Catalyst Blog

Girls ages 8 to 18 are exposed to about eight hours of media per day. What are these girls reading and watching? As Catalyst’s Senior Associate Librarian Cheryl Yanek explains, when it comes to news coverage of women, superficiality reigns supreme. This devalues women and our accomplishments.

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Women are more than their dresses—but you wouldn’t know this by the way women are covered in mainstream press.

The second paragraph of a recent New Yorker profile of New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson dug straight into the superficial: “Abramson, who is fifty-seven, wore a white dress and a black cardigan with white flowers and red trim. Her usually pale complexion glowed from summer sun, but there were deep, dark lines under her eyes.”

You get the idea.

Time and time again, newspapers and magazines start with the details of a woman’s outfit, her hair, and her physical appearance. When women are valued only for their looks—not their contributions—it reinforces stereotypes.  And when stereotypes are reinforced, it’s harder for women to move past barriers in the workplace and across society.

Examples of superficial coverage of women cut across industries, professions and even continents.

A recent article focusing on the lack of women in America’s corporate suites announced, “Bad Hair Day for Girls at the Top.” A stock photo used in an article about new mandatory quotas for women in leadership in Germany featured only women’s legs and black high heels. Pakistan’s new foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar, is a “definite fashionista” and “a rare combination of beauty and brains” according to the Hindustan Times. And don’t get me started on the skewed coverage of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign—or current coverage of Michele Bachmann’s French manicures!

An emphasis on style over substance is nothing new. In the 1920s, Kentucky Democrat Katherine Langley was accused of interfering with House business by a Capitol Hill reporter—due to her flashy attire. In the 1960s, Illinois Republican Charlotte Reid made headlines not for her speech in support of the ERA, but for her black wool bell-bottoms. Even Nellie Davis Taylor Ross, the first woman governor, observed, “Writers describe my appearance from the cast of my features to the shape of my foot.”

Stated simply, men are described by their actions and potential, while women by their appearance. Our media should reflect the reality of smart, powerful women and in the process, give girls positive, inspiring role models. Fortunately, we have a voice that can help shift the coverage.

If you see something sexist, don’t simply change the channel or flip the page—do something about it:

- Fight back with your pen. Write a letter to the editor or to the director of a news station, carefully explaining why you won’t support them with your readership or viewership. The Girls, Women + Media Project offers great tips on how to write an effective letter.

- Educate yourself through workshops and resources by the Women in Media and News.

- Familiarize yourself with research from Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. For instance, did you know that women are almost four times as likely as men to be shown in sexy attire in family entertainment?

Take a stand against news coverage that devalues women and their accomplishments. Women are a lot more than what we wear.

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Cheryl Yanek, Senior Associate Librarian, leads the Catalyst Global Issue Specialty Team and the Twitter Team. She has an MLS in Library and Information Science from Queens College and an MFA in Writing and Poetics from Naropa University. Cheryl is a sponsored athlete on Team Odwalla for her ultramarathon running.

We’ve all heard the maxim that “women don’t ask.” This view is so prevalent that an entire cottage industry has sprung up to address it. The problem is that it’s simply untrue.

Our new report, The Myth of the Ideal Worker, the latest in our series on high-potential employees, makes it clear that even when women do “all the right things” they’re unlikely to earn as much or advance as far as their male colleagues.

For example, by looking at the career paths of over 4000 MBA grads from around the world, Catalyst found that women were more likely than men to ask for a variety of skill-building experiences and to proactively seek training opportunities. And we also found that women and men negotiated for a higher level position or greater compensation during the hiring process for their current job at equal rates.

Women do ask—but get little in return. Equally skilled men advance farther and more quickly than their female peers. In fact, we found that the $4600 pay gap that starts from day one grew to more than $31,000 several years down the track—even when women asked.

The problem isn’t the women—it’s the business environment. Entrenched sexism dominates, especially in talent management systems. Women are held to different standards than men: women must prove themselves multiple times to get ahead while men are promoted on promise. And gendered language still prevails, with words like “aggressive” or “bold” baked into job descriptions to describe ideal candidates. These are words more often associated with men—and this explains why women are viewed as an imperfect fit for many top jobs.

