** Strategy
Women in the Workplace 2022: One Step Forward. Two Steps Back.
We have to stop the leaking pipeline. Women at all levels are walking away. The 2022 LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Company “Women in the Workplace” report is another somber and sobering look at the state of women in corporate America. While the current report focuses on “how the pandemic has changed what women want from…
Read MoreAdvancing Women and Engaging Men: Reflecting on 10 Years and What’s Next
The Leadership Imperative Ten years ago I launched YWomen around the concept of The Leadership Imperative to advance women. Simply put, The Leadership Imperative is designed to: “Move the entire organization to a deeply internalized approach regarding differences, executed with a sense of urgency, to create competitive advantage.” This statement would lead to focusing on…
Read MoreThe Diminished Role of the CDO
How does your organization fare? Many companies are moving to a model of placing the Office of Diversity in Human Resources and reporting to the head of HR. This diminishes the office’s effectiveness in a number of ways. First, it takes away one of the key roles and that is having an Officer level oversight…
Read MoreReflections on Ten Years: What We Got Right
Five Things Companies are Getting Right in Advancing Women’s Leadership My mission when I launched YWomen 10 years ago has not changed. I wanted to help organizations recruit, retain and advance women, and I knew engaging men had to be a big part of the conversation. With 80 percent of senior leadership roles in companies…
Read MoreReflections on Ten Years
Five things companies are getting right and five areas that need improvement Ten years ago, I launched YWomen with a focused mission to help organizations recruit, retain and advance women and a goal to create more conversations about engaging men in advancing women at work. What an incredible journey it has been! As I have…
Read MoreThis Mother’s Day support your working parents
It’s time to confirm your Company summer flex plan now! It’s the beginning of May, Mother’s Day is right around the corner, and many companies are still trying to determine their next steps on going back to the office. Will it be full-time, flex time, certain days in the office, or the innocuous “manager discretion”?…
Read MoreWhat the NFL Got Right and Wrong
The NFL recently announced a number of diversity initiatives to create more opportunities for women and people of color (WPOC). Did they put a TD on the board or is this a blocked kick? From my perspective as a corporate gender strategist, they got two things right. First, they are finally creating a panel of…
Read MoreThe Great Resignation: How Do You Get Employees To Stay?
The One Thing All Leaders Need To Do Today! “Another 4 million workers quit for the 5th month in a row.” This was a recent Business Insider headline. It shows in very stark terms that the pandemic is still making people rethink what they want out of work and life. An average of 3.4 million…
Read MoreBoomer/Gen X Women, Still Struggling for Equity
Intersectionality and the Challenges of Age and Gender Bias For the past few years, my work on advancing women has expanded to include exploring all dimensions of diversity that affect women. This view, known as intersectionality, includes overlaying the lens of not just binary gender but also race, culture and gender expression. Of note, I…
Read MoreEngaging Men (and Women) as Gender Advocates
Creating a Year-Long Dialogue on Advancing Women “We keep running BRG events, but we’re really not moving the needle. The company expects us to help lead the women’s strategy for the company, and yet I get very little money or resources. I have amazing committed volunteers, but it’s just not enough. Why is this so hard?”…
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