The Women’s Economic Agenda: A Path to Increased Opportunity and Stronger Economic Growth 07-21

The Women’s Economic Agenda: A Path to Increased Opportunity and Stronger Economic Growth

Written by Eileen Appelbaum

Corporate profits have done well in the lopsided recovery and the stock market is hovering near record highs. Working women and men have been left behind, however, as companies have failed to translate these improvements into robust job growth, rising wages or improvements in the quality of jobs. Income gains since the economy bottomed out in July 2009 have all gone to the top 1 percent of households. Women lost fewer jobs than men in the recession; the slow recovery in men’s jobs requires far more attention from policy makers than it has received. But women have also fared poorly as job creation has predominantly occurred in low wage jobs as retail sales clerks, restaurant wait staff, child care workers, cashiers and food service. Protracted problems facing women workers that preceded the recession have only been exacerbated by slow employment growth. Perhaps the most meaningful measure of women’s economic opportunity is the share of women between the ages of 25 and 54 – the prime years for both motherhood and employment – that actually have jobs. In 1990, the U.S. was a leader in terms of employment opportunities for women. Today, it is a laggard. In the years preceding the recession, 72.5 percent of prime age women in the U.S. held jobs. Now it is 69.2 percent – barely above its post-recession low of 69.0% in 2011 and the same as the employment rate of women in Japan, a country not known for providing women with economic opportunities.  In fact, the U.S. ranks 24th out of 34 industrialized countries, behind not only the Nordic countries and the major countries of continental Europe, but behind the rest of the English-speaking world (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand and the U.K.).   The failure of U.S. businesses to create the jobs a growing workforce requires is one reason that the share of prime age women with jobs is relatively low. But it is also due in no small measure to the lack of policies that let a woman go to work knowing that her children are well cared for and that she won’t lose her job if she needs to be there for her family. Employment standards have not been updated to match the 21st century realities that working women and their families face. It’s no secret that workers paid the minimum wage cannot buy the basics for their families. Their lack of purchasing power means less business for the groceries, pharmacies, repair shops and stores in their communities.  Except in Connecticut and a half a dozen cities, U.S. workers are not guaranteed the right to earn paid sick days; and a shocking 40 percent of American workers lack even one paid sick day. Just three states make it possible for workers to contribute to a state insurance fund so they can draw income when they need to be home to care for a seriously ill family member or to bond with a new child. Pregnant women have few protections against discrimination on the job, and workers with family responsibilities often find themselves passed over for training and advancement opportunities. Few working families have access to affordable, quality child care and pre-school for their young children. In July 1848, five women braved ridicule and insult to call for an assembly to demand an end to the constraints holding women back. 300 women and men met in Seneca Falls, New York and declared that it was time to update the nation’s laws and business practices to respect the contributions of all women, to end slavery, to give women the vote, to let women keep the wages they earned, to reduce barriers that prevent women from entering ‘male’ occupations, and to improve the inhumane working conditions prevalent in factories and mills.  On July 18 of this year, minority leader Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Women of the House will launch an agenda that addresses the economic challenges facing women and families today. The planks of this agenda call for raising wages for women and their families, enabling working parents to take paid leaves when they must care for their families, and providing access to quality and affordable child care. The Women’s Economic Agenda, launched on the 165th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments, holds the promise of higher earnings and more secure employment for women and men and higher growth for the economy as families feel more confident about the future and have more income to spend. And, like that earlier document, the Agenda increases economic opportunity for workers and promotes a stronger and more robust economy. View at the original source

Women Entrepreneurs Becoming Force in the Developing World 06-26

Women Entrepreneurs Becoming Force in the Developing World

BY SARAH J. ROBBINS 

vitalvoices.org

Progress and Potential

Want to know how a society -- in the developing world especially -- really ticks? Ask the women.

From Nairobi to New Guinea, women have long served as the family's primary caretaker -- cooking, cleaning and supplies gathering. They're also increasingly the family's breadwinner. It's a sad fact that in war-torn or impoverished parts of the world, men are often forced to either pick up arms or earn money in remote locations, away from their families -- leaving women to look after children and the household.

Last year, entrepreneurship activity among men and women was almost equal in most sub-Saharan Africa economies, according to the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor survey. In Ecuador, Panama, Ghana, Nigeria and Thailand, the rate of entrepreneurship among females was higher than that for males.

Women entrepreneurs have benefited, in part, by the rise of microfinance. That access to capital -- even at high rates of interest -- is credited with helping women either start or expand a microenterprise and, by extension, more sustainably provide for their families.

