Press Mentions

Sheryl Sanberg’s lean-in organization has been grabbing headlines and creating a renewed media frenzy in the long held debate of how best to promote women in tech.  Conversations around the  value of women on boards, and national initiatives like 2020 Women on Boards are taking center stage. One women in tech non-profit, CloudNOW, is actively contributing to the solution by approaching the problem with a fresh perspective: women in tech should work in partnership with the tech industry, and their male colleagues to promote equality and not separatism, and bring attention to women who are contributing– beyond the dog and pony show of trotting out Marissa Meyer, and a couple of other obvious choices.

It appears Mayor Menino has been reading Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, the Facebook exec’s bestselling new book urging women to let their natural ambitions—not their late-night worries about managing their kids, home, and career (you know, that whole “having it all” ball of wax)—guide them through the proverbial glass ceiling. Yesterday the mayor’s office announced its aim to make Boston “the premier city for working women.” Through a series of initiatives, he hopes to transform the way business is done in this town.
 
The plan has two parts: The first will establish the “Women on Main” initiative to connect women business owners throughout Boston’s Main Streets districts. According to the Census Bureau, fewer than 30 percent of businesses in Boston are owned by women, similar to the national average, but not exactly up to snuff for a city like Boston, with its highly educated workforce and teeming industries.
 
In her comprehensive article on the pay gap, Boston magazine’s Janelle Nanos spelled out a big part of the problem: “Only 12.7 percent of local-business board members are women. That’s significantly worse than the still-not-good 15.6 percent at Fortune 1000 companies.” And, behind those numbers is something insidious: a boy’s club culture that doesn’t really want to change. As Malli Gero, co-founder of 2020 Women on Boards told Nanos: “Boston business is very slow to adopt newer ways of thinking. It’s not a corporate priority. We’re seeing it in the board diversity and we’re seeing it in terms of the wage gap.”

Standard and Poor's (S&P) 100 companies have made some progress on corporate diversity since 2010, but these large-capitalization companies are still failing to put substantial numbers of women and minorities into board rooms and executive suites, according to a new analysis from Calvert Investments.
 
Based on the 10 diversity criteria in the Calvert report, the overall highest-rated companies are: Citigroup Inc.; Merck & Co., Inc.; The Coca-Cola Co.; and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (Eleven companies tied for fifth place.) The five lowest-rated companies are: Berkshire Hathaway; Simon Property Group; National Oilwell Varco Inc.; Ebay; and Apache Corp.
 
Key findings in the Calvert report include:

• Even though women are often now hired as frequently as men at S&P 100 companies, their representation in management roles decreases with each step up the corporate ladder. Well over half (56 percent) of S&P 100 companies have no women or minorities in their highest-paid senior executive positions.
• While women make up 19 percent of S&P 100 board of director positions, they represent only 8 percent of the highest-paid executives.
• While 98 companies have women directors, and 86 companies have minority directors, only 37 companies in the S&P 100 have minority women on their board.
• In the last two years, S&P 100 companies have made some movement towards increasing board diversity. Since 2010, the overall percentage of women serving on S&P 100 boards has risen from 18 percent to 19 percent. In addition, 30 companies have added at least one woman director, and 25 companies have added at least one minority director.

Serving on a board of directors can be a rewarding experience. But to attain one of these coveted spots you have to be qualified and well connected. The board search process is a major undertaking that can take years. For a woman, it is even more difficult to secure a board seat, so it is important to develop a plan of action to become board ready. Below is some insight into the process.

Step 1: Network
According to Malli Gero, Executive Director of 2020 Women on Boards, it will probably take years before you have the right background and expertise to serve on a corporate board, and you need to continuously work your network while preparing to serve. “You need to be in front of people who can make crucial introductions for you. If you are not an extremely visible person, it is harder to get on a board. Often before a candidate is considered, companies will receive a list of candidates and ask whom on the board knows the person,” said Toni Wolfman, Executive Advisor at the Center for Women and Business at Bentley University.

Why does Massachusetts—perhaps the most progressive state of them all—have one of the country's biggest wage disparities between men and women?
 
It’s easy to believe that women are doing just as well as men around here. After all, we’re surrounded by smart, talented, ambitious women working in law firms, hospitals, government, and academic institutions. Harvard’s president (Drew Gilpin Faust) is a woman, as is MIT’s former president (Susan Hockfield). We just elected Elizabeth Warren to the U.S. Senate, and Therese Murray is the president of the state Senate. This is Massachusetts, where women can do anything!
 
So yes, we’re used to seeing powerful women, but we don’t often get the chance to see how their paychecks compare with those of men. This blindness is a major part of the problem, says Susan Duffy, who heads the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership at Babson College. We suffer from the “it doesn’t happen here” syndrome. “But when you actually look at the hard numbers,” Duffy says, “it’s tough to dispute that we have a real problem.”