Women of Wall Street: Diversity of Thought

If you happen to be in New York City this Christmas, the Women of Wall Street exhibition at the Museum of American Finance is a must see! From Abigail Adams to Muriel Sievert, it showcases how the inclusion of women has changed the financial services industry. To give you a sense of perspective of how far we've come, here's a favorite quote from a contemporary woman of wall street. (Images from American Museum of Wall Street):

“...it’s not a diversity of gender or color that’s needed, but really a diversity of thought. The diversity of experiences comes from being female as opposed to male or coming from a different country...”– Sallie Krawcheck, Former CEO and Chairman, Citi Global Wealth Management

Ross Westgate to host The Gender Agenda Davos Debate

Ross Westgate, CNBC's "Worldwide Exchange" anchor, is to host the Gender Agenda Debate show at the World Economic Forum in Davos. With his ll years experience in financial broadcasting, he also co-hosts Strictly Money, CNBC's new UK business and money programme and previously worked as a stockbroker in the City of London.

Arianna Huffington in CNBC Davos Debate

Arianna Huffington agreed tentatively this week to be in our CNBC Davos Debate. She'll participate in one of two teams challenged with devising game changing ideas for popularising gender equality. I'm delighted. She'll be a fantastic addition. (Images from ABCNewstore & LibertyHill.org)

Flipping Fergie Perfect for Flipping Feminism

This is the picture that just inspired me to add Fergie to my wishlist of ambassadors for the Flipping Feminism project. We wouldn't require her to deliver all of her speeches mid-flip like this. (I borrowed the photo from JustJared.buzznet.com. Thank you)

Flipping Feminism - The Mission has a Name

‘Cherchez la femme’ is out. It might have worked as a project name if I'd been able to pronounce it.. The worst incident this week was when my frighteningly-sophisticated, French-speaking friend had no idea what I was trying to say (when I tested it on her) nor any comprehension of why I would label my project that way. So my absolute, FINAL, final title that will not change (for the next year at least) is 'Flipping Feminism'.



I like that you can’t help smiling when you say it. It’s memorable. And, magically, it communicates the two primary messages of this project, that I want to change (flip) the way feminism is perceived and that I am frustrated (flipping feminism!) with the way gender equality messages have been communicated previously.

Cherchez La Femme

After last week’s entry on feminism having a bad name I’ve been trying to think of a new title for my mission.

I was also influenced (a lot) by my father-in-law telling me ‘Feminism in Style’ made him squirm.
Not the desired effect. It’s gone. 'Feminism in Style' is no longer in style. I just wish I hadn’t bought the URL. Look out for it on eBay.

'Cherchez la femme' What do you think?

It means "look for the woman" and comes from the 1854 book The Mohicans of Paris by Alexandre Dumas (père).

The original passage reads: Il y a une femme dans toute les affaires; aussitôt qu'on me fait un rapport, je dis: 'Cherchez la femme'. There is a woman in every case; as soon as they bring me a report, I say, 'Look for the woman'.

In other words, no matter what the problem, a woman is often the root cause. I realise this may seem odd but I love the way we can twist it: If your company isn’t peak-performing, look for the woman. Oh – there isn’t one on your entire leadership team? Well there’s your root cause.

And women and men together created the situation we’re in now, so we both need to fix it. Women certainly are part of the cause.

Next time you are employing your leaders, cherchez la femme.

(Photo credit: Nylon magazine)

A Justification of Vanity

My friend Fiona forwarded me this article about 98% of women believing appearance affects their career. I’m wondering what planet the other 2% are on.

It reminds me of the woman who camped in my room for six weeks to avoid rent while job-hunting but arrived home with designer outfits. When my angry flatmate suggested the 'camper' couldn’t afford to dress that way, the accused matter-of-factly explained she couldn’t afford not to.

