News For You - August 2001

We have developed this page to give our visitors the opportunity to see what's new, at a glance, in the business world and how it relates to our program. Take a moment to browse and see what's of interest to you!

Escape Route from Sexist Attitudes on Wall Street

Anne Tatlock, chairman and chief executive of Fiduciary Trust International, runs an unusual asset management firm on America’s prestigious Wall Street. In the male-dominated financial industry, Fiduciary Trust employs more women than men. Fifty-one percent of its 700 employees are women. Women also make up 30 percent of the senior management positions and represent 15 percent of the executive board.

Fiduciary Trust does not focus its recruitment efforts solely on women, but with the talent pool of skilled women increasing each year, they have become an important resource for large corporations.

Although Fiduciary Trust proves that women are progressing up the corporate ladder, they are still hitting the glass ceiling in companies like Merrill Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney, & Morgan Stanley Dean Witter who all face sexual discrimination lawsuits. With many barriers still to overcome, Tatlock advises women entering the financial industry to “find a company where someone has already set a tone for women to become leaders”.

(Source: The New York Times, Wednesday, May 30, 2001.)
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What Women Want

A recent poll by the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) revealed that female entrepreneurs are more optimistic and more likely to be happy in their jobs than female executives who work for someone else. The survey, taken by 400-plus participants at the NAFE annual conference, showed that 69% of female entrepreneurs “absolutely love” what they are doing and that 34% of female executives in corporate and government jobs would like to start their own business someday.

Of the women surveyed, 48% believe that “risk-taking and thinking outside the box” were the most significant contributions to their career development while 37% cited networking and organizational membership as the important factors for their success.

Female entrepreneurs reported the biggest challenges they face are finding the right career and learning the technology. Achieving a balance between work and life is also a top challenge for 33% of respondents.

Some other interesting results of the survey:

83% of respondents feel that female executives are still hitting the “glass ceiling”
41% of the women surveyed say women continue to face traditional barriers along the corporate ladder
89% believe that men are still being paid more than women for doing the same job

(Source: BusinessWeek, June 12, 2001).
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Calling all geeks!

A new website called GirlGeeks.com has recently emerged on the Internet. GirlGeeks is a career success site for professional women in field of information technology that provides women with the “tools and training to advance their career.” GirlGeeks.com is a haven for women in technology to help “ease occasional frustrations in the still male-dominated field” since only 25-30% of the IT workforce is female. Kristine Hanna, president, CEO and co-founder says that the mission is to “empower” women in the technology field. Hanna further states that GirlGeeks.com is a site that allows women to be challenged, feel safe, and able to ask the questions they need answered.

The name GirlGeeks was chosen in order to “smash the stereotype” associated with the word geek. Hanna and her associates are trying to change the definition of geek from meaning “uncool” to a “woman who is passionate about technology.” Today, being a female technician means “making a lot of money, being able to make your own career, [and] being able to empower yourself because you use technology as a tool” which helps to alter the definition of the word geek.

GirlGeeks.com is a website for young people just entering the profession, experienced technicians, as well as entrepreneurs. Some of the highlights on the website include a mentoring program, a job searching and resume-posting site, technological news, a geek-o-meter and trivia questions. The website also features “girlgeek of the week” where a different female computer technician is chosen each week for their accomplishments in the field.

(Source: CNN.com, June 15, 2001).
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New Post for Entrepreneurial Ad Exec

Mary Baglivo, 43, an executive vice president and chief operating officer for North America at J. Walter Thompson in New York is leaving to take the No. 2 position at Panoramic Communications. Baglivo’s appointment as president of Panoramic is an attempt by chairman Jeb Brown to stimulate the growth of the company. Baglivo took the position at Panoramic because “it’s an interesting, entrepreneurial opportunity with lots of possibilities”.

As president, Baglivo becomes “perhaps the highest ranking woman at an agency” since most senior leaders at agency companies have been men. Panoramic Communications is a privately held company that owns agencies such as BEN Marketing Group, Creative Partners, EPB Public Relations, KSK Communications, and Earle Palmer Brown to name a few. Their clientele include industry giants such as Coca-Cola, Citigroup, Home Depot, IBM, and Bristol-Myers Squibb.

As for J. Walter Thompson, they have appointed another woman, Peggy Nolan, to handle the void left by Baglivo’s absence. Nolan, a senior partner and executive management director at the InsightOut division of Thompson, will handle brand intelligence and oversee a study on brands and consumers.

(Source: The New York Times, Tuesday, June 5, 2001).
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Quick Stats – Women and Healthcare

Women make 80% of family healthcare decisions, a $90.8 billion market (Market Research News, Feb. 1999)
Male physicians earn an average annual income of $175,000, while female physicians earn only $120,000 (American Medical Association, April 2001)
Despite only making up 7% of the workforce, male nurses are twice as likely to be promoted as women (BBC News)
As of 1998, 22.8% of all practicing physicians are women (AMA, April 2001)
In 2000 women made up 43.8% of medical school students, up from 36.2% in 1990 (AMA, May 2001)
Female physicians are in high demand today since patients have discovered that female doctors tend to be more compassionate and listen better than male doctors (Medical Economics Magazine)

45 And Going Strong

The Financial Women’s Association held its annual dinner at the end of May and celebrated its 45th anniversary. The Association was originally founded in 1956 by eight Wall Street businesswomen who had been denied membership to the Young Men’s Investment Club. 1,100 people attended this year’s dinner, including such prominent guests as Reuben Mark, chief executive of Colgate-Palmolive and Harold W. McGraw III, chief executive of McGraw-Hill Companies. The dinner also featured videotaped tributes from Wall Street giants such as David H. Komansky, chief executive of Merrill Lynch and Sanford I. Weill, chief executive of Citigroup.

(Source: The New York Times, Sunday, June 3, 2001.)
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