Women in the News…for Better or Worse
Posted: October 8, 2006, 06:26 PM by Leslie Grossman
Just like the pledge taken in marriage “for better or worse” we women in business are in it ”for better or worse." And this past week, it may have been “for worse.” Every time I reached for the paper, I had a pit in my stomach. What appeared to be the never ending saga of HP Board member investigations resulted in former Chair Patricia Dunn’s indictment. Almost simultaneously, former high-profile DA of Westchester County, New York Jeanine Pirro – who is running for State Attorney General – was unveiled as having considered illegal eavesdropping on her husband, whom she suspected of marital infidelity. As of today she is still running for office. What’s next? Where’s the good news? Well Carly Fiorina, former HP Chair, ousted from her role as the most powerful woman in business – which wasn’t necessarily good news - is now on the speaker circuit due to the release of her book “Tough Choices” - telling her version of the story. Now that’s good news. We’re fortunate enough to have Carly as opening keynote speaker at the Women’s Leadership Exchange New York conference on November 6th. I can’t wait to hear her myself. Better or Worse? I guess we women have to be ready to take the worse along with the better if we’re going to move up the corporate ladder and build bigger businesses. But I’d like to see some of the “better” stories in the media. I did a Google search and couldn’t find any good news about women out there this week. Help WLE out here - I’d really like to hear from all of you women…and men.. with more ”better” stories about women. Please share them on this blog.
Reader Comments
Posted: January 6, 2007, 10:55 PM by Liara Covert--www.dreambuilders.com.au
I think the problem begins when we focus more on the gender of the individual in the news than the issues of competence, integrity and ethics under question. Even leaders struggle to rise above limitations in their character. Its difficult to separate a leader\'s true actions from intent if, in our own minds, someone is assumed guilty or innocent before a query. Power dynamics in corporate culture evolve heavily based on the personalities and ambitions of individuals who interact. Men have been known to have problems accepting and working with women as superiors. Yet women have qualms too.
Consider that as of 2006, President Vaira Vike-Freiberga ( Latvia), President Mary McAleese (Ireland), Prime Minister Hon. Helen Clark (New Zealand), President Tarja Halonen (Finland), Executive President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (Philippines), Governor-General Michaëlle Jean (Canada), Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel (Germany), Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller (Jamaica), Claudie Haignere (French Minister & Science & New Technology), Executive President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf (Liberia), Executive President Michelle Bachelet Jeria (Chile), Prime Minister Han Myung-sook (South Korea) and a number of other women hold leadership roles in countries other than the United States. Many of these women have had experience in some area of business before and even during political roles.
The media portrays that both corporate and political structures breed corruption, that one can be honest going in, yet to survive inside, people are forced to change, to go against their principles. Versions of the news reiterate that a misuse of power can and does occur in almost any setting. The strength of honest character is something that has potential to redefine governance on the inside. Yet, so long as people with a lack of scruples are also involved, so long as two-faced people with underlying motives also govern on some level, there may always be a tug-of-war and the general public may never have the whole picture. Hence, the importance of individuals like Carly Fiorina with real experience who choose to write and share their own version of complicated stories.
Posted: October 8, 2006, 11:51 PM by Dr. L.M.Johnson
As for more noteworthy stories this weekend, my dear friend Stephanie was laid to rest all too soon and much too young. This being breast Cancer Awareness month I am acutely aware of all the effort we ladies are putting toward a cure and all the wonderful lives being lost to this disease.Steph has left a legacy of community service, deep friendships, loving family relations and always being who she was meant to be I God's eyes. A strong loving caring ambitious wife and woman of the world. In the end this is what the most important news of the week is .....Losing another great woman of the world to a disease we have few answers for. A cure is what I want to see in the news soon, for all of us women that have much more to accomplish and fulfill in the place of those taken from this terrible disease to soon
Posted: October 8, 2006, 10:19 PM by Jennifer Warwick
Are you kidding?!? There's good news about women posted on the web a hundred times a day, every day. Just this week, I got these leads (plus a dozen more stories, at least) on Google and Yahoo!:
In the US, author and women's career expert Tori Johnson (founder of Women for Hire) released her new book aimed at helping women negotiate more effectively at work.
In Britain, the Centre for Learning and Teaching at Wits University launched an initiative to encourage the advancement and empowerment of women in academia.
In France, the second annual Women's Forum for the Economy and Society - dubbed "Davos for Women" - opened, aiming to spotlight female viewpoints and bring down barriers to top jobs for women.
In Liberia, which is run by Africa's only female president, the top United Nations envoy to the country praised the role of women at all levels of government there, saying they bring a "different perspective" to development and stressing the benefits of their involvement, particularly in the health and education sectors.
If you have time to do your own research, try bookmarking News on Women, which posts all kinds of news about C-level women daily (http://newsonwomen.typepad.com/news_on_women/). There's a blog in India for working women called Women Lifestyle (http://www.womenlifestyle.com/) and a great one in Canada called Boss Lady (http://www.bosslady.ca/)...and in the US, there's mine, The New Charm School (http://www.jenniferinc.com/blog), with regular posts about gender/workplace research and working women around the world. And you can always check out the Career & Business section on BlogHer (http://www.blogher.org), which is updated regularly from a variety of perspectives from the US and abroad.
These are only a taste of the many, many blogs out there by women attorneys, physicians, teachers, consultants, entrepreneurs and more. Too busy for that legwork? Use a service like Bloglines to have new blog headlines delivered to your in-box. Or set up a Google or Yahoo alert for "working women" and good news like this (as well as opportunities for action and activism) from the world press and MSM will be delivered to your in-box.
No good news about women on Google? No way - and the assertionis a disservice to all those women sharing good news online every day. Stop depending on Larry and Sergey to do all the work! :-) A great use of this blog, already aimed at women leaders, would be getting to know the blogosphere where you've set up a homestead, and directing women to the significant e-resources that are already out there - and supporting those women leaders already telling great stories and spreading good news about women on a daily basis!
Posted: October 8, 2006, 09:03 PM by L Johnson
I honestly believe and know that corporate structure breeds misbehavior. Women vs Men at the top can be an issue, but I wonder? Are we more honest than men? Do we take the power given and misuse it? Or do we do things "our way" and perhaps lose our power? I had the luck to meet a women who's job was a corporate white collar crime investigator. We spoke of the HP situation and I really agreed with her assessment. Had HP used FBI "profiling" they would have quickly identified the "leak". Apparently the guilty party had previously worked in Gov't and had "leaked" sensitive information during his tenure. Her opinion was that to have used FBI techniques all illegal activities would have been unnecessary. I feel a question needs to be asked: Does the structure of corporate goverance breed misbehavior? Many men have suffered the same fate with illiegal activites, etc. So whats really causing this problem? Thoughts.