NEW YORK, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Nearly all U.S. working women believe that their professional appearance is crucial to success at work, and one in five female executives say they have withheld a promotion or a raise due to the way an employee dresses, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

The poll found that 98 percent feel appearance affected their career, and just 2 percent disagreed.

The survey was conducted among female professionals, senior managers and business owners by PINK Magazine, a publication for career women, and Corset Personal Styling, a service firm for women. Fifty-five percent said they often think they have nothing to wear, and 40 percent said they tend to keep buying clothes that look the same, the survey showed.

Nearly half said they wear too much black, and a little more than half said they have difficulty finding trendy yet age-appropriate clothes. Some 22 percent of the chief executives, top managers and business owners said they had withheld a promotion or raise because of how an employee dresses at work. The survey, conducted online for Atlanta-based PINK and Minneapolis-based Corset from Sept. 29 through Oct. 11, polled 137 business owners, chief executives, managers and professionals from PINK's readership. Of those, 36 were chief executives, business owners and top managers, it said. The poll did not include a margin of error.
(Reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Michelle Nichols and Xavier Briand)
((ellen.wulfhorst@reuters.com; +1 646 223 6283; Reuters Messaging:ellen.wulfhorst.reuters.com@reuters.net))

(Photo Credit: TresSugar, http://www.tressugar.com/2624316)

Lady Gaga agrees feminism has a bad name

(Photo by Paul Revere, in Sydney Morning Herald )

Lady Gaga inspired me this week. I'm quoting from a great article by Emma Young.

In a recent interview she said: ''I'm not a feminist - I hail men, I love men. I celebrate American male culture, and beer, and bars and muscle cars.''

In another interview, she equated feminism with man-hating. ''I think it's great to be a sexy, beautiful woman who can f--- her man after she makes him dinner. There's a stigma around feminism that's a little bit man-hating. And I don't promote hatred, ever.'

I agree Ms Gaga. (With your second-to-last sentence at least.) I just spent an hour trying to think of a name for this blogsite that would explain quite literally that I was trying to rebrand feminism but would avoid using that word. Couldn't do it.

Equalitist. Une femme forte. Agent non-provocateur. Mmmm. Not there yet.

The Davos Plan

I devised a plan for our Davos debate this week, although you can guarantee the title and format will change as I work with the forum and the gender equality project to tweak and re-tweak. Here are some excerpts from the summary document. Ideas welcomed! (This picture is from last year's CNBC Davos debate with Maria Bartiromo, of whom I'm a huge fan.)

NEW LEADERSHIP DNA: Could women be the next decade’s profit playbook?

• I'm told a UN report concludes that if we progress towards gender equality at the current rate we will reach it just beyond the year 4000. I'm not that patient.


• Asking organisations to address the problem because it’s the right thing to do hasn’t worked. We need a new strategy.


• Women often distance themselves from gender discussions in the workplace because they’re considered distractions from the company’s critical mission. It’s time to change the conversation.
  

CNBC, the World Economic Forum’s Gender Parity Programme and the Gender Equality Project co-founded by Nicole Schwab and Aniela Unguresan are joining forces in Davos 2010 to prove parity equals profits. We’re challenging two talented debating teams to pitch their best ideas for convincing CEOs that gender equality pays dividends and we’re encouraging them to inspire and entertain delegates in the process. CNBC will televise the debate as a half-hour Davos special, air it globally, stream it on CNBC.com and rotate highlights in primetime for a fortnight after the event. The debate will be energetic, enjoyable and inclusive: We’ll approach the subject from a profit-seeking perspective and dispel the myth that gender equality is simply a woman’s issue.

The Format

CNBC is compiling two teams of business and political leaders – one all female and the other all male - and challenging them to try to convince CEO delegates that gender parity delivers profits. We’ll also ask them to devise game changing ideas for popularising gender equality within the workplace. We want strategies for making gender equality an exciting top priority and making ‘more women in the boardroom’ the enlightened new innovation of high-performing corporations.

While the male team presents its ideas, the female team will sit in a sound-proofed room then the female team will have its turn.