Until problems inherent in the system are fixed, there are some tactics that our research found especially beneficial to women’s advancement. For example, women who were more proactive self-promoters were better able to advance their careers and increase their salaries, and were overall more professionally satisfied, than women who were less likely to make their achievements visible.

In other words, women who toot their own horn do get ahead—and are happier at work too.

Women can make their achievements more visible by telling managers about their accomplishments, seeking credit for a job well done, requesting additional performance feedback, and perhaps most importantly, asking for a promotion when deserved.

Doing so will help attract a sponsor—an important key to advancement. Unlike mentors, sponsors advocate for you from behind closed doors and help you climb the ladder. But to attract a sponsor, women need to be visible. And companies need to do their part too—the onus is on them to identify and develop rising talent.

Smart companies hold executives accountable for the success of female rising stars. Organizations that neglect talent management issues are at risk of lagging their competitors in attracting, developing, and retaining the best candidates to serve as their next generation of leaders. And business leaders would be well served by dumping myths that propagate stereotypes and unintentionally hold women back.

The issue isn’t that women don’t ask.  Maybe it’s that men don’t have to.

Let’s talk about sexism.

Now I know the word “sexism” carries baggage. But no matter what you call it—gender bias, systemic inequity, inequality, or discrimination—the belief that a woman is not as capable as a man simply because she is a woman is at the root of many challenges we face.

Spectacular examples of sexism and harassment get front and center attention—Anthony Weiner is merely the latest in a long line. But insidious day-to-day sexism often goes unchecked, unnamed, and tolerated.

I’m talking about sexual harassment from men on the street in the form of “hey baby” or “sweetie,” scantily clad models who give out product samples in public spaces, or advertisements that pander to the lowest stereotypes around homemaker wives or dumb, oafish dads.

When broadcast messages or the language we use everyday reinforce sweeping generalizations about women, it’s hard to make real progress in the workplace or across society. Sexism reinforces a notion that women are valued less.

And this has a real impact.

In industrialized countries, women working full-time earn, on average, 82 cents to every dollar earned by men working full-time. In turn, paying women less reduces GDP in the United States by 9%, in the Euro-zone by 13%, and in Japan by 16%.

Exposing sexist messages and images for what they are—inaccurate falsehoods that perpetuate bias—can help end this vicious cycle. What do you see? What don’t you see? (Remember, the absence of women is sexism too!)

Only by saying something—and doing something—can we stop sexism at the source.

Among the many insights shared at this week’s sold-out Catalyst Awards Conference and Dinner (and I’ll be highlighting more on Catalyzing in the coming weeks), was this gem from Rhonda Joy McLean, Time Inc.’s Deputy General Counsel. “You better speak up for yourself, baby!” she told attendees.

Rhonda’s advice really resonated with me—especially after a recent bout of laryngitis.

After launching the Catalyst Israel Census in Tel Aviv, I was stricken with a full-blown case. Under doctor’s orders, I had to stop trying to talk. This was a new experience for me—I’m not used to not being heard!

After several maddening days of silence, I realized that voice is a privilege not to be taken lightly. And with that privilege comes the responsibility to speak up for yourself and speak out when you see women valued less than men at work and across society.

As I told the crowd at the Waldorf-Astoria, say something—and do something—when you see men advance more quickly than equally qualified women, when you are asked to appear on a panel or participate in an event where there are no or few women, or when people tell you there weren’t any qualified women to fill a position. Ask: Did they look hard enough? Did they assume a woman didn’t want the role?

Use your voice to fight against sexist stereotypes that devalue women, and use it to advocate for yourself. Your voice is powerful and will inspire others to act. Use it to speak up!

An academic paper claiming that women are underrepresented in the sciences because of the lifestyle choices they make is getting a lot of play in the media. The only problem: the authors push aside clear evidence that sexism and institutional biases are to blame. Read more about this controversial study, plus news about the glass ceiling in the UK, the benefits of diverse leadership, gender equality in revolutionary Tunisia, and the lack of paid-parental leave in the United States, in today’s C This.

