of questions about whether America is ready for a woman leader. My colleague Paige Wesley mentioned that she’s talked to a number of women from various generations who are actually concerned about this – feeling that a woman won’t get Congressional or public support to be effective in the White House.

How is it that other nations have been able to cross this barrier and the U.S., where we pride ourselves on civil rights and women’s lib, still quakes at the idea of women in power? Why is gender even a point of debate when there are so many other more serious issues to discuss? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this one! What’s the next step? How are we as women owning – and investing in - our power and authority? What needs to happen to drive the change we want to see? Is it about networking skills - developing our own “old girls club”? Having intention? Being mentors? I think we could all benefit from hearing about how your gender may have affected your rise to leadership - both positively and negatively. What did you learn from the experience, how would you change your response to it now? Looking forward to continuing the discussion! apo prednisone

Today, Monday November 17th, 2008, UC Davis Graduate School of Management, in partnership with FWE&E, is publishing the 4th Annual UC Davis Study of California Women Business Leaders to report on the latest numbers of women leaders for the top 400 public companies in the State of California.

In addition to UC Davis, we are proud to partner with The InterOrganization Network (ION), an organization consisting of 12 member organizations like ours in the major business centers of the U.S. including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, etc. We combine our energies by all providing census data with our partners for our local areas and our programs are based on advocating the advancement of women to positions of power in the business world, especially to boards of directors and executive suites. Download ION’s 2008 Report (pdf).

The fourth annual UC Davis Study of California Women Business Leaders found that only 13 of California’s 400 largest public companies have a woman CEO. Overall, women hold just 10.9 percent of board seats and executive positions — insignificant progress from 2007, when the figure was 10.4 percent, and from 2006 and 2005, when it was 10.2 percent. Download the complete report (pdf)

What can we do about changing this picture? On November 18, 2008 FWE&E will host “Women in Corporate Leadership: Action Plan for Change” from 8 to 10 a.m. at Microsoft, 1065 La Avenida, Building I, in Mountain View. Register today to attend the event.

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I’m thrilled to announce that today marks the launch of a new Online Community for our members. We are announcing it at our conference Business Applications of Social Networking which is being streamed live on UStream.tv. Click on this link at about 8:45am PST to watch the event and send us your comments!

www.ustream.tv/channel/business-applications-of-social-networking

So, why are we launching this Community and what will it mean for our members? When I first joined the organization six months ago, one of the first things I wanted to do was to get to know who our members were. What I encountered was the typical directory of members that gives the name, rank and serial number but did not let me know the breadth of experience that the individual had or what her perspectives were on topics like politics, philanthropy or global issues.

Also, I received phone calls from members, like one I received yesterday from a CEO searching for a new CFO, asking how to find members with certain skill sets, who could speak on a particular topic at a major event, who could be nominated for an award, or who might be qualified for a Board seat.

I found I could turn to a select few people to network and look for referrals, spam all my members with endless emails or find a better application to enable the members to tap into each other’s networks and best practices.

I was lucky to be introduced to Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning by one of our members and found the Ning application to be the answer we were looking for. Members can log into our new Online Community at http://community.fweande.org and will be directed to fill out their profile and start collaborating! If you are a member, you will receive an email invitation to join the Community shortly.

It also lead to the idea of the Business Applications Conference. One of the first steps in launching a community is to find the application that fits the needs of the members, then educate them how to take advantage of it. It’s not about the technology, it’s about how to fit the application into your normal activities so that you can take full advantage of what it has to offer without feeling overwhelmed by having one more place to go to for connecting.

The program is a who’s who of experts in the field including Ross Mayfield, Founder and CEO of Socialtext; Jeremy Owyang, Senior Analyst, Social Media at Forrester Research; Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning; Robin Wolaner, CEO of TeeBeeDee, along with a great panel of both strategists and tactical gurus.

Google is the key sponsor and we greatly thank them for their support.

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Nancy Pelosi has just published a new book, already on the bestseller list, called Know Your Power:  A Message to America’s Daughters

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. On August 13th, she was in conversation with Sydnie Kohara about the book to an audience of approximately 400 women leaders at the Oracle Auditorium.  The conversation was an intimate fireside chat with Nancy talking about her experiences with her family, in politics, and of being a leader.