Throughout the challenge, our high-powered jury and opinionated audience will question, critique and applaud the ideas and eventually vote on which of them should be adopted by global corporations.

Financial Times 'Women in Business' Ranking

It was great to read the FT's inaugural ranking of the top 50 women in business this weekend.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/bcfcdb2c-a716-11de-bd14-00144feabdc0.html

Sad to learn from the same article that just 3 per cent of Fortune 500 chief executives are women and that across Europe, only 10 per cent of board directors of the largest companies are female. That makes this challenge exciting I guess. Starting from such a low base, we can have a significant and rapid impact.

I dined with an amazing woman this week. (I collect inspiring women at every opportunity). I collected this one at TED Global and we now meet when our business travel collides. She's running AIG's sustainable investment fund at age 36 and still finds time to be a mother of two, and gorgeous. We need more of those.

When I wasn't dining out with inspiring women this weekend, I was at London Fashion Week eating away at my retirement fund. (Any child of mine will need to accept a smashing collection of vintage clothing as their only inheritance.) It was wonderful - a chaotic mish-mash of creativity and stylish women everywhere dressed to impressed with their own unique concoctions. 'Sass and Bide' (below) won my heart, and funds yet again. But I digress...

I do feel the tide is turning and feminism is indeed very quickly becoming in vogue.

I finished the format for our debate at Davos this week. I'll describe it here next week. Now I need to find a sponsor. Never easy. I'll report back on progress soon and if anyone's interested give me a shout!

Rebrand the F Word - Feminism needs a make-over

It’s probably time I revealed my plan. It’ll need to expand exponentially from these humble beginnings but at least I have a start. Last month, after a week at TED, I managed to tear an idea from my head. I am going to compile a dream team of PR and agency gurus of both genders and invite them to devise a global advertising campaign - fictitious, but who knows where it might lead - to rebrand the F word (that's feminism for short).

The endgame of the campaign will be to convince companies that parity equals profits - having fairer representation by women will help a company's bottom line. This dream team of extraordinary spin-doctors will get twenty minutes to pitch their ideas to a roomful of business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland this coming January. Once they’re done, a panel of powerful, ruthless and witty women will interrogate their ideas before the audience too has a go. This unconventional little mission will be filmed and, all going well, if the end result is good enough, a half-hour special about it will air next year on CNBC in EMEA and APAC and stream on CNBC.com. Nobody will actually be paying for a global campaign to rebrand the f word next year, it's just an exercise to get some great ideas, but maybe if the ideas are interesting enough, someone might pick them up.

This is all thanks to the World Economic Forum and a delegate who may not wish to be named since her own gender parity project is yet to be launched. I met her in Davos last year where I was televising a debate for CNBC. She described her commitment to gender equality and I was inspired but couldn't immediately think of a sensible way to be a rebel for the cause. It was 3am, in the Davos piano bar, a drink-spilling oasis of zero inhibitions and I’d had two hours sleep for too many nights so was all emotion and good intentions with no clues. (It happens the fourth or fifth night of every WEF event. I grow desperate to unlock the hero within.)

I wanted to challenge myself to do something about the fact that on the one hand, I resented gender inequality and on the other, I cringed at feminist stereotypes overly worthy women. I figured if I could create an opportunity to inspire change, even teeny tiny change, through skilfully packaged content and a clever idea, this would be one small thing I could do and personally get satisfaction from. And I started mulling... eventually coming up with this little project.

I asked WEF’s gender parity team and the woman who inspired me if they would support a debate at Davos that used a playful concept to deliver a critical message on gender inequality and this week they officially agreed so that has given me a base. But it's just a starting place. I want to grow it from there and you'll be able to read about whether I achieve that right here. This is the official diary of the rebranding campaign. Watch this space.

