Catalyzing

Catalyzing is the Catalyst blog, bringing together and amplifying diverse voices that share Catalyst’s mission to expand opportunities for women and business. Catalyzing reflects the wide range of opinions, ideas, and experiences of Catalyst employees, incorporating perspectives from our offices in North America, Europe, Asia, and beyond. It also features non-Catalyst industry leaders, experts, and academics committed to changing workplaces and lives. Get the RSS feed.

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    Catalyzing
    Becoming An Authentic Leader: A Toolbox for Professionals of Color

    Authentic leadership can be a powerful inner resource as a toolbox for all leaders. By leading “authentically” from within, leaders can promote their values, provide vision, and engender confidence from their superiors, peers, and direct reports. Accessing and expressing an inner roadmap to authenticity can be a complex landscape for leaders of color to navigate. This article explores that landscape and provides a guide for navigating it. 

    June 20, 2017 by Kim C. D’Abreu

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    Nearly Is Not Enough!

    Seventeen years ago, as a young research assistant at Catalyst, I began to document and track the status of women and minorities on corporate boards. Over the years, I made it my life’s work to identify, familiarize myself with, and memorize the names of successful women and minority business leaders who serve as executives and on boards at America’s leading companies.

    June 1, 2017 by Meesha Rosa

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    Q&A With Award-Winning Author and Journalist Kimberly Seals Allers on Her Recent Book, The Big Letdown: How Medicine, Big Business, and Feminism Undermine Breastfeeding

    Kimberly Seals Allers is an award-winning journalist and founder of www.MochaManual.com, a pregnancy and parenting blog specifically geared toward Black parents. Her new book, The Big Letdown: How Medicine, Big Business, and Feminism Undermine Breastfeeding, is an in-depth analysis of the social, economic, and political influences of the American breastfeeding culture. Below are Kimberly’s thoughts about her book and how women’s health and wellness impacts our nation, particularly in the workplace. 

    May 23, 2017 by Kimberly Seals Allers

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    Here’s Why Paid Leave Matters—to Everyone

    As a child of the 1970s and 1980s who lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, many of my friends’ parents were divorced, including mine. The majority of both parents also worked, once again including mine, so my brother and I went to a daycare center until we were old enough to become latchkey kids....

    May 16, 2017 by Serena Fong

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    Personal Reflections on Mother’s Day

    On Mother's Day I think about all the working mothers who juggle family and careers and the changes we need to see to make their lives easier and help them achieve the career success they want: parental leave; quality, affordable childcare; workplace flexibility; and partners who fully share the workload at home. I also think about the women who aren’t mothers, like me. 

    May 11, 2017 by Deborah Gillis

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    Black Women Leaders: Yes, Black Does “Crack”—From the Inside Out

    I’m sure many of you have heard of the saying “black don’t crack” to describe the tendency for Black women to retain a youthful appearance as we age.  When I hear the phrase, however, I think of a 2013 article published in The Root titled, Black May Not Crack, but We’re Aging Faster Inside. 

    May 2, 2017 by Dr. Jeanne Porter King

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    No Time to Prepare? Improve Your Brand by Learning to Speak Spontaneously

    I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard a similar complaint from clients who have been asked to speak without enough time to prepare. But being a great speaker isn’t about how much time you spend preparing — it’s about learning key skills that will help you speak spontaneously with ease. 

    April 19, 2017 by Anett Grant

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    Q&A with Bloomberg News’s Laura Colby on Her Recent Book, Road to Power

    Laura Colby is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News, where she covers women in the global economy and diversity in business. She is the author of Road to Power: How GM’s Mary Barra Shattered the Glass Ceiling, which explores the rise of the first female CEO of a major automotive company. Here, we ask Laura a few questions about her interest in writing a book about Barra who is also one of the few women who currently hold CEO positions at S&P 500 companies. 

    April 13, 2017 by Laura Colby

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    5 Ways to Close the Gender Pay Gap

    Catalyst research shows the gender pay gap is alive and well. That’s right: women and men still are not earning equal pay for equal work! This is happening despite substantial evidence showing that pay equity is not just the right thing to do—it’s the smart thing to do. And unless immediate action is taken, the issue is not going away anytime soon.  Fortunately, business leaders and organizations have an opportunity to help move the needle right now to close the gender pay gap. 

    April 4, 2017 by Catalyst

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    4 Lessons I Learned from Mentoring

    Early in my career I didn't thoroughly understand what mentorship was or how it worked. I was lucky that my mentor relationships formed organically, but as my career progressed I began to understand how much of an impact my mentors had on me, and that I too made an impact on them. 

    February 28, 2017 by Jenn Ocampo-King