Women In Business
Today's Wall Street Journal has a whole special section (R1-R12) about "the Women to Watch" in 2006.
Page 1 contains fifty close photographs of fifty women. These pictures are not captioned. But reading the section through was pretty illuminating.
Of the fifty, 21 were, seemingly, bona-fide CEOs. Not a majority. The plurality was 25 senior corporate executives who were not CEOs. The remainder were three high-ranking government officials and 1 person married to money.
The last case fascinated me - it was Melinda Gates. I take nothing away from what she has accomplished, but, let's face it, it would not be there but for her marrying the right guy.
If the Wall Street Journal wanted to serve as a source of inspiration for ambitious women, I don't know how well they did, overall.
The opener: "A new crop of women leaders have moved into the corner offices of some of the world's biggest companies. And while the overall numbers aren't impressive, looking behind those totals reveals some significant signs of change.
"PepsiCo Inc. recently tapped former president and chief financial officer Indra Nooyi as its new CEO. Earlier this year, Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., the grain-processing giant and largest U.S. producer of corn-derived ethanol fuel, recruited former Chevron Corp. executive Patricia Woertz as the first outsider to hold the company's top job." And then there were the other 19 female CEOs.
That was about it. Former superstar at HP's helm, Carly Fiorina, has been rehabilitated by the awful showing made by her sucessor(s). And she's writing a tell-all book, which I will get and read as soon as possible.
But honestly, WSJ editors made Melinda Gates No. 1 because...well, because Bill said to:
"Melinda bonds with some constituencies more naturally than I do," Mr. Gates continues in his email. "We both love to visit sites to see what is going on," he writes, adding that she currently travels more than he can. When one of them travels solo, Mr. Gates writes, he or she shares "what surprised us [as] soon as we get a chance." If she reads a book he hasn't had time for, she's "fantastic" at conveying lessons learned.
"Gates Foundation Chief Executive Patty Stonesifer, who has known Ms. Gates for 20 years, says "her gift" is seeing the everyday impact of science -- whether it be in Microsoft technical reviews, or in "smearing gels" on her hand to get a feel for how microbicide formulas perform.
Allan Golston, the foundation's president of U.S. programs, adds that Ms. Gates also pushed a forward-looking focus at Sound Families, the foundation's program for helping Seattle's homeless with housing and counseling. Mr. Golston says she challenged the program to be more strategic, and in response the group extended its focus to at-risk families, trying to help them from becoming homeless in the first place."
There's absolutely nothing wrong with any of that, except for what it seems to symbolize to women with ambition: "your best bet is marrying well."
I don't mind Melinda making the list - I just wish the PepsiCo CEO could have been Number One! It's more inspirational.
And then there's this gloomy truth from the article: the Glass Ceiling is just as resilient as ever.
"Despite the fresh faces, the overall number of women in senior corporate ranks has barely budged lately. Last year, women held 16.4% of Fortune 500 corporate-officer jobs -- positions of vice president or higher that require board approval. That was a rise of just 0.7 percentage point from 2002, according to a survey by Catalyst, the New York research group.
"The survey also found that women made up only 6.4% of the top five earners among corporate officers, a rise of 1.2 percentage points in the same period. These are smaller gains than Catalyst found in prior surveys, done every three years over the past decade."
Wow. Men have not done such a hot job at leading corporate America over the last generation plus, and I was really hoping that women in leadership would change things for the better.
Well, like we always said about the Cubs, wait until next year...
Page 1 contains fifty close photographs of fifty women. These pictures are not captioned. But reading the section through was pretty illuminating.
Of the fifty, 21 were, seemingly, bona-fide CEOs. Not a majority. The plurality was 25 senior corporate executives who were not CEOs. The remainder were three high-ranking government officials and 1 person married to money.
The last case fascinated me - it was Melinda Gates. I take nothing away from what she has accomplished, but, let's face it, it would not be there but for her marrying the right guy.
If the Wall Street Journal wanted to serve as a source of inspiration for ambitious women, I don't know how well they did, overall.
The opener: "A new crop of women leaders have moved into the corner offices of some of the world's biggest companies. And while the overall numbers aren't impressive, looking behind those totals reveals some significant signs of change.
"PepsiCo Inc. recently tapped former president and chief financial officer Indra Nooyi as its new CEO. Earlier this year, Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., the grain-processing giant and largest U.S. producer of corn-derived ethanol fuel, recruited former Chevron Corp. executive Patricia Woertz as the first outsider to hold the company's top job." And then there were the other 19 female CEOs.
That was about it. Former superstar at HP's helm, Carly Fiorina, has been rehabilitated by the awful showing made by her sucessor(s). And she's writing a tell-all book, which I will get and read as soon as possible.
But honestly, WSJ editors made Melinda Gates No. 1 because...well, because Bill said to:
"Melinda bonds with some constituencies more naturally than I do," Mr. Gates continues in his email. "We both love to visit sites to see what is going on," he writes, adding that she currently travels more than he can. When one of them travels solo, Mr. Gates writes, he or she shares "what surprised us [as] soon as we get a chance." If she reads a book he hasn't had time for, she's "fantastic" at conveying lessons learned.
"Gates Foundation Chief Executive Patty Stonesifer, who has known Ms. Gates for 20 years, says "her gift" is seeing the everyday impact of science -- whether it be in Microsoft technical reviews, or in "smearing gels" on her hand to get a feel for how microbicide formulas perform.
Allan Golston, the foundation's president of U.S. programs, adds that Ms. Gates also pushed a forward-looking focus at Sound Families, the foundation's program for helping Seattle's homeless with housing and counseling. Mr. Golston says she challenged the program to be more strategic, and in response the group extended its focus to at-risk families, trying to help them from becoming homeless in the first place."
There's absolutely nothing wrong with any of that, except for what it seems to symbolize to women with ambition: "your best bet is marrying well."
I don't mind Melinda making the list - I just wish the PepsiCo CEO could have been Number One! It's more inspirational.
And then there's this gloomy truth from the article: the Glass Ceiling is just as resilient as ever.
"Despite the fresh faces, the overall number of women in senior corporate ranks has barely budged lately. Last year, women held 16.4% of Fortune 500 corporate-officer jobs -- positions of vice president or higher that require board approval. That was a rise of just 0.7 percentage point from 2002, according to a survey by Catalyst, the New York research group.
"The survey also found that women made up only 6.4% of the top five earners among corporate officers, a rise of 1.2 percentage points in the same period. These are smaller gains than Catalyst found in prior surveys, done every three years over the past decade."
Wow. Men have not done such a hot job at leading corporate America over the last generation plus, and I was really hoping that women in leadership would change things for the better.
Well, like we always said about the Cubs, wait until next year...
posted by John Bernat @ 3:23 PM
1 comments