Bad News and Irrelevant News

This is why I never want to work for the BBC. (Never again, I mean. I did and left.) They completed interesting research on Britain’s gender pay gap (widening) but released it with a headline saying: ‘Women are earning more than men in some public sector organisations - but only in the lower-paid grades, according to new research by the BBC.’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8044720.stm

Firstly, it’s dull. I know my blog headlines aren’t great but I don’t care if anybody reads, I'm just tapping away in my bedroom for the relaxation. The BBC is meant to speak to the masses.

Secondly, it’s irrelevant. This headline reminded me of that fantastic episode of ‘The Office’ (British version) where Ricky Gervais’ character, David Brent finds out he has been promoted but half his staff are being laid off. He tells them he has good news and bad news and then fills them in, but one replies "that wasn't good news and bad news, just bad news and irrelevant news", or something to that effect. You probably had to be there.

Anyway, this headline is irrelevant news. To start with, a low pay-grade public sector job is hardly something to get excited about – no offence to those noble women and men who take pride in holding such a position. Good for you. You are better people than I. But really, it’s not ‘problem solved’? I’m guessing men can’t stand lower paid public sector jobs and it’s because long suffering women hang in there that they end up earning more.

The real story from this research was that when part time workers are taken into account, men earn on average 23% more than women doing the equivalent job. Another depressing statistic but how boring life would be without challenges and this is a good one.

Offsetting the Gender Pay Gap - How's this idea?

I've just had the best idea. Net-a-porter should be thanking me for this marketing tip. I was sitting here reading a bunch of depressing gender pay gap stories because my blog instructor (yes... might as well get some formal training before unleashing myself on you) said I had to learn to react to news stories, which made me think I had to get angry about something and I’m not good at that.

Also, I want my kind of feminism to be the non-angry kind so I was sitting here working out how to react happily to gender inequality. Not easy. Then Eureka: Companies should discount their products for women by the same proportion as the gender pay gap - even things that way.

“Want a plasma TV? $2000 for you Sir, but Madam if you buy, it’s just $1548 because your hourly rate for tolerating the same morale-destroying office politics is 22.6% lower than your husband's assuming you’re an average woman and today we’re treating you that way”.

States could enforce by law that retailers had to discount goods for female purchasers proportionate to the pay gap. It could spur pay rises for women across the board and companies wouldn't suffer because knowing us, we'd all go straight out to spend our increased cash on basic needs like anti-wrinkle creams. It could backfire. We could find ourselves demoted so our pay looked high in relation to our role. I guess we’d have to counter that with extra discounts proportionate to discrepancies in leadership representation. OK, it’s getting slightly complicated but the Internet required code, cables and whole community of people who think like Chris Anderson so in comparison a bit of math and some law enforcement shouldn’t overwhelm us. I’m onto something.

Rebirth of the Reluctant Feminist

Until my 30s I believed whole-heartedly that if a woman complained of sexism it was an excuse. She wasn’t very good at her job or wasn’t good at navigating a male-dominated environment. But in my 30s things began to bug me. Female friends were passed over for promotion for no apparent reason. Friends with babies were exhausting themselves trying to excel in a corporate structure that seemed better suited to men. And most hideously, women sometimes conspired to prevent the success of female peers. It all annoyed me but the woman-on-woman rivalry was what compelled me to act. It’s common and shameful.

Anyway, without getting into details that will allow certain colleagues to identify themselves, I noticed women fell into two camps – those who compete with other women and those who collaborate. The ‘compete’ women look you up and down when you enter the room. The ‘collaborators’ invite you out for bubbles after work, make you laugh or cry (usually both and several times during any night) and remind you why it’s wonderful to be a woman.

One day, when I was exasperated by the behaviours of a few in the ‘compete’ category I decided to channel this energy into something positive by offering my voluntary help to an inspiring woman who is launching a gender equality project (more on that once she’s ready to go public). My offer was to produce a televised debate on the subject to help publicise her launch. I asked a senior producer friend if she would support my initiative and her immediate answer was “I’m not a feminist”. Ugh? Gobsmacked! If feminism stood for equality between genders why would a strong, intelligent, kind and successful woman like her not want to be a part of that? I tried to imagine a black African saying “I’m not for racial equality!” with the same horror and fear.

