As chairman and senior partner of PwC, I have closely followed the debate about Sheryl Sandberg’s new book Lean In. Sandberg has brought renewed attention to the critical challenge of diversifying corporate leadership. While Sandberg focuses on inspiring women to embrace ambition, I believe business leaders have a responsibility to lean in as well. At PwC we’re “leaning in” because we recognize that women and minorities cannot solve the leadership gap by themselves.

There are many concrete steps CEOs, in particular, can take. The first is to create accountability for diversity. At PwC, our Chief Diversity Officer is a line partner who reports directly to me and is a member of my leadership team. The role is a rotation, rather than a destination, and we use it to develop high-potential partners. Our Chief Diversity Officers contribute to a strategic business issue outside of their traditional practice and gain visibility. Although this structure might not work for all organizations, at PwC it serves to elevate the function and drive change.

The second step is to create an inclusive culture. Here, programs matter. While the ultimate goal of any diversity initiative is cultural change, formal programs send a powerful signal. For example, Full Circle is a PwC program that allows parents to “off-ramp” from their careers, stay connected while they are gone, maintain their technical credentials, and then return to the firm. Formalizing this option gives people permission to pursue non-linear career paths. Mentor Moms is a PwC effort to match women returning from maternity leave with experienced mothers who are successfully juggling family and careers. Our Women’s Networking Circles provide a forum to discuss career advancement, and our members are using Lean In’s educational videos to enrich that conversation.

Diversity initiatives also set expectations. We’ve asked all 2,700 PwC partners to sponsor three diverse professionals. Partners are expected to identify these individuals in their development plans and discuss the actions taken on their behalf during the end-of-year evaluation. We believe sponsorship is critical to advancement, and these relationships often develop informally. Breaking the cycle of people sponsoring those who are similar to themselves requires intentional effort.

The third step is to create awareness that people sometimes make unconscious assumptions. Sandberg’s book catalogs unconscious biases people still may hold about women leaders. We have a responsibility as an organization to address those stereotypes. PwC hosts interactive sessions for our leaders about how to identify potential “blind spots” and better understand how they influence decision making. As leaders, we must challenge our blind spots.

Finally, we need to create environments where people have the flexibility to lean forward or back at different points. Career paths have to be less rigid, in order to accommodate the diversity of today’s workforce.

While we still have progress to make, these efforts have yielded results. Over the last decade the number of women partners in our US firm has increased considerably, and five members of our 15-person leadership team are women.

I hope more of our women are inspired by the dialogue Sandberg has generated to lean in and aim even higher in their careers. My work is to make sure PwC leans in to meet those ambitions with opportunities, flexibility, and sponsorship. Then together we can close the leadership gap.

The post How Companies Can Lean In, Too appeared first on DiversityInc.

Racism & Colorism in the Black Community

The University of Pennsylvania held a “hair-itage” symposium on the challenging politics of Black hair, led by Associate Professor of Religious Studies Anthea Butler, to demystify the versatility of Black hair and encourage Black women to embrace the beauty of their natural Blackness and appearance.

The issue of whether mostly white corporate America allows Black women—and others from underrepresented groups—to be their “whole selves” while succeeding is relevant to the recent debate over R&B singer India.Arie, who is defending the cover art for her new single, “Cocoa Butter.”

While various news outlets say that the singer’s drastically lightened skin color—and rumors of skin bleaching—are “absolutely ridiculous” and simply an effect of intense lighting, Twitter users were quick to slam Arie for her creative choice to not color-correct the photo.

“It’s not the lights, even if it’s make up! Why India Arie!? This isn’t You! Please tweet her and ask her why…” said hip-hop artist Rhymefest.

Arie has been a vocal advocate for Black beauty with songs like “I Am Not My Hair” and “Brown Skin” and also spoke out regarding the controversial casting of Zoe Saldana, a biracial actress, as the lead in the upcoming Nina Simone biopic, which many in the Black community consider “whitewashing.”