In time, these businesses may grow beyond their "micro" label. They may scale up and create thousands, if not millions, of jobs. The potential is thrilling.

You may not have heard of the "third billion," but you may one day feel their impact. The third billion is a term used to describe the billion women, mostly from emerging markets, who will join the global economy as employees, employers and entrepreneurs over the next decade.

From India to Turkey, women entrepreneurs are on the leading edge of this shift, poised to transform their local economies and, in doing so, change the world.

"We believe that women are tremendous, untapped investments that yield huge returns for entire communities," says Natalie Byrne, director of global impact at skincare company Dermalogica. In 2010, Dermalogica and the nonprofit Kiva launched the Financial Independence Through Entrepreneurship (FITE) program to help women entrepreneurs start or grow their own businesses. To date, it has provided microfinance loans to 30,000 women across 68 countries.

While the experiences of women entrepreneurs in the developing world are as diverse as the countries they inhabit, since the difficulties facing a small woman-owned business in Vietnam looks nothing like that of a new venture in, say, Turkey or India, there are some common challenges.

For example, Melek Pulatkonak, founder and curator of the Turkish Women's International Network, says education and training play an important role in improving the economic position of women. While about two-thirds of the world’s illiterate adults are female, research shows that educated mothers are more likely to participate in the labor force.

The La Pietra Coalition, a group of leaders advocating for women's advancement that last year launched The Third Billion campaign to support the scores of women entering the workforce, identifies four challenges that stand between women and equal opportunity. In addition to access to education, these issues include access to legal protection, access to capital, and access to markets. In many cases, they overlap or compound one another.

"The fundamental difference between entrepreneurs in developing countries and in the U.S.," says Byrne, "is that in many parts of the world, women don't have access to banking systems and often can't receive loans without permission from a man such as their husband or brother."

Last month, tech company Dell announced the results of its gender-focused Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index, which ranks 17 countries based on a wide range of indicators, including some of those identified by the La Pietra Coalition above. Unsurprisingly, the U.S., Australia and Germany ranked at the top of the list, while India, one of the fastest developing economies in the world, ranked at No. 16. India scored relatively high in the category of "opportunity recognition," which measures the number of women who can identify a good climate to start a local business, but low in "institutional foundations," or the established support and infrastructure they need to pursue their goals.

Stuti Jalan started Bombay and Delhi-based public relations firm Crosshairs Communication in 2002 when she was 23. "I've matured as the market matured, and I had a mentor who told me that I had nothing to lose," she says. Still, she recognizes two sides to India. "We have powerful women leaders and an urban population that is very forward thinking," she says, "but there is still a mindset that is not very accepting."

The biggest difficulties, Jalan says, come when navigating bureaucracy. "When I walk into a government office, I have to make sure I'm dressed a certain way," she says. "I take a male colleague or consultant along so I'm taken seriously."

Turkey, which ranked No. 11 on Dell's gender index, has a young population that's driving its economic growth. And while the labor force participation of women there is just 29.5 percent, they hold 12 percent of chief executive positions -- triple the percentage of women running the largest 500 companies in the U.S.

"I don't think I'm a woman when starting a business or running a team," says Pulatkonak, in Turkey, "unless someone makes me feel like a woman in the workplace."

Turkish women entrepreneurs, especially in the country's less-developed eastern half, need better support systems in their families and adequate financial opportunity, Pulatkonak says. "One of the biggest challenges for women is to get access to capital so they can get a license to build a business." That access, she says, starts with a bank account, which only 33 percent of Turkish women have, according to the Dell study. It paves the way to bank loans and credit lines and, ultimately, to credibility in the eyes of local and state authorities who grant permission to operate.

Still, Pulatkonak sees great potential for the young women entrepreneurs coming into the pipeline to continue Turkey’s progression toward equal rights, which has not only led to greater visibility for women leaders but has also recently paved the way for more egalitarian divorce laws. “Things are changing,” she says.

It's a sentiment echoed by Jalan, in India. "Those of us who are responsible for the change," she says, "are responsible for bringing other [women] with us."  

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STEM Stories: The Faces Of Women In Technology (SHARE YOURS) 06-21

STEM Stories: The Faces Of Women In Technology (SHARE YOURS)

Now more than ever, the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education is at the forefront of our national discourse.

But the conversation around STEM goes hand in hand with another issue: the importance of women in technology, and related fields that have long been dominated by men.

