tag:www.stanford.edu,2008:/group/swib/news/co-president-corner//2 2008-04-25T02:19:33Z Updates and news from the Stanford Women in Business Co-Presidents Movable Type 3.34 tag:www.stanford.edu,2008:/group/swib/news/co-president-corner//2.38 2008-04-24T08:58:54Z 2008-04-25T02:19:33Z

In just a year and a half, Stanford Women in Business has developed into a well-known and innovative student organization. In the midst of this exciting growth, we reflect on successes and next steps....

Heidi Boyd In just a year and a half, Stanford Women in Business has developed into a well-known and innovative student organization. In the midst of this exciting growth, we reflect on successes and next steps. Successes From it's inception in 2006, Stanford Women in Business has sought to provide unique, new, powerful opportunities for aspiring businesswomen as well as meaningful events & content for the larger Stanford community. One of the challenges for an organization with such a broad mission is the importance of maintaining balance between in-depth, focused content that provides members with a business 'toolkit' versus providing events that address the diverse interests of a large number of students. SWIB meets the demand for in-depth business training through options including Business 101 workshops, an Associate program with business-related courses, and a Read to Lead book club that focuses on business and strategy books. In order to focus on a broader set of interests and non-traditional careers, SWIB Event Directors seek mentors and guest speakers from industries and career paths that fall outside of traditional business career paths. SWIB continues to attract members and student organizations that can benefit from business content despite an eventual career in another field. For example, SWIB has collaborated with engineering and law organizations to host conferences that grapple with issues relevant for anyone building a career or networking. As SWIB expands its membership, we face the increasingly difficult challenge of establishing a sense of community. In 2008-09, community focus will be a key priority, with greater emphasis on 'just-for-fun' events, interactive web options, and incentives for regular attendance and participation. The SWIB philanthropy arm, driven by Lillian Tsay, has offered fantastic opportunities for SWIB women to spend time with their peers in an informal context. The Media corner & Events Blog on the website give additional flavor for the community building that goes on within Stanford Women in Business. Next Steps Stanford Women in Business is well-positioned for the next stage of growth. With committed members, enthusiasm from sponsors, and a terrific Advisory Board, SWIB priorities for 2008-09 include increasing membership, providing incentives for participation and community-building, and increasing visibility in the larger community. If you'd like to be involved, look for new event offerings, pilot programs, and leadership roles in the coming months! ]]> tag:www.stanford.edu,2008:/group/swib/news/co-president-corner//2.35 2008-02-23T22:28:40Z 2008-02-23T22:50:28Z

While no woman has been president of the United States — yet — the world does have several thousand years’ worth of experience with female leaders. And I have to acknowledge it: Their historical record puts men’s to shame. Read...