Watch this Huffington Post Panel discuss “The Color Complex.”

Corporate America: Racism, Biases Toward Black Hair & Skin Color

The larger issue—rather, #skinversation, as Arie calls it—is racism and colorism in the Black community, which ultimately carries over into the workplace.

In his popular Ask the White Guy column “Do Blacks Need to Relax Their Natural Hair to Get Promoted?” DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti writes:

There’s no doubt in my mind that Black people have been overlooked for promotions because of natural hair or darker skin color. Psychological tests show that people most trust people who look like them. Since white men run most corporations in this country, straightened hair and/or lighter skin is going to be an advantage (disturbing, but let’s keep it real).

Visconti also notes that these types of biases and stereotypes, if left unchecked, can negatively affect your business by reducing a company’s competitive advantage, ability to recruit/retain top talent and its potential for innovation. Allowing employees to bring their whole selves to work (whether that means your appearance, your orientation or your background), and not fear that they will be judged by stereotypes and biases, is key to driving an inclusive corporate culture.

How do you get that? It starts at the top with clearly stated values of inclusion from the CEO and senior executives and is supported by cultural-competence education, which occurs through having active resource groups spreading the word, role models from underrepresented groups in your succession plan, and formal, cross-cultural mentoring relationships that teach high-potentials how to succeed in corporate environments without sacrificing their identities.

The post Should Black Women Straighten Their Hair or Lighten Their Skin? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Sheryl Sandberg thinks the concept of mentorship for women is highly overrated. Sandberg’s wrong—and here’s why.

Before I take apart the argument about mentoring made by Sandberg, the Facebook COO who is on every media channel pushing her book Lean In, I have a confession: I never had a formal mentor and if I’d had one, it could have changed my life for the better.

When I started my career—30 years ago, in a very male-dominated industry—it was sink or swim. Produce results or find another job. I was smart, ambitious and willing to work harder than my peers, almost all of whom were men. I always managed well but relating to peers wasn’t so easy.

Case in point, I was a newspaper reporter in a unionized shop and we weren’t supposed to work overtime, even if we were covering breaking news, like fires and murders. I ignored the union and put in as many free hours as needed to do a great job—and I never asked for overtime even though I was grossly underpaid. So my bosses loved me, and I didn’t have a whole lot of friends in the newsroom. And within a couple of years, I became their boss, which didn’t endear me to the rank and file either.

If I’d had a mentor, I might have been able to find a more collaborative and less competitive way to succeed, which would have made me a much more effective manager when I was promoted over everyone else. A mentor also could have shown me how to better balance personal time and work time so I didn’t exist in a constant state of anxiety. Most importantly, a mentor could have helped me learn how to talk to my male bosses about what wasn’t working in the organization and for me, instead of being afraid of pissing them off.

What would have been effective for me would have been both a female mentor and a male mentor. There weren’t any female role models where I worked, so that wasn’t an option. And the men who were interested in mentoring picked people who looked and sounded like them—and that sure wasn’t me.

Sandberg: Women Rely Too Much on Mentors 

Sandberg argues that the current emphasis in corporate America on women finding mentors (who coach you) and sponsors (who advocate for you politically) wastes everyone’s time. For senior women like herself, she says being asked to be a mentor “is a total mood killer” that she seems to find annoying, like a celebrity being approached for an autograph.

For the mentees, she projects her “do it yourself” mantra, saying: “We need to stop telling them, ‘Get a mentor and you will excel.’ Instead, we need to tell them, ‘Excel and you will get a mentor.’”

If Sandberg’s logic follows, there will be no change in the very status quo she wants to “revolutionize”: men (and I’ll add white men) holding on for dear life to their vastly disproportionate share of leadership positions. She admits, and I agree, that people mentor and sponsor those who have common interests and who remind them of themselves. That leaves women—and Blacks, Latinos, Asians, American Indians, LGBT people and people with disabilities—out in the cold.

