Catalyst Blog

In today’s C This, Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz colorfully explains her leadership philosophy, the top earning jobs for women are revealed, and a new Forbes study on the gender wage gap yields some interesting findings on the role of networking and equal pay.

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Telling It Like It Is

This provocative interview with straight-talking Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz asks: Are women better listeners than men? “I don’t know,” she responds. “I mean, I’ve never been one of you, so I don’t have a clue.”
Read: “Hi, I’m Carol Bartz…” by Cal Fussman, Esquire, 5/3/10

Top Dollar

What are the top paying jobs for women today? New to the list this year: computer programming.

Read: “Best-Paying Jobs For Women,” by Jenna Goudreau, Forbes Women, 5/3/10

Catalyst in the News

A round-up of the award winning initiatives at our 2010 Catalyst Awards Conference. Congratulations again to all our winners—and best of luck to next year’s candidates!

Read: “Best Practices in Recruiting and Retaining Women: Takeaways from the 2010 Catalyst Awards Conference,” by Paula Santonocito, Recruiting Trends, 5/3/10

All About Mom

Author Marcia Reynolds talks about the role of her Mom in her life, and the effect a mother can have on a daughter’s success.

Read: “The Truth about a Mother’s Role in Her Daughter’s Success,” by Marcia Reynolds, Huffington Post, 5/3/10

Closing the Gap

A new study by Forbes suggests women may increase their chances at better pay through better networking. But is this only one piece of the puzzle?

Read: “Whose Responsibility is Fixing the Wage Gap?” by Tina Vasquez, The Glass Hammer, 5/4/10

Guest Post Preview: Laura Liswood

On Monday, May 17, 2010, Laura Liswood, Secretary General, Council of Women World Leaders, and Senior Advisor to Goldman Sachs, will be guest blogging on Catalyzing. Her post will discuss the gaps in female economic empowerment and political participation—I look forward to reading it.

One of the world’s first mentors was a woman. Aptly, her name was Mentor.

When Odysseus went to fight the Trojan War, he left the education of his son, Telemachus, to his old friend Mentor. What he didn’t know was that Mentor was actually Athena in disguise. As Mentor, she schooled and protected Telemachus. With her guidance, he went on to find his father and later to rule Ithaca.

Female mentors aren’t just the stuff of Greek mythology. You can also change a life by mentoring a man.

Catalyst research shows that men who have been mentored by women are more likely to be aware of the hurdles women face in the workplace. In turn, they can become advocates for equality and more committed to initiatives that eliminate barriers.

We are all shaped by our personal experiences. Being mentored by a woman or having a close working relationship with a woman can make a difference.

This message hit home for me when I recently heard from a man who worked for me over ten years ago when I was CEO of AltaVista.  Now a senior executive at a major global technology company, he volunteered to sponsor his division’s women’s initiative. He later told me when the women in the group asked him why he stepped up, he said he had worked for some very good women in his life— including me!—who had been his mentors.

Frankly, I’d never thought of myself as a mentor to men.  I thought we had a good relationship and that I was a decent role model. All of that apparently had an impact on him.

Men are speaking up about women mentors.  Frank J. McCloskey, Vice President of Diversity at Georgia Power, owes his awareness of gender inequity to the women around him. During his talk at the Catalyst Awards Conference, he told the women in the audience: “Even if your supervisor has a bias, think about how to create a relationship.” He added: “If you can just get one or two of several hundred to understand [gender inequity]—that’s a success. They might impact millions.”

One man can act as a catalyst for change. Mentoring a man is a great way to start the chain reaction.

Change can happen in the least likely of places.

At the Waldorf during our Awards Conference in March, I overheard a well-dressed man grumble: “Now I know what it feels like to be a woman.” He didn’t say this during a break-out session—he was waiting in a long line for the men’s bathroom! Staff at the hotel had converted several Men’s rooms to Ladies rooms— hence the shortage.

But the comment got me thinking…sometimes all it takes to understand another person’s perspective is to stand in their shoes—even for a brief moment.

