News For You - September 2003

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!

Crashing GE's Glass Ceiling

Charlene T. Begley, president and CEO of GE Transportation Systems is the first woman ever to lead a major GE unit and the most prominent of numerous female executives who are rising fast at GE. Of GE’s top 173 officers, 13.8% are now women. That’s better than the 4.5% of six years ago, but still less than the 15.7% average at America’s 500 largest companies, according to Catalyst. Some of the change has been triggered by the retirement of former CEO John F. Welch who had a mediocre record on diversity and used to sneer openly at the idea of “work-life balance”. In his place is Jeffrey R. Immelt, who has loudly pledged to make GE a model of diversity, especially in the senior ranks. Indeed, on July 15, he appointed communications veteran Beth Comstock to a new position as chief marketing officer.

(Source: Business Week, July 28, 2003)
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More Women than Men are Suppoortive, Inspiring Leaders

According to a recent study by Northwestern University and Tilburg University (Netherlands), published in Psychological Bulletin 2003, over 50% of women tend to use a “transformational” style of leadership that gives them an edge as managers. Transformational leaders have been shown to have a positive impact on the success of organizations. Women score higher than men on several aspects of transformational leadership, including optimism about goals and future projects, encouragement of innovation, a focus on mentoring the people they manage, and demonstration of qualities that engender respect and pride. Female leaders also score higher than male leaders in rewarding good performance.

(Source: Psychological Bulletin 2003, Vol. 129, No. 4)
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Mirror, Mirror...

More than eight in 10 women worldwide (85%) say that how they look is an important factor in defining who they are. Worldwide, over half (54%) of women say they have medium self-esteem, while 42% consider their self-esteem high. Given the premium placed on appearance, it is not surprising that 77% of women worldwide consider beauty products a necessity, rather than a luxury. Two thirds of women (67%) say they put a lot of effort into always trying to look their best, while 28% say they’re never satisfied with their appearance.

(Source: Marketing to Women, September 2003)
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