If women have to “lean in” and excel before they solicit mentors and sponsors—and if women should be careful not to annoy powerful women by “bothering them” for advice—only white men are going to use mentoring and sponsoring to their advantage.

Corporate Involvement 

This is the essential reason why companies that understand they have a lot of ground to make up with women and other underrepresented groups have been jumping into cross-cultural, formalized mentoring. The formalization is critical because informal mentoring leads to propagating the status quo. If the company doesn’t emphasize the cross-cultural aspect of mentoring—and include cultural awareness training for both parties before they start the relationship—again, the reach out to women and others doesn’t happen.

Sandberg says that mentoring works best when it’s combined with other kinds of leadership development and training, and cites Deloitte’s excellent Leading to WIN Women’s Initiative. The most successful talent-development efforts (such as Deloitte’s) are indeed multipronged, but they only succeed when strong one-to-one relationships are a major part of the deal.

If you look at mentoring programs that show dramatic increases in female retention and promotions, such as Deloitte’s, Sodexo’s IMPACT program, and Target’s mentoring initiatives for managers, you will see that they are very structured, very metrics-driven, and yet enable those personal relationships to grow on an individual basis.

The Other Side 

So while I’ve never had a real mentor, I have mentored several people, most of them younger women. My first mentee was Tammy, who was assigned to me when I was a senior editor at a newspaper that had just initiated formal mentoring. Tammy and I met every week and developed a strong friendship that continued for many years. I taught her how to improve her writing and what she needed to do for her next career moves. She taught me how to slow down (a little) and listen to what people are saying (a lesson I’m still working on).

Since then, I’ve informally mentored several people (because our company is too small to have a formal mentoring program), most of them women. And what continues to surprise me is how much I learn from them.

If those who have become successful choose, like Sandberg, to ignore the requests of others to be their mentors, we do ourselves a great disservice. We aren’t holding on to power by denying them our collective wisdom—we are allowing an inequitable status quo to be perpetuated (with a few  “token” women and others at the top)—and we are denying ourselves the opportunity to grow in different ways by learning from those we teach.

The post Sheryl Sandberg’s Message on Mentoring Is Wrong—and Dangerous appeared first on DiversityInc.

“One week before my unit was scheduled to return back to the United States, I was raped by another service member that had worked with our team,” former Army Technician Rebekah Havrilla told the U.S. Senate last week. “Initially, I chose not to do a report of any kind because I had no faith in my chain of command. … The unit climate was extremely sexist and hostile in nature toward women.”

About 20 percent of military women report experiencing Military Sexual Trauma (MST), according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. This includes unwanted sexual touching or grabbing, threatening or offensive remarks about a person’s body or sexual activities, and threatening and unwelcome sexual advances. By comparison, only one in 100 men report MST.

Two Service Women’s Action Network staff members testified this month before the Senate on behalf of thousands of military service women who have been victims of sexual harassment and assault. This historic hearing marked the first time in almost 10 years that the Senate examined these outstanding issues.

SWAN Executive Director Anu Bhagwati, a former Marine Captain, and SWAN Outreach and Education Coordinator Havrilla shared their personal stories before the Senate.

Despite the large number of sexual harassment and assault cases reported to the VA, Bhagwati and Havrilla said that little has been done to prevent MST from occurring and that reports of sexual harassment, assault and rape, such as Havrilla’s, are frequently “swept under the rug,” says Bhagwati.

Bhagwati detailed to the Senate how she once attempted to file an investigation of an offending officer—and immediately was given a gag order by her commanding officer. She then “lived in fear of retaliation and violence” from the offender and her chain of command, while the offender went on to be promoted.

“Sexual violence is not just a ‘women’s issue.’ It is widely misunderstood by military personnel, who have been overexposed to a culture of victim-blaming and rape mythology, where victims are considered responsible for their own assaults, and perpetrators are simply naïve young service members who might have had a lapse of professional judgment,” Bhagwati said.

