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Feb

1

Plain Dealer editorial sounds like January 1, on February 1 – I’ll take it

Filed Under Cleveland+, Media, Ohio, Writing | Leave a Comment

Hattip to Ed Morrison’s post at Brewed Fresh Daily today about editorial changes at the Plain Dealer.  Please read through today’s editorial in the PD which outlines their aspirations for the future.

I admire both Betsy Sullivan and Joe Frolik and keep threatening to re-up on the PD and put it off – maybe now?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:31 pm February 1st, 2009 in Cleveland+, Media, Ohio, Writing | Please comment 

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Feb

1

Some People Pay Me Dept: “Thank you! Now Don’t Touch It!”

Filed Under Media, Mommy Matters, Ohio, Parenting, Writing, Youth | Leave a Comment

From the February Cleveland Family magazine, my Mommy Matters column, “Thank you! Now Don’t Touch It!”

A teaser (and if you are local, go pick up a copy to see the outrageous cartoon of me this month – oy they’re good!):

When someone gets a present on their birthday or Hanukkah or Christmas, it belongs to them, right? But if you have been around children when they receive something new, tell the truth: you have witnessed the scene of a similarly-aged sibling, relative or friend reaching for The New Thing and wanting to try out The New Thing as soon as the intended recipient had received it.

Now, here’s the question: Do you enforce the “let the birthday child use it – she (or he) just got it” line of thinking, or do you ask the birthday child to hand it over and share?

Ah – parenting. Gotta love it.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 12:06 pm February 1st, 2009 in Media, Mommy Matters, Ohio, Parenting, Writing, Youth | Please comment 

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Feb

1

“Would we be in this mess if it had been Lehman Sisters?”

Filed Under Politics | 1 Comment

Last month, the Washington Post published this op-ed by Barnard president, Debora Spar, titled, “An Economic Crash Women Might Have Averted.”  She argues that women respond differently to danger signals, and:

We don’t yet know why women respond differently to danger signals — and earlier, it appears — than men….

[But] whatever the reason, the experience of the past year suggests that we desperately need to bring more women into leadership positions on Wall Street, in politics, in regulatory bodies and in American life generally.

…
As the constant wail from Wall Street should remind us, diversity isn’t just nice in theory. It makes for better business.

Spar is not the only one thinking about how women in leadership impact the functioning of our economy.  From the New York Times’ blog, Dealbook, comes a post about this subject vis a vis Davos, where the World Economic Forum met last week:

Would we be in this mess today if it had been Lehman Sisters?

This question, asked by the moderator of one panel here in Davos, certainly hit a nerve with some of the more defensive male participants at the World Economic Forum.

As one senior finance official, who declined to be identified (presumably for fear of being divorced), put it: “Probably not – women would never have come up with all those sophisticated tools …”

But jokes aside, there seemed to be a pretty broad consensus among Davos Women (and, yes, some Davos Men) that if Wall Street had been run by women they would have saved the world from the corrosive gambling culture that dominated many a trading room.

Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel-winning microfinance pioneer whose Grameen Bank in Bangladesh lends to women rather than men, said the current crisis would almost certainly not have happened if women had shaped financial practices rather than men.

“Women are more cautious. They wouldn’t have taken the enormous types of risks that brought the system down,” Mr. Yunus said.

And from women in banking and leadership:

One of the few female banking chiefs, Ana Botin at Santander, runs a healthy bank and has not had to rely on government help to stay afloat, Ms. Kroes pointed out, even as the entire Spanish economy is collapsing around her.

And as Kenneth Rogoff, the Harvard economist remarked, it was German Chancellor Angela Merkel who 18 months ago called for transparency in financial markets and regulation of the non-bank financial sector.

“She didn’t even want heavy regulation, she was just completely sane and sensible – but she was squashed by all the men,” Mr. Rogoff said, who at the time wrote an article in her support. ‘She was a lone voice and that’s the problem. We need more gender diversity in the finance sector.”

So, now what? I’m hoping Spar’s next op-ed will answer that, but for starters, she’s placed renewed emphasis on the Barnard Leadership Initiative. Here’s one student’s reaction to Spar’s plans:

The BLI will potentially be made up of a high-level summer internships, liberal arts courses tailored to the discussion of leadership, a seminar, speakers, lectures, dinners, and other special events and opportunities for participants.

Because the initiative is still in such preliminary planning, the size, timeline, specific requirements, and application process are still being negotiated, however she seemed optimistic and inspired to provide Barnard students with a leadership supplement to traditional coursework. Hopefully the BLI will be a positive, effective experience that students will be able to embark on as early as next September, so stay tuned (whether you’re considering applying or just curious) about all of the opportunities and resources that should soon be available through the BLI!

And here’s a much more detailed explanation of the initiative in the Barnard magazine. It includes a nice wrap-up of the impact such a program can have on the next generation of women:

All aspects of BLI are fast making a mark on students. Julie Malyn ’09, a “Women and Leadership” student majoring in psychology, says she has come to see herself as an activist and now has a better understanding of the word “feminist.” Looking ahead, she hopes to enter the business world and use her expertise not only to force changes in corporate policies but also to discourage the behavior that keeps women from taking credit for work and asking for raises as their male counterparts more easily and routinely do.

