Women have come a long way in the workplace, helped by legislation and the recognition by many companies that diversity and gender is something they should "get." But diversity's move into the mainstream corporate world has its disadvantages. It can make more subtle discrimination harder to spot and tougher to deal with.

And news about gender often tells a different story to the happy corporate spin about progress for women at work.

News outlets reported on Monday for example that two guardians of Britain's historic Tower of London have been suspended after the first woman warden or "Beefeater" in the Tower's 524-year history accused them of harassment. "If you talk today to people in the workplace they construct the workplace as gender neutral," said Elisabeth Kelan, author of a new book, "Performing Gender at Work."

"They assume that gender no longer matters in 2009 because the issue has long been solved."

Kelan calls this phenomenon "gender fatigue," which she says will make it more challenging to tackle the discrimination that still happens in the workplace but in more subtle ways.

"Gender fatigue actually refers to the phenomenon that people lack the energy to construct the workplace again and again as gender neutral despite the fact that discrimination continues to exist."

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Tags: london, gender issues, workplace, diversity

Categories: International | News

Men and women are accepting — and even embracing — the increasing role of women in the workplace, but many are still struggling with the repercussions  on family life.

Those are some of the findings of a nationwide survey released Thursday in conjunction with a major report on the status of women by Maria Shriver and the Center for American Progress.

"The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Changes Everything" takes an in-depth look at what has happened, and what still needs to happen, now that women make up virtually half the work force, up from about one-third of the work force 40 years ago.

The survey found that around three-quarters of men and women believe that the growing presence of women in the workplace has been very or somewhat positive for American society and the economy.

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Tags: workplace, women, gender issues, trends

Categories: News | Research

(PRWeb UK/PRWEB) -- The Core Metric: The Executive Committee

Recent studies have drawn attention to the lack of gender balance on boards. Now, the consultancy 20-first has launched the WOMENOMICS 101 Survey to shine a light on the most senior executive teams in the top 101 companies in three key regions of the globe. "This survey invites you to look deeper into companies, and to use metrics that distinguish those serious about gender balance from the rest. That's what WOMENOMICS 101 proposes to do," says Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, CEO of 20-first, author, and publisher of the new annual survey.

Key Findings:
US Leads: The US is ahead in this survey, with 89% of companies having at least one woman on their Executive Committee. The American companies with the highest number of women on their executive boards are: Kraft Foods, WellPoint, Macy's, Allstate, Pfizer, and Wells Fargo.

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Tags: gender issues, executives, trends

Categories: International | News | Research

(The New York Times) -- This interview with Linda Hudson, president of the land and armaments group for BAE Systems, a military contractor, was conducted, edited and condensed by Adam Bryant.

Tags: leadership, executive, gender issues, recruitment

Categories: News

OVER 1,000 rural businesswomen have been trained in entrepreneurial, management and leadership skills.

Twenty-one selected women groups from across the country also got business counselling and advisory services.

The training was conducted under Enterprise Uganda’s Strengthening Women Entrepreneurs Project (SWEP), a report indicated.

“The training has improved the operational efficiency of the women-owned enterprises and increased revenue collection,” the report said.

It added that household incomes of the rural women, purchasing power and jobs had increased because of the women’s involvement in economic activities.

“This has improved Uganda’s balance of payments because of increased export of locally-produced goods. This has also improved food security.”

Enterprise Uganda said as a result of the training, four women groups were engaged in agro-processing, while seven were involved in crop husbandry. “Seven others are involved animal husbandry, while three are engaged in making textiles, arts and crafts.

“We conducted business health checks on all the groups to identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats,” reads the report, adding, “The common challenges we discovered included limited entrepreneurial skills, lack of capital, weak group management structures and leadership, lack of strategic planning and market access.”

Read it here.

Tags: skills, leadership development, uganda, africa, global business, gender issues

Categories: News

The Government's "lack of action" in breaking down stereotypes in schools is partly to blame for the gender pay gap, according to an official report.

Progress in narrowing the wage difference between men and women is "stalling" and ministers should do more to change the culture in the education system to encourage girls to opt for non-traditional jobs, said the Women and Work Commission.