Bhagwati and Havrilla urged policymakers to:

1. Professionalize the military criminal-justice system: Authority over criminal cases should be conducted by trained prosecutors, as commanding officers cannot be truly impartial and unbiased.
2. Open civil courts to military victims: Currently, military persons are not allowed to bring claims for discrimination or negligence; therefore, the military is not held liable for failing to prevent or reprimand sexual harassment or assault infractions.
3. Ensure survivors’ VA claims get accepted: The Ruth Moore Act, not yet passed into law, could help in providing survivors of sexual assault with effective treatments for conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder.

The post ‘I Was Raped,’ Military Women Tell Senate appeared first on DiversityInc.

The Atlantic only got half the story. It’s not about “housework”; if we’re talking about top management, at a certain point, a couple has to decide which person is going to stay home. You cannot have two people with high-flying careers in a relationship unless they don’t have children. If you have children or want a family, one spouse/partner must stay home.

Relatively few people nationwide achieve the career trajectory needed to get into top management. At most high-flying companies, they usually have Ivy League pedigrees and life experiences that are highly unusual (compared to the average American), like Sheryl Sandberg has. Even among that group, many don’t achieve Sandberg-like trajectories, and the problem is that you don’t really know if your career is going to take off until your early 30s. By then, you’ve made several make-or-break career decisions.

The way most companies are run now, the moves you have to make are made with the assumption that one spouse is subordinate—because to get on that trajectory, you have to work 60–90 hours a week when you’re in your 20s. The right moves require frequent geographic relocations. They require that you have no responsibility for elder care. They require that you put in your private time politicking: going to the right events, socializing with the right people, etc. In other words, for people making more than a good upper-middle-income living (more than $500,000), the requirements of time and travel make it impossible for both spouses to be employed. For example, I know a senior woman executive who makes a seven-figure income. There’s NO WAY she can say no to a last-minute client meeting, and there’s no way she can get more than partial flex time. Her househusband has two advanced degrees, but he’s unusual—in the wealthy neighborhoods across the country there are far more middle-aged women with advanced degrees who stay at home than there are men.

The problem as I see it is that the women usually opt out of the corporate rat race because the expectation is that they won’t be treated fairly. And the data agree—they won’t.

That’s why it’s extremely important for men AND women to pick the right company to work for. They’re not all the same. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t recommend that any woman work for Facebook because the only woman who has reached top management has a résumé that is in the top .0001 percent of America. Sheryl Sandberg isn’t just exceptional, she’s SUPER exceptional. Sure, some of the men around her are super exceptional, but not all of them have nearly her pedigree. Fifty percent of the people Sheryl’s age with SUPER-exceptional résumés aren’t women (many have dropped out of the fast track for the reasons noted above); however, I’d estimate that 30 percent of that group are women. This should tell you that if the women at Facebook were just exceptional, they’d have no chance.

Women—and men—should pick companies that have the competency to develop the careers of both genders. I’ll take a Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, where 50 percent of the people reporting to André Wyss are women. I’ll take a PricewaterhouseCoopers, where I’ve heard Bob Moritz talk about the personal responsibility his top management has been assigned to take for the careers of the women reporting to them. I’ll pick a Sodexo, where senior executives talk like real human beings and are passionate about (and busy) doing the right thing.

I’d avoid companies where the CEO speaks paternally or has odd, out-of-date anecdotes, especially avoiding those that talk about “picking a woman” as if that were something remarkable. (Given that women have been earning more bachelor’s degrees than men since 1982, how remarkable can it be?) I’d look very closely at that web page that shows the company’s senior executives and board. All men? All white men? Since most companies look that way, you don’t want to make a final decision based on that evidence, but ask good questions during your interview process. Unless there are demonstrable management initiatives (executive diversity council, structured mentoring, high-profile resource groups) to change the status quo, don’t count on a good career if you’re not one of them, because they picked a lot of just-exceptional men over their more-exceptional women counterparts many times to get to where they are today.