Heidi Boyd While no woman has been president of the United States — yet — the world does have several thousand years’ worth of experience with female leaders. And I have to acknowledge it: Their historical record puts men’s to shame. Read more from the NYT article about notable women leaders who have rocked their eras. A notable share of the great leaders in history have been women: Queen Hatshepsut and Cleopatra of Egypt, Empress Wu Zetian of China, Isabella of Castile, Queen Elizabeth I of England, Catherine the Great of Russia, and Maria Theresa of Austria. Granted, I’m neglecting the likes of Bloody Mary, but it’s still true that those women who climbed to power in monarchies had an astonishingly high success rate. Research by political psychologists points to possible explanations. Scholars find that women, compared with men, tend to excel in consensus-building and certain other skills useful in leadership. If so, why have female political leaders been so much less impressive in the democratic era? Margaret Thatcher was a transformative figure, but women have been mediocre prime ministers or presidents in countries like Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines and Indonesia. Often, they haven’t even addressed the urgent needs of women in those countries. I have a pet theory about what’s going on. In monarchies, women who rose to the top dealt mostly with a narrow elite, so they could prove themselves and get on with governing. But in democracies in the television age, female leaders also have to navigate public prejudices — and these make democratic politics far more challenging for a woman than for a man. In one common experiment, the “Goldberg paradigm,” people are asked to evaluate a particular article or speech, supposedly by a man. Others are asked to evaluate the identical presentation, but from a woman. Typically, in countries all over the world, the very same words are rated higher coming from a man. In particular, one lesson from this research is that promoting their own successes is a helpful strategy for ambitious men. But experiments have demonstrated that when women highlight their accomplishments, that’s a turn-off. And women seem even more offended by self-promoting females than men are. This creates a huge challenge for ambitious women in politics or business: If they’re self-effacing, people find them unimpressive, but if they talk up their accomplishments, they come across as pushy braggarts. The broader conundrum is that for women, but not for men, there is a tradeoff in qualities associated with top leadership. A woman can be perceived as competent or as likable, but not both. “It’s an uphill struggle, to be judged both a good woman and a good leader,” said Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a Harvard Business School professor who is an expert on women in leadership. Professor Kanter added that a pioneer in a man’s world, like Hillary Rodham Clinton, also faces scrutiny on many more dimensions than a man — witness the public debate about Mrs. Clinton’s allegedly “thick ankles,” or the headlines last year about cleavage. Clothing and appearance generally matter more for women than for men, research shows. Surprisingly, several studies have found that it’s actually a disadvantage for a woman to be physically attractive when applying for a managerial job. Beautiful applicants received lower ratings, apparently because they were subconsciously pegged as stereotypically female and therefore unsuited for a job as a boss. Female leaders face these impossible judgments all over the world. An M.I.T. economist, Esther Duflo, looked at India, which has required female leaders in one-third of village councils since the mid-1990s. Professor Duflo and her colleagues found that by objective standards, the women ran the villages better than men. For example, women constructed and maintained wells better, and took fewer bribes. Yet ordinary villagers themselves judged the women as having done a worse job, and so most women were not re-elected. That seemed to result from simple prejudice. Professor Duflo asked villagers to listen to a speech, identical except that it was given by a man in some cases and by a woman in others. Villagers gave the speech much lower marks when it was given by a woman. Such prejudices can be overridden after voters actually see female leaders in action. While the first ones received dismal evaluations, the second round of female leaders in the villages were rated the same as men. “Exposure reduces prejudice,” Professor Duflo suggested. Women have often quipped that they have to be twice as good as men to get anywhere — but that, fortunately, is not difficult. In fact, it appears that it may be difficult after all. Modern democracies may empower deep prejudices and thus constrain female leaders in ways that ancient monarchies did not. tag:www.stanford.edu,2007:/group/swib/news/co-president-corner//2.24 2007-12-26T19:03:48Z 2007-12-26T19:25:54Z

Stanford Women in Business unveiled the pilot SWIB Associate Program this fall. The Associate Program will build further on SWIB's existing resources and events by providing a select group of talented women with additional programming, hands-on experience, and classroom interactions...

Heidi Boyd Stanford Women in Business unveiled the pilot SWIB Associate Program this fall. The Associate Program will build further on SWIB's existing resources and events by providing a select group of talented women with additional programming, hands-on experience, and classroom interactions with Stanford professors in the business realm. The Associates will learn from business leaders, professionals, and each other during an intensive year of workshops and experiences. The program aims to connect and prepare aspiring businesswomen from all backgrounds. If you missed it this autumn, make sure to stay tuned for application deadlines next fall! tag:www.stanford.edu,2007:/group/swib/news/co-president-corner//2.23 2007-07-23T20:58:37Z 2007-12-26T19:28:15Z

The future of the world economy lies increasingly in female hands "WHY can't a woman be more like a man?" mused Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady". Future generations might ask why a man can't be more like a woman....