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Investing in Diversity

Invest in companies that invest in women. That’s the take-away message from a recent article highlighting this year’s Catalyst Award winners: Kaiser Permanente, McDonald’s, and Time Warner. Noting how female leadership is tied to strong financial performance, the article concludes: “When seeking winners for your portfolio, companies that embrace diversity and empower all their workers are a great place to start.”

READ: “Women Execs Drive Winning Performance,” by Selena Maranjian, MotleyFool/MSNBC, 2/16/11

Show Me the Data

Researchers Stephen J. Ceci and Wendy M. Williams claim in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that discrimination against women in sciences does not exist. Many disagree. Among the trove of research Ceci and Williams overlook in their paper is a 2007 landmark study, “Beyond Bias and Barriers,” which found that in sciences and engineering people are less likely to hire a woman than a man with identical qualifications, less likely to give a woman credit for identical accomplishments, and will far more often give the benefit of the doubt to a man than to a woman. “The language attributing women’s lower pay to their own lifestyle choices is seductive,” said a critic of the report, Hillary Lips, Director of the Center for Gender Studies at Radford University. According to Lips, a closer look will reveal that “the impact of discrimination is actually deeply embedded in and constrains these choices.”

READ: “Flawed Study Dismissing Job Bias Thrills Media,” By Rosalind C. Barnett and Caryl Rivers, WeNews, 2/22/11

We’re Number One?

At least 178 countries have national laws guaranteeing paid leave for new mothers, while more than 50 nations—including most Western countries—also guarantee paid leave for new fathers. The United States has neither. “Despite its enthusiasm about ‘family values,’ the U.S. is decades behind other countries in ensuring the well-being of working families,” said Janet Walsh, deputy director of the women’s rights division of Human Rights Watch. “Being an outlier is nothing to be proud of in a case like this.”

READ: “Report Decries Lack of Paid Parental Leave in US,” Associated Press, 2/23/11

Double Up, Or Else

A Parliamentary report on gender disparity in UK boardrooms called for companies to more than double the number of women on their boards by 2015—or face government action. Today, 18 FTSE 100 companies have no women in their boardrooms and nearly half of all FTSE 250 companies do not have female directors. “Radical change is needed in the mindset of the business community if we are to implement the scale of change that is needed,” said former minister Lord Davies of Abersoch, author of the report.

READ: “Davies Report Calls for More Women in Boardroom,” BBC, 2/24/11

Women’s Revolution

Revolutions now sweeping across North Africa and the Arab world had their genesis in the example set by Tunisia. But what drove Tunisia’s successful revolution? The country’s women. “It’s no coincidence that the revolution first started in Tunisia, where we have a high level of education, a sizeable middle class and a greater degree of gender equality,” said Fatma Bouvet de la Maisonneuve, a Tunisian-born psychiatrist and author now living in Paris. “We had all the ingredients of democracy but not democracy itself. That just couldn’t last.”

READ: “Women’s Rights a Strong Point in Tunisia,” by Katrin Bennhold, The New York Times, 2/22/11

You can’t be what you can’t see.

That’s the takeaway message of a new documentary, Miss Representation, which premiered on Saturday in New York City. Featuring interviews with an array of female leaders—including Condoleezza Rice, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, and Jane Fonda, among others—the film explores how one-dimensional, hypersexualized images of women in mainstream media reinforce negative gender stereotypes and deprive girls of inspiring role models.

Media is all-pervasive in the lives of young people. In the United States, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes to entertainment media across a typical day. That’s more than 53 hours a week!

This stat got me thinking about how depictions of female business leaders in movies and television shows can impact young minds. The stereotypical female boss is manipulative and cold—a sexist caricature that doesn’t reflect reality. If women were portrayed as the smart, creative and visionary leaders they really are, I think more girls would aspire toward leadership and fewer men would fear women in their ranks.

So how do we get there?

Skip sexist content and support the films, television programs, magazines and websites that project positive images of women. See the change you want to see.

One year ago, we launched Catalyzing with the belief that until women achieve parity in business leadership, we will be marginalized in every other arena. More than 70 blog posts and 65,000+ page views later, we’ve only scratched the surface.