Don’t let Sandberg convince you that the problem is with women: No matter how much you “Lean In” and how much your spouse/partner does the housework, your career doesn’t stand much of a chance if you work for a company that chooses to run itself in a way that discards most of half the available talent pool.

Luke Visconti’s Ask the White Guy column is a top draw on DiversityInc.com. Visconti, the founder and CEO of DiversityInc, is a nationally recognized leader in diversity management. In his popular column, readers who ask Visconti tough questions about race/culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability and age can expect smart, direct and disarmingly frank answers.

The post Ask the White Guy: It’s Not About Housework, It’s About Picking the Right Company appeared first on DiversityInc.

“We’ve ceased making progress at the top in any industry anywhere in the world,” Sandberg writes. “In the United States, women have had 14 percent of the top corporate jobs and 17 percent of the board seats for 10 years. Ten years of no progress,” despite the fact that women now earn more bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees than men.

Sandberg’s advice to women? Don’t get a mentor if you want to excel—you need to excel first, then you’ll get a mentor. It’s a philosophy that has sparked a significant debate, especially since her viewpoint relieves many organizations of the responsibility of promoting equality in the workplace and advocating cultural-competence education, writes Barbara Frankel, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor, DiversityInc.

As a woman who has fought for three decades in the workplace for a place at the table … I agree with Sandberg that too many women give up too easily as the challenges of family and work become overwhelming. But her simplistic solution of urging women to take control of themselves and join “Lean In Circles” to bolster each other ignores the reality that most workplace inequities aren’t caused by the victims, but by the institutions and those in power who benefit from continuity.”

Read the rest of Frankel’s reaction to Lean In in this column.

Read these reviews and reactions from other top news outlets—then share your thoughts with us in the comments below:

Sheryl Sandberg Inspired and Offended on 60 Minutes [with video]
Sandberg says she’s not blaming women, but there are a lot more factors to success that women can—and should—control.

SHERYL SANDBERG: Women Need to Get More Comfortable With Power
This overview of Sandberg’s book breaks it down into seven lessons, including “women should not ask for mentors” and “having it all is a myth.”

‘This Week’ Roundtable on Sheryl Sandberg
Do men outnumber women when it comes to ambition for leadership? Panelists discuss controversy surrounding Sandberg’s Lean In.

Lean In, Read On: 21 Perspectives on Sheryl Sandberg’s Book
Sandberg is a “PowerPoint Pied Piper in Prada ankle books,” wrote Maureen Dowd, New York Times columnist and Pulitzer Prize recipient.

10 Things Sheryl Sandberg Gets Exactly Right In Lean In
Despite criticism, you can’t ignore that Sandberg hits the nail on the head: Men still rule the world.

Gen-Y Responds to Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In
What do 20-something’s think about Sandberg’s book? Here are some first-hand responses on Lean In.

Sheryl Sandberg: On a Mission to Elevate Women
Is Sandberg too rich, too successful to lead a women’s movement? The Facebook COO won’t back down despite criticism.

Facebook’s Sandberg Says Women’s Revolution Has Stalled
CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell interviews Sandberg.

60 Minutes: Sandberg on Mentoring
Sandberg details the insecurities she still has about her success and about the mentors she had along the way.

The post Sandberg’s Lean In: Women’s Biggest Barrier to Success? Themselves appeared first on DiversityInc.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In comes out today, and it has been lighting up social media and Sunday talk shows with its concept that women have to “try harder” and not rely on their employers or their mentors to look out for them.