Heidi Boyd The future of the world economy lies increasingly in female hands "WHY can't a woman be more like a man?" mused Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady". Future generations might ask why a man can't be more like a woman. In rich countries, girls now do better at school than boys, more women are getting university degrees than men are and females are filling most new jobs. Arguably, women are now the most powerful engine of global growth. In 1950 only one-third of American women of working age had a paid job. Today two-thirds do, and women make up almost half of America's workforce (see chart 1). Since 1950 men's employment rate has slid by 12 percentage points, to 77%. In fact, almost everywhere more women are employed and the percentage of men with jobs has fallen--although in some countries the feminisation of the workplace still has far to go: in Italy and Japan, women's share of jobs is still 40% or less. The increase in female employment in developed countries has been aided by a big shift in the type of jobs on offer. Manufacturing work, traditionally a male preserve, has declined, while jobs in services have expanded. This has reduced the demand for manual labour and put the sexes on a more equal footing. In the developing world, too, more women now have paid jobs. In the emerging East Asian economies, for every 100 men in the labour force there are now 83 women, higher even than the average in OECD countries. Women have been particularly important to the success of Asia's export industries, typically accounting for 60-80% of jobs in many export sectors, such as textiles and clothing. Of course, it is misleading to talk of women's "entry" into the workforce. Besides formal employment, women have always worked in the home, looking after children, cleaning or cooking, but because this is unpaid, it is not counted in the official statistics. To some extent, the increase in female paid employment has meant fewer hours of unpaid housework. However, the value of housework has fallen by much less than the time spent on it, because of the increased productivity afforded by dishwashers, washing machines and so forth. Paid nannies and cleaners employed by working women now also do some work that used to belong in the non-market economy. Nevertheless, most working women are still responsible for the bulk of chores in their homes. In developed economies, women produce just under 40% of official GDP. But if the worth of housework is added (valuing the hours worked at the average wage rates of a home help or a nanny) then women probably produce slightly more than half of total output. The increase in female employment has also accounted for a big chunk of global growth in recent decades. GDP growth can come from three sources: employing more people; using more capital per worker; or an increase in the productivity of labour and capital due to new technology, say. Since 1970 women have filled two new jobs for every one taken by a man. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest that the employment of extra women has not only added more to GDP than new jobs for men but has also chipped in more than either capital investment or increased productivity. Carve up the world's economic growth a different way and another surprising conclusion emerges: over the past decade or so, the increased employment of women in developed economies has contributed much more to global growth than China has. GIRL POWER Women are becoming more important in the global marketplace not just as workers, but also as consumers, entrepreneurs, managers and investors. Women have traditionally done most of the household shopping, but now they have more money of their own to spend. Surveys suggest that women make perhaps 80% of consumers' buying decisions--from health care and homes to furniture and food. Kathy Matsui, chief strategist at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo, has devised a basket of 115 Japanese companies that should benefit from women's rising purchasing power and changing lives as more of them go out to work. It includes industries such as financial services as well as online retailing, beauty, clothing and prepared foods. Over the past decade the value of shares in Goldman's basket has risen by 96%, against the Tokyo stockmarket's rise of 13%. Women's share of the workforce has a limit. In America it has already stalled. But there will still be a lot of scope for women to become more productive as they make better use of their qualifications. At school, girls consistently get better grades, and in most developed countries well over half of all university degrees are now being awarded to women. In America 140 women enrol in higher education each year for every 100 men; in Sweden the number is as high as 150. (There are, however, only 90 female Japanese students for every 100 males.) In years to come better educated women will take more of the top jobs. At present, for example, in Britain more women than men train as doctors and lawyers, but relatively few are leading surgeons or partners in law firms. The main reason why women still get paid less on average than men is not that they are paid less for the same jobs but that they tend not to climb so far up the career ladder, or they choose lower-paid occupations, such as nursing and teaching. This pattern is likely to change. THE FAIRER AND THE FITTER Making better use of women's skills is not just a matter of fairness. Plenty of studies suggest that it is good for business, too. Women account for only 7% of directors on the world's corporate boards--15% in America, but less than 1% in Japan. Yet a study by Catalyst, a consultancy, found that American companies with more women in senior management jobs earned a higher return on equity than those with fewer women at the top. This might be because mixed teams of men and women are better than single-sex groups at solving problems and spotting external threats. Studies have also suggested that women are often better than men at building teams and communicating. To make men feel even worse, researchers have also concluded that women make better investors than they do. A survey by Digital Look, a British financial website, found that women consistently earn higher returns than men. A survey of American investors by Merrill Lynch examined why women were better at investing. Women were less likely to "churn" their investments; and men tended to commit too much money to single, risky ideas. Overconfidence and overtrading are a recipe for poor investment returns. Despite their gains, women remain perhaps the world's most under-utilised resource. Many are still excluded from paid work; many do not make best use of their skills. Take Japan, where only 57% of women work, against 65% in America (see chart 2). Greater participation by women in the labour market could help to offset the effects of an ageing, shrinking population and hence support growth. Ms Matsui reckons that if Japan raised the share of working women to American levels, it would boost annual growth by 0.3 percentage points over 20 years. The same argument applies to continental Europe. Less than 50% of Italian women and only 55-60% of German and French women have paid jobs. But Kevin Daly, of Goldman Sachs, points out that among women aged 25-29 the participation rate in the EU (ie, the proportion of women who are in jobs or looking for them) is the same as in America. Among 55- to 59-year-olds it is only 50%, well below America's 66%. Over time, female employment in Europe will surely rise, to the benefit of its economies. In poor countries too, the under-utilisation of women stunts economic growth. A study last year by the World Economic Forum found a clear correlation between sex equality (measured by economic participation, education, health and political empowerment) and GDP per head. Correlation does not prove the direction of causation. But other studies also suggest that inequality between the sexes harms long-term growth. In particular, there is strong evidence that educating girls boosts prosperity. It is probably the single best investment that can be made in the developing world. Not only are better educated women more productive, but they raise healthier, better educated children. There is huge potential to raise income per head in developing countries, where fewer girls go to school than boys. More than two-thirds of the world's illiterate adults are women. It is sometimes argued that it is shortsighted to get more women into paid employment. The more women go out to work, it is said, the fewer children there will be and the lower growth will be in the long run. Yet the facts suggest otherwise. Chart 3 shows that countries with high female labour participation rates, such as Sweden, tend to have higher fertility rates than Germany, Italy and Japan, where fewer women work. Indeed, the decline in fertility has been greatest in several countries where female employment is low. It seems that if higher female labour participation is supported by the right policies, it need not reduce fertility. To make full use of their national pools of female talent, governments need to remove obstacles that make it hard for women to combine work with having children. This may mean offering parental leave and child care, allowing more flexible working hours, and reforming tax and social-security systems that create disincentives for women to work. Countries in which more women have stayed at home, namely Germany, Japan and Italy, offer less support for working mothers. This means that fewer women take or look for jobs; but it also means lower birth rates because women postpone childbearing. Japan, for example, offers little support for working mothers: only 13% of children under three attend day-care centres, compared with 54% in America and 34% in Britain. Despite the increased economic importance of women, they could become more important still: more of them could join the labour market and more could make full use of their skills and qualifications. This would provide a sounder base for long-term growth. It would help to finance rich countries' welfare states as populations age and it would boost incomes in the developing world. However, if women are to get out and power the global economy, it is surely only fair that men should at last do more of the housework. tag:www.stanford.edu,2007:/group/swib/news/co-president-corner//2.18 2007-05-17T19:12:39Z 2007-05-17T19:27:21Z