At the conference, Frank J. McCloskey, Vice President of Diversity at Georgia Power, explored this very theme. During a session on men supporting women’s advancement, Frank said his upbringing had conditioned him to be a “typical guy.” Raised in the South, he played football at Georgia Tech, drank beer, and never thought about inequality. “Men—we are just who we are—we are not a very evolved species,” he mused. He said he suffered from a “pathology” that held “anyone who is different is less than.”

Frank had an “a-ha” moment on inequality when he revisited a painful episode involving his wife Debbie. “Whatever progress I have made in my own way was because of pain I inflicted on someone else,” he said. Empathy was the key to understanding his wife’s perspective.

Frank recalled that when Debbie was pregnant with their first child, she asked him pointedly: “Are we going to do this together?” Frank responded: “I’ll be with you all the way.” But soon after their child was born, Frank was offered a promotion. “It was a 2 year commitment— 24/7— and I accepted it,” he said.

It wasn’t until years later that he understood what he had done to his wife. And he felt terrible. He had accepted the promotion “without thinking of the consequences it would have on her and the child,” he explained, noting that the incident had been “the first time in our relationship that we had a breach of trust.”

Life lessons were thrust into sharp relief. “I managed to understand that maybe someone else has a different life experience. And once I started hearing other women’s voices…I was hearing things that were so difficult to hear,” he said. For most of his life he tried to minimize those voices and blame the women so that he would feel comfortable. “It took me a long time…to acknowledge that maybe something is going on with others that is not going on with me.”

This realization led Frank to ask himself two questions: “What am I doing to create that experience for you? And what should I do with myself to counter it?”

At Georgia Power, Frank oversees an array of gender initiatives. He believes that “leadership means men being part of the solution.” They should “unravel the pathology, hold themselves accountable.” He now believes, he said, that “if anything takes away from women as a whole, I should fight it.”

Catalyst research suggests that before individuals will support efforts to right an inequality they must first recognize that the inequality exists. Here is Frank’s advice for men on creating awareness: “Who are those that are closest to us outside of work—wife, daughter, sister?” he asked. “Say to them, ‘Help me understand how your life is different from mine.’”

For the women reading this, I’ll add some advice of my own. Allow the men you know to see the world from your eyes. Share your experiences. It can change their perspective, or even their lives.

“If you want to understand the past, look at current conditions,” said PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi at last night’s Catalyst Awards Dinner, quoting an old Chinese proverb. “But if you want to understand the future, look at today’s actions.”

All the great speeches and conversations about the Award-winning gender initiatives from Campbell Soup, Deloitte, RBC, and Telstra demonstrated a bright future for women in business. A lot of work remains to be done, but I left The Waldorf last night knowing we were a little closer to gender parity in business leadership.

The day was filled with engaging, inspirational, and sometimes hilarious moments. I appreciated the down-to-earth advice on men championing women from Frank McCloskey, Vice President of Diversity at Georgia Power. “It’s a manager’s obligation to create a work environment where everyone is valued,” he told a standing-room crowd. “I hope y’all change your culture—if not, we’ll take your people,” he jibed.

Later that day, Irene Chang Britt, President of Campbell Soup, North America, discussed her views on work-life. Like me, she does not like to use the word “balance.” She prefers the term: “work-life integration.” After all, she said, “We’re all nuts if we think we’re balanced.”

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It’s finally here!

This Wednesday, March 24, I will gather with thousands of Catalyst supporters, CEOs and other leaders at The Waldorf=Astoria in New York for our annual Catalyst Awards Conference and Dinner. The day will be filled with lively panels on women’s advancement into leadership, plus in-depth presentations by CEOs from Campbell Soup, Deloitte, RBC, and Telstra whose initiatives won the 2010 Catalyst Award. In the evening, we will formally recognize our Award winners’ initiatives and celebrate their success.

This year, close to 80 CEOs from Fortune 1000 companies and leading professional organizations will attend along with a sold-out 1,500 guests for an evening of celebration. If you can’t make it to the Waldorf, join us virtually via our special Awards Conference Twitter feed.  Online or in-person, I want you to be a part of our special day. I look forward to seeing you and sharing in the excitement.