As a woman who has fought for three decades in the workplace for a seat at the table—and who now sees my 28-year-old daughter and several young women I mentor facing similar struggles—I agree with Sandberg that too many women give up too easily as the challenges of family and work become overwhelming. But Sandberg’s simplistic solution of urging women to take control of themselves and join “Lean In Circles” to bolster each other ignores the reality that most workplace inequities aren’t caused by the victims, but by the institutions and those in power who benefit from continuity.

In other words, we shouldn’t let corporate America off the hook for the lack of women in senior management.

Consider this: Women account for just 4.2 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs; at DiversityInc Top 50 companies, which are significantly more progressive for race and ethnicity, women do only slightly better: 6 percent of CEOs. Women account for 20 percent of the top level at Fortune 500 companies (CEO and direct reports) and 24 percent at DiversityInc Top 50 companies.

So as someone who came of age in the 1970s, when full equality seemed imminent (to those who read Ms. Magazine religiously, as I did), I have to wonder: What happened?

Corporate Hubris

I understand Sandberg’s points on not being passive about leadership and on women making their own success. But the message sent by corporate America has been ambiguous, to say the least. On the one hand, many companies have been singing their own praises for their “flexible” workplaces and how great they are for women—while still having very different promotion tracks for those who can’t travel globally for weeks at a time, who may not want to be connected 24/7, or who have more inclusive styles of leadership.

I cannot tell you the number of women—including several I know who are in their 20s—who use the word “compromise” when describing their life choices. I did it myself in my 20s, choosing to be a big fish in a little pond (a local newspaper) instead of pursuing my dream of working for a major newspaper. You know the story: husband, kids, aging parents, house, dog, cat, etc. We can “have it all,” but with a price—our dreams, our sanity and often our health.

Unlike Sandberg, I don’t fault the women who continue to make these choices. I fault a society that doesn’t offer reasonable childcare (from a financial and an emotional perspective) and I fault corporate America, including many of those companies that bill themselves as leaders for women.

A Real Example

The few companies that are trying to really level the playing field for women understand that they aren’t there yet. I moderated a panel last week on women branding themselves and having more “executive presence.” One of the speakers was Maria Castañón Moats, the Chief Diversity Officer of PricewaterhouseCoopers. PwC is No. 1 on the 2012 DiversityInc Top 50 list, and for good reason—this is a company that continually challenges itself on how inclusive it actually is and never, ever rests on its laurels.

Maria talked about how PwC is working diligently to get its senior partners, still mostly white men, to connect more with younger women in the organization and how multifaceted and ongoing their organizational efforts are. This is a company that literally helps women (and men) plan their families every step of the way. Their numbers of women in management show a remarkable story of progress, one we rarely see in other companies. I’m not speaking loosely here; we have almost 900 companies participating in the DiversityInc Top 50 this year and the progress for women into the senior levels is pretty slow across the board.

But most companies don’t have the self-awareness of PwC. Instead, they put their names out there with big media splashes and then refuse to really address the systemic and inherent sexism in their organizations.

Sandberg’s Lean In project has “launch partners” including American Express, Google, Sony and Johnson & Johnson, according to The New York Times. Not sure exactly what that support involves beyond money, but I’d like to see those companies publicly disclose exactly how they are helping women move up and stay up—including hard numbers.

There’s a lot of criticism of Sandberg because she’s wealthy, works in Silicon Valley, has a supportive husband and lots of help. I’m not faulting her for her success or for her desires to share her ideas with other women. But if we let companies just buy their way to being “good for women,” things are never going to really get “good for women.”

My daughter’s getting married later this year and talks about having kids in a couple of years. She’s bright, she’s beautiful and she would be a major asset anywhere she goes.  But if the responsibility of doing it all falls entirely on her shoulders, she’ll probably follow in the footsteps of generations before her and compromise. And then we’ll be looking at 20 percent women in the top level of Fortune 500 companies for a long time.

The post Does Sandberg Let Corporations Continue Discrimination Against Women? appeared first on DiversityInc.