At the annual Stanford Students Award Dinner on May 15th, Stanford Women in Business was honored for enriching the diversity and quality of life on campus. We are delighted to receive this recognition and are revving up for an even...

Heidi Boyd At the annual Stanford Students Award Dinner on May 15th, Stanford Women in Business was honored for enriching the diversity and quality of life on campus. We are delighted to receive this recognition and are revving up for an even more exciting year in 2007-2008. This year SWIB hosted 15 events, boosted membership to 400 students, and made significant strategic growth -- from recruiting an Advisory Board to increasing the size of our Leadership team to forging relationships with other pre-professional groups. SWIB hopes to become a regular fixture at the Awards dinner by continuing to push beyond the traditional scope of a pre-professional organization to address other issues. This includes the important topic of female empowerment outside of the world of business through high school tutoring, volunteering, workshops on self-defense and confidence, and information about women's rights and gender statistics more generally. tag:www.stanford.edu,2007:/group/wib/cgi-bin/news/co-president-corner//2.11 2007-05-09T04:21:29Z 2007-05-09T04:32:01Z

Tonight SWIB and other Women's Voluntary Student Organizations celebrated the value that the many WVSO's bring to Stanford's campus through social and educational enrichment. The WCC honored those who helped to execute elaborate projects -- from the 2nd annual Women's...

Heidi Boyd Tonight SWIB and other Women's Voluntary Student Organizations celebrated the value that the many WVSO's bring to Stanford's campus through social and educational enrichment. The WCC honored those who helped to execute elaborate projects -- from the 2nd annual Women's Leadership Conference to the Women at Work series -- as well as other organizational and individual contributions. This event served as a terrific reminder that the WCC is a supportive driving force in the Stanford community. SWIB will continue to collaborate with and support the WCC in its efforts to connect, inspire, and empower women. tag:www.stanford.edu,2007:/group/wib/blog//2.1 2007-04-30T01:38:10Z 2007-05-01T09:34:40Z

As we close out the year and get ready to introduce new leadership for Stanford Women in Business, one of our final projects to be released is a new and improved website. We have been trying to make the website...

Dana Nguyen As we close out the year and get ready to introduce new leadership for Stanford Women in Business, one of our final projects to be released is a new and improved website. We have been trying to make the website more of a resource for our members instead of a stopping point to learn about Stanford Women in Business. Some of the changes implemented (and in the works) include: a calendar (with an RSS feed), news updates and blogs for interesting business related articles, and most importantly we introduced new member login priveleges. The new MySWIB section will include the ability to track the events you have RSVP'd and attended, rate those events, update the resume on file, post to discussion forums monitored by our "virtual mentors," check out exclusive career opportunities, and sign up for members-only events offered by SWIB. We hope you enjoy and explore the new site! Check back often as we continue to improve its functionality. --Dana