In an effort to change the conversation, we've partnered with Cisco to highlight the success stories of a select few women across the globe who've chosen the path less travelled.

But that's not all. We want to broaden the conversation and use this slideshow as a springboard to showcase YOUR stories of women in technology as well.

Have you or has someone you know battled the odds to rise to the top in a STEM field? Do you know a science fair prodigy endlessly curious about the world around her? Or perhaps you're simply passionate about taking things apart and putting them back together. Share your photos and STEM stories and together we can put a spotlight on the female innovators of today — and encourage those of tomorrow.

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The Results Are In: Women Are Better Leaders

The Results Are In: Women Are Better Leaders Erika Andersen (Courtesy Forbes)

 

Just read an excerpt of an article from HBR, over at my friend Bob Morris’ blog.  The article, by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman, is based on a research study they did of 7,280 leaders in 2011.

They looked at leaders in a variety of positions – from very senior management to ‘individual contributor.’ In the study, they asked others to rate the leaders in 16 leadership competencies.  According to the data shared in the article, they found that women out-scored men in all but one of the 16 competencies, and in 12 of the 16, the women were better by a significant margin. And, in the words of Zenger and Folkman, “two of the traits where women outscored men to the highest degree — taking initiative and driving for results — have long been thought of as particularly male strengths.”

And though there were more males in the study (and the imbalance increased at higher levels, as is the case in most corporations – at the highest level, 78% of the mangers were men), the women were seen as better leaders at every level. Again, in Zenger and Folkman’s words: “…at every level, more women were rated by their peers, their bosses, their direct reports, and their other associates as better overall leaders than their male counterparts — and the higher the level, the wider that gap grows.”

This lines up with my experience. Women are among the most talented and respected leaders in the organizations with which we work; I often find that the women at the 2nd or 3rd level from the top in an organization, especially, are more impressive than their male peers.  They build better teams; they’re more liked and respected as managers; they tend to be able to combine intuitive and logical thinking more seamlessly; they’re more aware of the implications of the their own and others’ actions;  and they think more accurately about the resources needed to accomplish a given outcome.

This study by Zenger and Folkman seems to demonstrate pretty strongly that women are seen as better leaders than men by those around them.  And there are other studies indicating that companies that have a higher representation of women in management ranks are more profitable and have higher employee productivity. And yet – I’ve noted this statistic before, but I’ll say it again in this context: only 33 of the Fortune 1,000 are headed by women.

So, what’s the deal?  Why are women still so woefully under-represented, especially at the most senior levels?

I’d love to hear your sense of why this is still happening.  Here are two elements I think have a big impact:

Women don’t self-promote. Of the 16 leadership competencies Zenger and Folkman assessed, the only one where men outranked women was “develops a strategic perspective.”  One of the areas in which I observe womennot developing a strategic view is the advancement of their own careers. I notice that many more men than women focus on where they want to take their careers, and regularly use some part of their time to develop the relationships that will support their success, and offer themselves for outside-their-day-job opportunities that will show their superiors they have the bandwidth and the capability to do more.  Women, on the other hand, tend to put all their energy into simply doing the best possible job in their current position.  We seem much more inclined to believe that work is a meritocracy, and that if you simply work hard and get great results, you’ll get noticed and promoted. Admirable, but not very accurate.

Senior men still mostly hire other men. My husband and I have been watching the first four seasons of Mad Men lately, and it’s shocking to remember that only 50 years ago, women in business were almost exclusively secretaries and telephone operators – and generally stayed in those jobs only until they got married. In the mid 1960s, only about 35% of women worked, and only 1 in 50 working women held managerial or professional jobs. The grandmothers and grandfathers of the young women coming into the work force today expected that women, if they worked at all, would be secretaries, nurses, teachers, librarians, or possibly factory workers, and that they would only work if they “had” to – that is, if they didn’t have husbands who could be the family breadwinner.  The older white males who run most companies are only one generation away from those beliefs – and I suspect their parents’ expectations still color their hiring and promotion decisions more than they would acknowledge.

There may be a light at the end of the tunnel, though. Perhaps I’m being overly hopeful, but I’m seeing both of these phenomena much less often in men and women in their 20s and 30s: the young women I deal with in organizations tend to be as confident and ambitious as the men, and the young men seem to be much more gender-neutral in their hiring and promotion decisions.

But till these younger people come fully into power in business, what can we do to change the statistics, and give women a more equitable – and, according to Zenger and Folkman, well-deserved – shot at the corner office?