Lagarde writes in a blog post that International Women’s Day (annually recognized on March 8, #womensday) is a time not only to celebrate progress made but also to call attention to these inequities and their solutions. Top challenges facing working-age women globally today, according to Lagarde, include:

• Only 50 percent of women are in the labor force, and many countries still limit paid employment opportunities for women.
• Women remain largely responsible for work done in homes and in fields, much of it “unseen and unpaid.”
• The gender-wage gap is approximately 16 percent.
• Many women are taxed higher as “second earners” and discouraged from pursuing employment.
• Unemployment is on the rise, decreasing women’s chances of finding permanent positions.

“Today, although men still dominate the executive suites in most professions, women all over the world hold high positions in the private sector and in public office. Women are no longer the ‘Second Sex’ Simone de Beauvoir wrote about,” Lagarde writes. “Women have huge talents. Employers who don’t offer equal opportunities to women simply ignore a large part of the skilled workforce.

“I am an optimist and see beyond these challenges; our daughters and granddaughters will have even better opportunities than women have today. And let us always remember that when women are allowed to develop their full potential, it is not only women who gain, but the whole world,” she concludes.

The post International Women’s Day: How to Achieve Economic Equality appeared first on DiversityInc.

1. Terms of “endearment” such as “sweetie,” “hon” or “cutie.”
This is when a term of endearment becomes anything but endearing. In the workplace, such language can be interpreted as degrading or belittling.

2. “You’ve lost weight” or “You look so much better.”
Women as well as men may enjoy compliments on their looks. But saying this to a female coworker or executive at an inappropriate time can make female coworkers feel as though their skills and work are not taken seriously—that male counterparts are focusing only on their looks. Comments on weight and/or physical appearance should not be made to anyone in a business setting, as they imply a level of personal familiarity. They also suggest the person was fat or looked bad before. And the person might have an undisclosed illness, which would obviously make the comment even more rude.

3. Any kind of sexual comment.
Not only do sexual innuendos and derogatory terms like “honey” make the female employee on the receiving end feel embarrassed and offended, they also create a problem for the rest of the workplace environment. Think your top women employees will stick around if they know a company does not promote and enforce equal respect.

4. “Is it that time of the month?” or “She’s so emotional.”
There’s a preconceived notion that women cannot handle stress and tend to get too “personally invested” in their work. Dr. Ella Bell, Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, speaks very passionately about her work. As such, she immediately took offense when a senior male colleague said to her: “You sure wear your heart on your sleeve.”

That “ticked me off because I always try to be concrete. I interpreted it as my work wasn’t making intellectual sense,” recalls Bell. “I did pull him over on the side afterward and explained how it made me feel and that it was inappropriate.” Bell notes, however, that she was hesitant to speak up at first as she did not want to draw more negative attention.

When a female executive is forceful or aggressive, she can be received in a negative way, but a man in the same position is perceived as doing his job. One of the ways that negativity can be expressed is by attributing the behavior to hormonal changes. It is never appropriate to comment on a female coworker’s menstrual cycle or hormones. But how should a woman deal with the situation if she is the recipient of such a comment? Bell suggests that women find evidence of a male employee behaving the same way, which can help generate awareness for this common stereotype of women.

5. “You aren’t as aggressive with your subordinates as you should be. You need to be more forceful and tougher.”
“These are code words for being more ‘manly,’” says Barbara Frankel, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor of DiversityInc. “There are many different successful styles to manage people. What matters is results and that the manager’s style is inclusive and in keeping with the corporate culture.”

6. “You only got the job because you’re a woman.”
Suggesting to a woman that she’s excelled in her career because of gender is disrespectful. But unfortunately, Bell says this is a common occurrence, and that it’s common for those in the academic world to feel they must “justify” picking a woman over a man. “When a woman gets tenure you’ll hear others—including women—say, ‘She really wasn’t that good but they really wanted to keep her,’ or, ‘She shouldn’t have made it but … ,’” explains Bell. “You never hear that with the men.”