So while rivalry among women fuelled my emotions around this subject, witnessing widespread shame over feminism helped focus my actions. I don’t believe in asking people to change. Change has to be inspired from within. But I can do small things to help make feminism desirable again. Making feminism funky, inclusive and unthreatening seems like a necessary prerequisite to mobilising half the population (preferably more). It also seems like a fun and rewarding challenge and will allow me to work with some remarkable and inspiring women.

I also want to find out if my increasingly frequent observations of things being not quite right are substantiated by research. Sadly, the limited research I have done so far suggests the reality is far worse than I had observed. I’ve concluded I am not good acknowledging things that depress me!

And finally, I want to envisage how the future might look if this pattern of inequality that we have come to accept changes quite dramatically. It is worth thinking about this carefully because I suspect women aren’t going to like all the implications of a fairer world. That habit of desiring men who are rich and powerful may need to be revisited, for example. Maybe this is what we’re afraid of. But I believe we should trust our gut, as women are so great at doing, accept that the change may have some uncomfortable bits and journey fourth into the unknown with confidence.

Birth of a Reluctant Feminist

A few events in 1992 created a frustration that disappeared for a while but re-emerged around my 35th birthday. So I’ve decided to create something positive from it. I was an experimental post-graduate sociologist back then. A university tutor by day, a drummer in the weekends and a dancer every Thursday night but that was a bad combination. When my professional dance troupe got a nightclub gig (a harmless fashion show with a few of synchronised twists and twirls) I apparently ‘crossed the line’. My male students found it hard to concentrate and a significant number felt they no longer needed to show me respect. It wasn’t a tragedy. I just quit the dance troupe, died my naturally blonde hair red, and satisfied my urge to be attention's centre by performing as Roxie in the next door town’s production of Chicago. But this was my first experience of having to alter behaviour that felt authentic and harmless because professional success required me to. I understand. Men modify behaviour too. It doesn’t stop it feeling frustrating though.

The event that really sticks from that year, however, is when two post graduate students from the women studies department which shared our brown and dowdy sociology high-rise approached me after departmental drinks to ask if I wore deodorant. When I blushed and confirmed they looked at each other with disgust, flicked their henna-died Mohawks and said ‘we thought so’. It was better than being asked the question because I stank, I guess, but only marginally. This felt like women-on-women warfare. I was a traitor to the cause and nothing less than disregard for personal hygiene would be sufficient to show my loyalty to their superior league of Lesbos.

A few years later, one of their lecturers took her own life at that brown, dowdy, high-rise. I heard she jumped off the roof. Her tragic death bore no relation to anything I’ve said above but it became a symbol to me of the sad lessons I learnt in that place - that so often we women (probably all people, but I’m concerned here with women) focus more on our divisions than on our similarities, that we often confuse power with masculinity to the point where we don’t even know what it feels like to be powerful in a female way. Through our in-fighting, bra-burning and man-blaming, we have given feminism a shockingly bad name. On a bad day I’m ashamed of my gender. On a good day, especially after an evening out, with a group of compassionate, smiling ladies and too much champagne, I love us so much I feel an all-consuming excitement over what we women can contribute to this world, especially if we start drawing more effectively, unashamedly, without bitterness or hesitation on our unique feminine resources. I don’t believe in asking others to change – I’m definitely a ‘live and let live’ kind of a gal - but I figure I can lead by example, living every day in my own authentic way, drawing power from my female attributes wherever it feels right to do so and using my understanding of the media to highlight and celebrate other women who do the same – whether butch or girly, lesbian or straight, blackberry addicts or stay-at-home mums, quiet or as stroppy as hell. Let’s learn how to be powerful women our way (which will mean as many different ways as there are different women) but that diversity will just make this journey of discovery more exciting.