Assessing the effect of taking both “Women and Leadership” and the BLI course “Organizational Psychology” during her junior year, Malyn says: “It’s a wake-up call that has completely changed what I want to do with my life.

Disclaimer: I went to college w/Spar and still consider her a friend.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:31 am February 1st, 2009 in Politics | 1 Comment 

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Feb

1

Davos havos no femalos: an economic summit without women is like…dumb?

Filed Under Business, Economy, Gender, leadership, Politics, Sexism, Women | 3 Comments

The World Economic Forum holds an annual event in Davos, Switzerland. This article from Spiegel Online explains why the lack of women at the event dilutes its value on multiple levels:

On Jan. 28, several thousand of the world’s leaders will meet at Davos for the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s annual meeting. This year it is entitled “Shaping the Post-Crisis World.” While the organization calls on ordinary people to make contributions via YouTube videos, the event is restricted to invitees only, an elitist process based on the perceived importance of the individual.

…

There are only 4 women out of 22 on the foundation board (18 percent) and no women at all on the managing board, which is responsible for the operations and running of the WEF. There are 2 women among the 10 senior directors (20 percent), people responsible for subject areas within WEF. It is only lower down the management chain where you find the gender balance becomes healthier — 52 percent of the directors are women. These people cover subject areas (e.g. security issues) and head functional areas such as accounting.

…

This dearth of women — and the talent and different perspectives they could bring — is reflected in the Davos event itself. The WEF has posted on its Web site an “abridged” list of business leaders who will attend this year. One has to assume it is a reasonably representative sample of the full list. Out of 81 people listed, only 4 are women — under 5 percent[sic]

The article then discusses why this matters:

First, economies would benefit from a much better utilization of women’s skills (now they are the majority of the most highly educated people). Since 2000, women filled 6 million of the 8 million new jobs created within the EU and represented 59 percent of the graduates. A British report in 2006 produced by the Women & Work Commission estimated that the country could generate wealth to the tune of £23 billion (2 percent of gross domestic product) by better use of women’s skills.

The second point is that several compelling pieces of research have indicated that companies with higher numbers of women represented on their boards outperform companies that have a relatively low number of women in senior management positions. One study by Catalyst in 2007 of companies in the Fortune 500 concluded that companies with three or more women on their boards had an 83 percent greater return on equity than companies with the lowest representation of women. Such companies had a 73 percent better return on their sales and a staggering 112 percent higher return on invested capital.

Last, but certainly not least, companies generally are failing to tap into the growing influence women have as consumers. In the U.S., for example, women make 80 percent of the consumer purchasing decisions. There are many small marketing agencies that have sprung up — run usually by enterprising women — to help companies (usually run by men) to market and brand their products and services more effectively to women consumers. Those that do so reap the benefits of higher sales, for little extra cost. It is a “blue ocean” waiting to be discovered.

None of this is news, by the way.  In the United States, we’re making noise over the need for President Obama’s economic recovery plans to include steps that impact women, not just men, particularly in the area of jobs.

Here is some information from the WEF on its Women Leaders Programme.  Here’s Davos coverage from the BBC.  The Next Women mentions specifically which women were at Davos this year:

Foundation board members:

  • Susan Hockfield ( President, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA; Member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum)
  • Christine Lagarde (Minister of Economy, Industry and Employment of France; Member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum)
  • H.M. Queen Rania Al Abdullah of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan
  • Orit Gadiesh (Chairman, Bain & Company, USA; Member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum).

There are no women at all on the Managing Board. Directors are:

  • Cristina Falcone ( Director  Media Industries. Formerly Global Advocacy Campaigns and Audiovisual Productions, International Labour Organization)
  • Sarita Nayyar (Consumer Industries.  Formerly SVP & GM at Kraft Foods)

Of the seven conference’s chairs, one is a woman: Maria Ramos, the Chief Executive of the South African freight rail and pipelines company Transnet. She recently resigned from the company to explore other opportunities).[sic]

According to the Spiegel Online piece and a response to it (which you can read here) from Saadia Zahidi, Head of Constituents at the World Economic Forum, that includes detailed information about WEF, women and Davos, 8.5% of attendees this year, out of 2500, were women (see the chart here).

FYI, according to this article, “Leaders urge women’s participation to be stepped up at the Forum,” Davos has 3000 attendees in 2002, of which only 10% reportedly were women.

Now if your company had such little progress in seven years, should it still be functioning?

Major hattip to NE Ohio’s own Women’s Enterprise Forum.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:39 am February 1st, 2009 in Business, Economy, Gender, leadership, Politics, Sexism, Women | 3 Comments 

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Feb

1

Haveil Havalim (Carnival of Jewish and Israeli Blogging) #203

Filed Under Blogging, Carnivals, Israel, Jewish, Judaism, Politics, Writing | 2 Comments

Many thanks to another one of my most favorite-named blogs, Ima on (and off) the Bima for hosting this week’s edition of Haveil Havalim (aka Carnival of Jewish and Israeli Blogging) #203.  I particularly adore the banner image of the Crocs, though last time I heard, the company was not doing well.

And Ima – I see you have a BlogHer09 button on your blog – will I see you there this year!?

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 9:03 am February 1st, 2009 in Blogging, Carnivals, Israel, Jewish, Judaism, Politics, Writing | 2 Comments 

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