“After a while it rolls off your back. Your skin toughens so that when you hear comments, you can then approach the situation in a constructive way,” she says.

Elizabeth Vazquez, CEO of WEConnect International, a nonprofit fostering global business empowerment for women, says that globally there exists a perception that women do not have business savvy—this includes the ability to grow a company to a significant size and be a very successful business owner. “The public perception creates a cultural barrier for women who do not consider business ownership [or senior management] as a viable option, and it can also make it harder for women to get the support they need from their families and communities,” she explains.

To change this dynamic, Vazquez stresses the need to promote women’s success stories in business, including how they did it, what barriers they overcame, and the impact it has had on their lives and the lives of their families, communities and industry sector.

7.  “Do you really want that promotion? You’ll never see your kids.”
There still exists an unspoken belief that a woman executive will not be able to put in the same hours as a man. People assume she won’t be able to work more than 40 hours per week if she has a family or she’ll have to keep her children, not work, as the priority. This is a fatal error in judgment, especially for companies looking to improve gender diversity among their senior executives.

Don’t be quick to assume that a woman employee doesn’t value or want to pursue a high-profile executive career because she has (or wants) children at home. In fact, a woman who can simultaneously manage the demands of leading a team with the responsibilities of a busy family life demonstrates exceptional skill.

Similarly, you should never ask a woman, “Do you want to keep working now that you’re [married, divorced, pregnant, your husband/partner is relocating, your husband/partner is retiring]?” according to an anonymous female executive. You wouldn’t ask a man if he wanted to keep working if his family status changed or his significant other’s job status changed. But many bosses think it totally appropriate to ask women the same thing.

8.  “You do that so well for a girl.”
Even jokingly, the phrase implies that women are inferior to men and reinforces dated stereotypes. It also discourages many young women from actively pursuing interests in traditionally male-dominated industries, including STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields. Any conversation that implies that a woman—or any individual from any group—is “less than” is inappropriate. For an inspiring story, read about Wells Fargo Executive Vice President Michelle Lee’s experience as the only Black woman in her bank’s leadership-training program (www.DiversityInc.com/michelle-lee).

9. “Are you pregnant?” or “When are you due?”
While your intentions here may just be based on goodwill and a little curiosity, this can be a sensitive question to ask ANY woman, at work or outside of the office. Assume it’s none of your business unless a coworker decides to bring it up on her own. If you are discussing families and children, you may ask, “Do you have children?” but it’s up to the other person how much they want to reveal and when.

MORE THINGS NOT TO SAY:

• “You look thin. You should eat more.”
• Calling your boss or a snarky female coworker the B-word.
• “You aren’t one of those feminists, are you?”
• “Why aren’t you married yet?”
• “Men and women are treated equally. What are you complaining about?”
• “You’re being irrational.”

The post Beyond ‘Honey’ & ‘Sweetie’: Things NEVER to Say to Women appeared first on DiversityInc.

National Women’s History Month can trace its roots back to March 8, 1857, when women from New York City factories staged a protest over working conditions. International Women’s Day was first observed in 1909, but it wasn’t until 1981 that Congress established National Women’s History Week to be commemorated the second week of March. In 1987, Congress expanded the week to a month.

Emphasizing the increasing value of having women in leadership positions can help you increase cultural competence among your employees. It’s important to note how women’s roles have evolved, how flexible work arrangements allow more women to combine family and professional responsibilities, and how many glass ceilings still have not been shattered.

The timeline shown here illustrates significant dates in women’s history and major historic figures, while the facts data we have chosen to present here represents information of relevance to corporate America, such as education (available labor pool), business ownership, and progress in gaining executive and management positions.

Click the images to view and download the Women’s History Timeline and Women’s History Factoids.

The post Women’s History Month Timeline & Diversity Facts appeared first on DiversityInc.