What gives me hope amid entrenched pay and leadership gaps, and setbacks like defeat of the Paycheck Fairness Act, are inspiring interactions with women and men who share our vision of changing workplaces and lives. As I blow out the candle on our 1-year anniversary, I wanted to leave you with a selection of comments from readers. Brace yourself—they are funny, angry, and even sad. Taken together, they serve as a potent call to action, and a reminder that we will not stop until we achieve our goal:

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Ilene, congratulations on using your blog to “catalyze” the use of the gender lens. The Economist’s “We Did It!” cover aside, women have a LONG way to go and corporations need to look at their advancement efforts with fresh eyes before we get to the 50% at the top that women reflect in the pipeline.

Susan Colantuono 2010/02/16 at 9:33 am

The glass ceiling is not only still here, it’s an illusion that it is window pane thin. It is about 10 meters thick and all you can see when you look up is the bottom of a man’s $350 shoes looking down at you like a gerbil treading a wheel that goes nowhere for their own amusement.

susan clark 2010/03/04 at 6:00 pm

How can you fix what you don’t know is broken?

I have a much loved uncle who, when I told him about the wage gender gap refused to believe it existed….I then spent the remainder of that Thanksgiving breaking down how it occurs, why it hasn’t stopped, etc., and by the time he left, he was writing a letter to his congressman asking why there weren’t laws against it. Hopefully there are more ah-ha moments happening every day

Shayna 2010/04/09 at 3:33 pm

We hear so much about the importance of senior men mentoring women (and it is important), but it’s very refreshing to reverse this and think about the benefits of women mentoring men.
Lynn Harris 2010/04/28 at 1:54 pm

I have implemented many mentoring-projects for women with mentoring men in Austria. Thanks for your blog, because I really think that it is time for an change. We have so many good women, who would be great mentors for open minded men.

Daniela Stein 2010/05/04 at 3:19 pm

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The number of women in Congress has gone down in 2010 for the first time in 30 years despite a record number of women who ran for the House and Senate. Gender stereotyping is behind the decline.

“It’s always been tougher for women to get elected in a tough economy because voters tend to think women aren’t as good on the economy,” said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. “They don’t want to take risks in a bad economy, and they perceive women as being riskier.”

Catalyst has found that gender stereotyping is rampant in corporate America, too, where women are deemed “too soft, too tough and never just right.” We call it the “double bind.”  As I discussed in Monday’s post, when women act in ways consistent with gender stereotypes, they are viewed as incompetent. When they behave in ways that aren’t consistent with stereotypes, they are considered unfeminine. It’s a lose-lose situation.

It shouldn’t be. The first female Congresswoman served in 1922—it’s hard to believe that nearly 90 years later we are still maligned based on gender when seeking, or serving in, public office.

But when you combine the “double-bind” with media that is hostile to female candidates, it’s no surprise that in America men are nearly twice as likely as women to seriously consider running for state-level office and 65 percent more likely than women to assess themselves as “very qualified” to run. Sexist attacks reinforce negative stereotypes and can contribute to a climate that keeps women from entering politics.

A Catalyzing reader asked me how we can change the toxic conversation into something more productive. A recent study found that gender-based attacks damage women candidates in the polls, but the damage could be lessened by addressing sexism head-on.  The same is true at work. To escape the “double bind,” Catalyst advises women to talk openly about the issue—whether it is an inappropriate comment or a statement that unfairly generalizes about women’s abilities.

What helps is to bring stereotyping out in the open—expose it when you see it.

Where are the women of Wall Street? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 141,000 women—roughly 2.6% of female workers in finance—left the U.S. financial industry during the past decade. The drop suggests that women bore the brunt of the layoffs in the recent recession—a finding that dovetails with our discovery that women were three times more likely than men to lose their jobs during the recent recession. For more on this trend, plus the latest news on women and work, read on.

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Fruit of Life

Educate a woman…and save a life. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation estimates that increased education of women in 2009 prevented the deaths of 4 million children. How? Educated women are more likely to take their children to the doctor, seek preventative care, and create hygienic conditions in their homes.