When I read her book, there were two messages that really resonated with me — building confidence and building collaborations.

I often hear stories from women who are presented opportunities that are a significant challenge or step up from what they are currently doing, and the first reaction is, “I couldn’t possibly do that, I’ve never done that before.”   A man’s reaction is typically - “YES!” and then privately they think the same thing.  Women need to learn to just say “YES” and have the confidence to know they’ll do a great job.

I learned that whatever opportunity I was presented, I would be likely to succeed as I had the confidence to know that through collaboration,  I would find someone who’s either done this before who could share their experience, or find someone I could partner with who would help me take the opportunity to a new level.

Forums like ours exist as we, as women leaders, know the true power of collaboration.  Power means influence leading to action.  What actions can we take today and who can we collaborate with today to make a real difference? oxytrol premarin substitute

In the United States, the upcoming retirement of the baby boomers will probably mean that companies are going to lose large numbers of senior-level employees in a short period of time; nearly one-fifth of the working-age population (16 and older) of the United States will be at least 65 by 2016. Demographic trends show that women are the largest demographic for helping fill this upcoming talent pool decline and organizations will begin to experience recruiting issues if they do not start to pay attention to how to attract and retain women leaders.

There are many ways women can support themselves to improve their potential to lead within an organization. What ideas do you have?

What Can Women Do?

1. Connectedness

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– Women network differently than men and learning how to break into the informal power networks in order to be considered for senior level roles is critical. Men have more “weak ties” and feel more comfortable with reciprocity which makes them more open to recommending their acquaintances for senior roles.

Women must learn how to build networks of people that truly can provide the influence to help them advance rather than just building strong personal relationships with a small group of people they feel comfortable with.

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– As mentioned above, women feel that they need to have 100% of the qualifications required before they can apply or accept a role that they have not had experience with before. Men will raise their hand if only 60% of the qualifications are met. Women need to develop the confidence to know that they have the common sense and ability to ask for help in order to be successful at more challenging roles.

3. Seek Sponsors and Mentors

– Those women that seek out role models of other women and men who have attained roles they aspire to often move up faster due to the support and advice they receive.

4. Manage Your Career – Seek opportunities, both inside and outside the organization, to broaden skill sets to encourage learning of more operational knowledge such as strategy, financial acumen, sales and global experience to help round out the abilities needed for more senior level roles.

On November 17th, UC Davis published the latest Census of Women Leaders in California and the statistics showed that not much progress has been made since the inception of the study 4 years ago. And, these numbers have not changed much nationwide as shown by the ION Census Data from 12 other major financial centers in the US including New York, Boston, Chicago and Detroit.

This is such a complex issue with gender differences, stereotypes and corporate culture all playing a role in why the numbers stay where they are.

Research shows that having women leaders in your organization has a direct impact on corporate performance. Companies with the highest representation of women on their top management teams experience stronger financial performance when compared to companies with the lowest representation of women in senior positions–Return on Equity is 35% higher and Total Return to Shareholders is 34% higher for companies with more senior women executives. McKinsey has also published some recent data that supports this premise.

We believe that there are practical steps that can be taken by both organizations and women leaders to help change this picture. What ideas do you have regarding what can be changed within yourself or your organization?

What can organizations do about it?

1.    Support from the CEO and Measurement

Embracing Diversity is not an HR issue and creating a Diversity Team under HR with no funding is not the same as truly supporting and role modeling diversity at the top.

Companies with CEO’s who create intention and measurement for the recruitment (this is not the same as setting quotas), retention and engagement of women leaders often show a higher percentage of women leaders in their ranks.

This can be accomplished by encouraging hiring managers, and measuring them, to make sure that they are interviewing as equal a number as possible of women vs. men for any open positions.

Unconscious stereotyping still exists and people tend to hire people they are comfortable with and more often than not, this equates to people who “look like them.” Creating intention to help break through this unconscious stereotyping is one method for enhancing women’s opportunities for advancement.

2.    Support Mentoring, Sponsorship, and Networking Programs

Women apply for roles when they think they have 100% of the criteria listed in the role whereas men will apply if they meet 60% of the criteria. Women need to be encouraged more to apply for these positions and having formal mentoring programs have proven to be an effective tool.

