May 14, 2004

A man's home may be his castle ...
Posted by diane@downtownwomensclub.com">Diane Danielson at 5:26 PM - 0 comments

... but a woman's home is more-than-likely her office these days. Check out Entrepreneur.com for an article focusing on the "mompreneur" trend.

Moms know everything. They know where their kids left their socks, they know what time the carpool leaves, they know how to get a cranky 4-year-old through a shopping mall. Given their mastery of multitasking, is it any wonder mothers make such good business owners?

Not if recent statistics are any clue. There are 10.1 million women-owned businesses in the United States, generating $2.3 trillion in annual revenue, according to the Center for Women's Business Research. Women are starting businesses at nearly twice the rate of men. And women with children are jumping in--each with a different business goal, a different family situation and a different strategy to balance it all.

But what do they do on Take Your Daughters to Work Day?

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Women fighting to reenter workplace
Posted by dwong@bostonworks.com">Dean Wong at 2:05 PM - 0 comments

OnPoint Radio last night looked at the 1990s phenom of women in high-powered careers -- e.g. Brenda Barnes who left the top spot at Pepsi Co. in 1997 -- who left their jobs for lengthy periods in order to raise their children. Now, many women are trying to get their foot back in the office door. But gaps in their resumes, and a workplace that has changed dramatically, are presenting themselves as unique, and unusual obstacles.

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May 13, 2004

Red Rover, Red Rover, will the girls please come over
Posted by diane@downtownwomensclub.com">Diane Danielson at 11:23 PM - 0 comments

BusinessWeek's special report "Technology's Too-Small Sisterhood," discusses some of the grim statistics about the male/female ratio of tech execs. Of grave concern is the rapidly declining number of women pursuing computer science and engineering degrees:

In 1985, women received 37% of all U.S. computer science undergraduate degrees. By 2000 that had fallen to 28%. At top-tier institutions of higher learning, [Telle Whitney, the president and CEO of the Institute for Women in Technology] says, the number is now below 20%.

This is in contrast to the trend in other scientific disciplines. Women now earn more than 50% of all degrees in the biological sciences. And fields such as psychology and biology have experienced dramatic increases in female participation. "If women are earning 55% of bachelor's degrees but only 18% of engineering bachelor's degrees, that's a concern to us," says Elena Silva, research director at the educational foundation the American Association of University Women. "We still don't have a proportional number of women preparing for these positions."

So how do we get the girls' interested in computers? I'm not sure. But how about this: I'll encourage my son to step away from his computer and be an English major, if anyone out there with daughters disconnects their cellphones and attempts to get them hooked on computer science. How? Sorry, but I can't help you there. After all, I was an English major.

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Is M & A an acronym for job loss?
Posted by cmoor@keystoneassociates.com">Colin Moor at 10:16 PM - 0 comments

Our economy is slowly getting some positive momentum. Profits are up, hiring is increasing and M & A season is upon us.

When news of a merger or acquisition breaks, anxieties escalate in the organization involved.

An article on CareerJournal.com examines the risks and rewards of getting merged or acquired.

"There are real reasons to be anxious in certain kinds of mergers,"says Susan Maloney Meyer, chief executive officer of Arc Leadership, an executive-coaching firm in Chicago. "the key is to turn that anxiety into something positive and really use it."

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May 11, 2004

Unemployment benefits extension vote comes up short
Posted by noseworthy@bostonworks.com">Nicole Noseworthy at 4:33 PM - 0 comments

The latest news on unemployment benefits may leave some in a lurch: "Senate rejects extended federal unemployment benefits"

The amendment would have offered emergency federal unemployment benefits for six months, temporarily giving 13 weeks of extra assistance to people who exhaust their state benefits typically 26 weeks.

The unemployment rate dropped to 5.6 percent last month as employers added nearly 300,000 new jobs. The Labor Department has reported that payrolls have risen for eight months in a row, with almost 900,000 new jobs created so far this year, most within the last two months.

Republicans seized on April's employment report as evidence that more federal unemployment benefits are not needed.

... [However,] Democrats said the extended benefits are needed because the economic recovery still hasn't replaced 1.5 million jobs lost since President Bush took office.

While new jobs may have been created recently, the question remains: what happens during the summer?

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Gender, ethnicity, religion, and age.
Posted by noseworthy@bostonworks.com">Nicole Noseworthy at 4:23 PM - 0 comments

As the workforce ages, many are coming up against a different type of "glass ceiling" - one that has your age written all over it:

Age discrimination in the workplace extends beyond layoffs, of course, but it's even harder to prove the existence of any age-related ''glass ceiling'' the invisible barrier that prevents employees from advancing any higher.

Workplace consultant Connie Wang suspects many older professionals feel they're the victims of age discrimination but wouldn't challenge their employers because of an underlying concern that ''Who's going to hire me at my age?''

However:

Despite the big demographic shift, there's been no explosion of age discrimination charges so far. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received an annual average of 19,500 age claims over the past two years, down slightly from 1992-93, and claims actually declined 4 percent in 2003 from a year earlier.

But some experts think it may be only a matter of time before discrimination claims go up now that workers 40 or older comprise about half the nation's work force particularly with the age group now dominated by a generation known for going, and getting, its own way.

Read more in: "Age discrimination a looming boomer issue; hard to prove"

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May 10, 2004

Lemonade stories
Posted by dwong@bostonworks.com">Dean Wong at 2:16 PM - 0 comments

As the saying goes, behind every great entrepreneur...is a mom. OnPoint Radio discusses Mary Mazzio's new documentary Lemonade Stories about how mothers have inspired some of the world's most influential entrepreneurs.

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It's a white, white, white world
Posted by diane@downtownwomensclub.com">Diane Danielson at 12:34 PM - 0 comments

Two articles today focus on the lack of diversity at the top. First the New York Times features an interview with Rakesh Khurana, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School and the author of "Searching for a Corporate Savior: The Irrational Quest for Charismatic C.E.O.'s," who argues that business schools, executive search firms and corporate boards all limit the diversity of candidates for chief executive. Khurana discusses not only the poor representation of women, but also African and Asian-Americans (male or female).

But pity the poor woman who is not only female (obviously) but also an ethnic minority in a white man's world. The Boston Globe's Diane E. Lewis reported on a conference last week which explored "Inequality among women."

Research shows that African-American, Asian, and Latina women professionals and managers continue to trail white men and women in compensation and promotions, said Carol J. Evans, chief executive and president of New York-based Working Mother Media, which convened the meeting.

One measure of the difference between white and minority women is pay. White females earn 73 cents for every dollar earned by a white male, according to a study released last month by the Institute for Women's Policy Research in Washington, D.C. By contrast, Asian women earn 68 cents, African-American women, 64 cents, Native American women, 58 cents, and Latina women earn 51 cents per dollar. The study included executives and frontline workers.

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