READ: “Educating Women Saves Kids’ Lives,” by Tracy Clark-Flory, Salon, 9/17/10

Women on Wall Street

Brokerage firms, asset-management companies, and investment banks are losing women, especially young women, in droves. The number of women aged 20 to 35 working in the finance sector dropped 16.5% this past decade, while the number of men in that age group grew by 7.3%. Is sexism to blame? While industry-wide rates of sexual-discrimination charges dropped from 2000 to 2009, Meghan Muntean, formerly of Lehman Brothers, observed that “very subtle” sexist slights by male colleagues manifested in reduced bonuses for her female colleagues.

 READ: “Ranks of Women on Wall Street Thin,” by Kyle Stock, The Wall Street Journal, 9/20/10

Head of the Class

For the first time, more women earned Ph.D. degrees this year than men. During the 2008/2009 academic year, 28,962 Ph.D.s went to women compared to 28,469 to men. While a milestone, I’ll hold off celebrating until we close the pay gap in academia. Men still earn more than women at every level of academic rank.

READ: “Report: More women than men in U.S. earned doctorates last year for first time,” by Daniel de Vise, The Washington Post, 9/14/10

 Heading UN Women

Michelle Bachelet, the first woman elected president of Chile, will head UN Women—the new UN office tasked with advancing gender equality worldwide. “We have to make sure that women’s issues are an essential element on the agendas of all heads of state, all governments,” said Bachelet following the announcement.

READ: “Former Chilean President to Lead New U.N. Agency,” by Neil MacFarquhar, The New York Times, 9/14/10

 Sexism Found

The New Agenda, a women’s advocacy group, seeks to boost women leadership and expose the sexism and misogyny that pervades popular culture. In this video, New Agenda President Amy Siskind discovers that more than half of the people she spoke with in Hudson, NY, could not define sexism—and 1 in 3 thought some women deserve sexist treatment.

WATCH: “Searching for Sexism: Episode 1,” The New Agenda, 9/15/10

American women got the vote 90 years ago this month. It wasn’t easy. After 70 years of hard state-by-state campaigning, suffrage came down to a final vote in the Tennessee Legislature. The deciding ballot was cast by Harry Burn, a 24-year old who switched to “yes” after receiving a last-minute nudge from his mother. “I know that a mother’s advice is always the safest for a boy to follow,” Burn later said.

Read more about this historic struggle, plus all the news about women and work, in C This.

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Three’s a Charm

Elena Kagan joined the U.S. Supreme Court, and ForbesWoman asked: “Will three finally be the magic number that effects real change for women in terms of pay parity, access to education and sexual harassment in the U.S.?” I hope so, but let’s not stop there. Women make up roughly 51% of the U.S. population. To really reflect America’s diversity on the Supreme Court, let’s see at least one more woman—ideally, a woman of color.

READ: “And Kagan Makes Three,” by Meghan Casserly, ForbesWoman, 8/8/10

Know Before You Go

What can you do to counter gender biases that influence hiring decisions? In this article, Amy Williams lays out four rules, including learning about “illegal questions” and sex discrimination before you go in for the interview.

READ: “Four Ways to Fight Sexist Interviewers,” by Amy Williams, Ms., 8/16/10

Mentored to Death

In the latest edition of the Harvard Business Review, INSEAD’s Herminia Ibarra and Catalyst’s Nancy M. Carter and Christine Silva reveal how high-potential women are not getting enough from mentors. Many are under-sponsored and over-mentored. “I am being mentored to death,” said one exasperated respondent. Are you?

READ: “Why Men Still Get More Promotions Than Women,” by Herminia Ibarra, Nancy M. Carter, and Christine Silva, Harvard Business Review, September 2010

Hear Them Roar

Who are the “new feminists”? The Guardian profiles seven courageous women “who dare to articulate what others would rather not see.” “I receive death threats all the time, but I’m not afraid,” said Shahla Farid, a lawyer who challenges the Taliban.

READ: “The New Feminists: Still Fighting,” by Susie Orbach and Shahesta Shaitly, The Guardian, 8/15/10

Rocking the Vote

What was the biggest obstacle to women’s right to vote in the United States? The U.S. Congress. Gail Collins recounts the long, hard slog to suffrage in this New York Times column. While we celebrate Women’s Suffrage Day on August 26, Collins prefers to commemorate August 18—the day of a tense final showdown in the Tennessee Legislature.

READ: “My Favorite August,” by Gail Collins, The New York Times, 8/13/10