The group, set up by Tony Blair when he was Prime Minister in 2004 to review the gender pay gap and other employment issues facing women, called on the Government to do more to promote quality flexible and part-time work.

The commission put the gender pay gap at 22.6%, which it said was worse than in 2007 when women were paid 21.9% less per hour than men.

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Tags: uk, gender issues, pay, workplace

Categories: News

(By ANITA BRUZZESE, Gannett) As the economic debacle of the last year is reviewed and dissected, there are more than a few who note that if women had been in charge on Wall Street, some of the financial risks would not have been taken and we'd be in much better shape right now.

"Women don't tend to bet the farm because their children live there," says Betty Spence, president of the National Association for Female Executives. "People used to say it was a drawback that women were risk averse, but I don't think they're saying that anymore."

That doesn't mean women don't have a thing or two to learn. While women make up nearly half the American work force, and the number of women who are breadwinners has grown with the shake-up in the economy, some women business leaders admit that women still need to improve some of their business savvy.

(Read the entire article.)

Tags: gender issues, workplace, leadership

Categories: The Economy

(PRWeb UK) 11 June 2009 -- AVIVAH WITTENBERG-COX, publisher of WOMEN-omics.com and CEO of 20-first, uncovered the news that Vivienne Cox is the latest high-profile female executive to leave the industry, stepping down at the end of this month as head of BP's Alternative Energy business and after 28 years with the company. WITTENBERG-COX was quoted in the Financial Times on June 9th, 2009, as saying that the,"female brain drain" at BP and Shell "threatens to deter women from entering the oil and gas sector".

In an article published on the same day on WOMEN-omics.com, WITTENBERG-COX revealed that six other senior women had left BP since Tony Hayward took over as CEO in 2007. "These women were running substantial businesses within BP such as gas, liquified natural gas, refining and marketing. While people often choose to leave when a new leader takes over, this is a high number when you consider how few women are in the top management ranks," she said.

(Read the entire release.)

Tags: gender issues, business strategy, leadership development

Categories: News

New York, NY (Vocus/PRWEB ) June 3, 2009 -- An interim report issued by ACM www.acm.org and the WGBH Educational Foundation www.wgbh.org as part of a project to improve the image of computer science among high school students confirms a significant gender gap among college-bound students in their opinions of computing as a possible college major or career. The research, funded by the National Science Foundation, found that 74 percent of boys - regardless of race or ethnicity - reported that a college major in computer science was a "very good" or "good" choice for them, but only 10 percent of girls rated it as "very good" and 22 percent rated it as "good." The report, which covers the first phase of the New Image for Computing (NIC) initiative, seeks to answer why interest in studying computer science in U.S. colleges and pursuing computer-related careers is declining.

"We know that the number of computer science majors is not meeting projected workforce needs," said John White, ACM CEO and co-principal investigator for the project. "Many factors contribute to the low interest in computer science, but the image of the field is a key element in current perceptions among this population."

The gender gap extended to computer science as a potential career choice as well as a field of study. From a selection of 15 possible careers, computer science came in fourth among the respondents with 46 percent rating it "very good" or "good." However, while 67 percent of all boys rated computer science highly as a career choice, only nine percent of girls rated it "very good" and 17 percent rated it "good."

(Read the entire release.)

Tags: it training, careers, education, gender issues

Categories: News

(ABC News, GMA, CLAIRE SHIPMAN, June 1, 2009) The first thing you should know about Womenomics is that it's not some feel-good, nutty crunchy rant about what companies "should" be doing for women. If it will make you feel better, we'll tell you to go do some yoga, but that's beside the point.

No, Womenomics is about power and making good business decisions. We deal in facts, not stereotypes, and some of those facts are surprising.

First, you should know women have huge power in the workplace and marketplace right now, power most of us don't even know about. Because why would the corporate world give away that leverage?

Companies with more senior female managers make more money. A 19-year Pepperdine University survey of Fortune 500 companies showed that those with the best record of promoting women outperformed the competition by anywhere from 41 to 116 percent. That's an eye-opener. And there are other similar studies from Catalyst, and the University of California, Davis.

(Read the entire article.)

Tags: gender issues, workplace, books

Categories: News