Sponsorship is the next level up where a manager creates opportunities for high potential women leaders to move up more quickly rather than waiting for general opportunities to arise.

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92% of women are the main caretakers at home with child care or elder care in addition to holding full time jobs. Other than basic benefits such as maternity leave, companies need to become more creative in assisting women with more flexibility to manage the challenges they face outside of work and not be penalized from the leader track if they need to take more time off during their peak earning years in order to manage their home life challenges.

Welcome to the inaugural post of the new Forum for Women Entrepreneurs & Executives blog. As an organization that connects experienced women with unique points of view, what better way of creating a forum for dialogue than through the vehicle of social media.

Our organization is all about connecting experienced women leaders to peers, mentors and resources to deliver a deeper understanding of business in the context of a larger perspective. So, why are we not using technology as a means of supporting this powerful network?

I’ve found many CEOs and execs I know had a similar first impression of the concept of Social Networking: Who’s got time to post a profile and pictures up on Facebook, and get “poked” by close friends? Not me! Frankly, I prefer a more traditional type of relationship with people I’m close to. So how exactly would Social Networking apply to my professional career?

Yet through personal experience, I’ve recently discovered the term “Social Networking” to be something of a misnomer. It’s not strictly about entertainment or socializing with family and friends, but is about building a community, which has infinite application to building business networks. Social Networking is actually a mechanism by which professionals can better communicate, better share, and better collaborate. In fact, in this day and age, Social Networking is becoming as fundamental to how we do business as the internet itself. It is about how we use the technology at our disposal to strengthen business relationships, share ideas, and interface with potential sponsors, clients, members and customers.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve become a believer that there is something worthwhile going on here. In organizing our first-ever conference on Social Networking “Business Applications of Social Networking” on March 25, an enlightened member of my Advisory Board connected us to the keynote speaker via Facebook. In addition, I’ve been seeking a new Director of Marketing and Communications, and some of the best resumes I’ve received came in after I posted the job on LinkedIn. Definitely not a waste of my time!

Through exposure to Gina Bianchini at Ning, we’ve decided as an organization that creating a Social Networking site for our members is a crucial and exciting new avenue for our “forum.” Hopefully we can use these activities as another way of forging and sustaining deep and meaningful connections, and as a means of self-educating on the business benefits of Social Networking. Please join us March 25 to hear from the experts (that includes you) how Social Networking can benefit your business.

I look forward to your comments about your business experiences with Social Networking. Also, let us know what specific questions you’d like to have answered at the conference?

I’m sure many of us read with interest the announcement of Carol Bartz as the new CEO of Yahoo! Carol lead a very successful growth and change effort at Autodesk and has now been brought into Yahoo! at a time when there is much needed strategic and leadership re-direction.  Her track record certainly points to Carol being the right person for the job on both counts.

On the same day this news came out, there was a great article forwarded to me by Board of Advisor member Karen Appleton, VP of Bus Dev at box.net.  The article, The Glass Cliff: Are Women Leaders Often Set Up to Fail? by Sylvia Ann Hewlett of Off-Ramps and On-Ramps

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fame discusses the very interesting premise that women are over-represented in precarious leadership positions such as the one Carol Bartz has just accepted.

Related to women on boards, she references a recent work that disputes that when women are added to boards the financial performance of the company declines.  Rather it appears that women are added to the boards when the share price is tumbling as a means of showing that something is being done.  The women being last in are first to be blamed.

In the article, she references several studies including The Athena Factor

-  research that shows that a significant proportion of women in science, engineering and technology (SET) believe that when they fail they don’t get second chances.

I’ve spoken with several women members of FWE&E who have specifically said they have seen this phenomenon of women not taking senior roles in organizations where they have seen the women before them fail.  The general consensus was that for some reason the bar was higher for the women put in these positions and there was little mentorship and no room for error.

This is not to say, especially in these precarious economic times, that men don’t face the same hurdles.  It just seems that when women are placed in these positions and fail, the cultural stereotypes come out about how women aren’t as effective leaders as men.

Have you had or seen similar situations?  How do you feel about Carol’s chances of success at Yahoo?