Women's business group founder says glass ceiling still exists

(RAMIN TALAIE For the Boston Globe)

Women Presidents' Organization is a New York nonprofit group for women-owned or women-led businesses that gross more than $2 million annually in sales, or more than $1 million annually for service-based companies. The Women Presidents' Organization, which has more than 1,300 members in the United States, Canada, and its two overseas chapters, will hold its annual conference in Boston this week from Thursday through Saturday. Marsha Firestone, the president and founder of the Women Presidents' Organization spoke to Globe reporter Sacha Pfeiffer.

What types of industries are your members in?

A lot of people think women work in crafts, fashion, fitness, beauty, or retail. In fact, we have very few retail businesses because most of them don't generate enough revenue to become members. The largest number of our businesses are concentrated in manufacturing and distribution. The second largest group is consulting, the third is technology, and the fourth, financial services.

Do you consider certain industries female-friendly?

Women are in every industry today, everything from asphalt laying to construction to marketing. It used to be that there were industries that were female-friendly. I don't think that's true today, especially because in your business development and your marketing, thanks to technology, no one has to know who owns the company.

Do some women want to conceal that their businesses are female-owned?

I think there is a subtle discomfort, to this day, with doing business with women. We know that's true because only 3 percent of federal contracts and only 4 percent of corporate contracts go to women-owned businesses. Women own 46 percent of all privately held companies in the United States, so why aren't women participating more in these contracting opportunities? There is either some old boys' network operating or there is a subtle discomfort.

Do you have a teaching background?

I have a master's degree from Teacher's College of New York and I did teach for a few years. Around 1975, there was a really big economic downturn in New York, I was teaching at Brooklyn College, and one day a student was standing at a podium making a presentation when a pigeon flew in the window. It landed on an egg in a nest it had laid in the podium - and I decided this was not for me.

Teaching, certainly, used to be thought of as women's work. Do you think it still is?

I do, although I think we have made strides. There are more men in it now, but I think it's still predominantly women. Women do accept a lower salary and we don't pay our teachers very well. I also think there is a certain nurturing characteristic women have that enables them to get a great deal of satisfaction out of the teaching role.

Do you think women business leaders have strengths their male counterparts don't?

I've never approached it from that perspective. I've approached it from an economic perspective. What we're working on is accelerating growth and enhancing competition so women can have economic security for themselves, their families, and their staffs.

Margaret Mead, the author of the best-selling book "Coming of Age in Samoa," which included research on the sex lives of women in the South Pacific, was on your doctoral dissertation committee at Columbia University. Did she ask any questions?

When she came to my defense, she walked in, she had on her cape and a trident, she threw them down, she sat down at the head of the table with five men and me, and she said, "This is one of the best dissertations I've read in recent years. Any questions?" And I was off the hook, I was off the hot seat. And that is an absolutely true story.

You authored The Busy Woman's Guide to Successful Self-Employment. Can you give us the CliffsNotes version?

Being focused on exactly the product or service you are going to sell. Defining what is unique about it. Understanding the marketplace by doing appropriate market research. Making sure you have professional advisers who can give you the best advice on your financial and legal requirements so that you don't lose time later by having to start all over again. And, most importantly, knowing that not every day is going to be a good day and that you're going to have to go with the flow and be able to sustain yourself when the chips are down.

Do you believe there's still a glass ceiling for women in the workplace?

I do. Let's start with the fact that women are still paid 76 cents for every dollar a man makes, and something like only 15 percent of top management are women. The one place where women are really able to pay themselves at the same rate men do is entrepreneurship. I do believe that the great equalizer is owning your own business.