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The Summer of the Female C-Suite

It may be too soon to declare this, but this seems to be the summer of female CEOs and C-Suite appointments.

Between Heineken appointing a woman as the CEO of the USA division, and GM appointing another woman to the C-Suite (as the CFO), we are seeing a few more cracks in the glass ceiling.

Heineken’s appointment of Maggie Timoney marks “…the first woman to lead a major U.S. beer supplier” (Schultz). Timoney has an impressive resume with the company, and arguably a better reputation. After spending the previous five years as CEO in Ireland, she has been regarded by her colleagues as “…a competitive and energetic leader who is known for inspiring teams, operationalizing plans and mobilizing organizations to deliver business results” (Schultz). In an industry that has remained male-dominated, and smaller breweries (even those that become major) are passed down through generations, Timoney’s appointment demonstrates the rise of women in the industry, and the relevance of female leaders in the alcohol industry.

Mentorships, allies, and women supporting each other all stick out in the story of Dhivya Suryadevara’s ascention to GM’s CFO position. Mary Barra (GM’s CEO) “…selected another high-achieving woman to join her in the executive suite” … Read more and comment

Learn how to code!

DWN learned how to code during Women in Tech week! Thanks to BeverlyAnne Torkelson for leading a great training on coding! The technology-driven world we live in calls for many different skills – coding being one in high demand. If you weren’t able to attend this training, check out this training deck here! This deck includes an overview of coding and resources to help you learn code.… Read more and comment

DWN Awards 2018

By: Kathryn Rainville

July marked the 3rd anniversary for the DISH Women’s Network. As Michelle Calkins, co-founder and president of DWN said in her opening remarks, “…we’ve seen our members grow personally and professionally as they’ve broadened their connections across the company, earned promotions, and expanded their roles to become impactful players at DISH.” Each year, the DISH Women’s Network team selects women and men for various awards to recognize the milestones these incredible people have achieved over the course of the year. As Alison Moy, DWN VP of Member Engagement reminded us: “These rewards are an opportunity to not only recognize the winners but to also reflect on the cast talent around us and appreciate those who are pushing us to be better.”

This year, the DISH Women’s Network team received an overwhelming number of nominations which made the decision difficult. Congratulations to all of the nominees for all of their hard work. Right now, we would like to congratulate each of the incredibly deserving winners for all they have contributed to their peers, to their teams, and to the larger DISH community.

Kristen Machemer is this year’s Trailblazer award recipient. As stated in at awards ceremony, Kristen is … Read more and comment

Diversity is the new business “imperative”

By: Kathryn Rainville

The CEO of Accenture North America, Julie Sweet, is a champion of workplace diversity. She has made it her goal to achieve gender equity in her workforce by 2025. Currently, the employee base is around 36% women and 64% men.

With the rise of movements like #MeToo, #TimesUp, and more, Sweet feels more hope for the future than ever before. She has said “There is something different today than even two or three years ago. There’s a genuine focus that’s not about checking a box…” (CNN Money). The paradigm around diversity has switched, and Sweet even calls it a new “business imperative” (CNN Money). Diversity is no longer a want; it is a need to compete in our ever-globalizing and connected world.

Accenture shared their employment statistics to confront and share the successes and failures they have experienced in their ability to diversify talent. Sweet wants the conversation to be transparent; she says that while their statistics were not great, “[they’re] going to be honest about where [they] are and where [they] want to go” (CNN Money). Starting this conversation begins with those revelations, and for the first time, Accenture has set goals in terms of hiring … Read more and comment

Summer Reading Suggestions from the DWN team: Leadership

By: Kathryn Rainville

Leadership means something different for each person. With thousands of self-help books available that suggest how to harness and effectively use your leadership skills, diagnose your leadership type, etc., it is no wonder that it’s a constant point of conversation on all teams. In some sense, everyone has the ability to lead. To be sure, this does not mean that each person can lead, does lead, or will lead a team. It does, however, mean that each person can encourage, help, and empathize with their team members, and set an example of how they would like to be led. This summer, the DWN team encourages you to check out the books below, and discover your leadership potential, and what you can do to better your leadership.

Servant Leadership: A journey into the Nature of Legitimate power and greatness

By Robert K. Greenleaf

A compilation of essays that introduced the servant leadership movement in the USA. Explains the components and importance of servant leadership across different types of organizations.

The idea of servant leadership has been around since the 1970s, when Robert K. Greenleaf coined the term “servant leader” in his popular essay “Servant as Leader.” Since then, … Read more and comment

Overstock: Parity Pledge

By: Kathryn Rainville

Taking the Parity Pledge is a commitment to support and to celebrate the rise of women into the C-Suite. In December, Overstock.com, the e-commerce giant, was the latest large company to join the ranks of Best Buy, Cisco, and others in promising to work towards work place parity.

Companies who take the Parity Pledge promise “…to interview at least one qualified female candidate for every open executive position, vice president and above, including the C-suite and board of directors” (Overstock.com). With only 20% of S&P 500 executives being women, this pledge is focused on the creation of equal opportunity and advancement. Overstock.com credits their Women’s Network for encouraging this step forward in the promotion of equality within the organization.

Overstock.com views this move as a compliment to the work their Women’s Network has done in fostering diversity among employees and the revelations brought forth from different points of view. In making a national pledge to the diversity it values, Overstock.com hopes “…to become role models for change,” says Parity.org founder and CEO, Cathrin Stickney.

For more information on the Parity Pledge, and how you can further support it as an individual, visit www.parity.org.

Source:

http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/12/08/1250361/0/en/Overstock-com-Takes-ParityPledge-to-Improve-the-Pathway-for-Women-in-Leadership-Positions.html… Read more and comment

Equal Pay Across Industries

written by: Marianie Arroyo

Gender pay differences are at the forefront of the core issues that organizations who advocate for and support women’s advancement in the workplace defend. Coming from a family that encourages women’s academic and professional development and having a CFO dad that was very supportive and whom I admire greatly; this topic was unbeknownst to me. All of this changed at 16 when I was negotiating my first professional athlete contract. I was confronted with a situation where I was expected to accept what I was offered and given the perception that anyone who had reached that level was lucky enough and that you had to accept their terms because this was the way it was done.

One of the industries where women experience a huge pay gap is in Professional Sports. In my opinion there are several factors that give you a clue like seeing few women coaches in most disciplines and very few women general managers and team owners. Salary data shows evidence that the gender pay gap is still prevalent in the business of sports in 2018. Women sports’ disciplines such as volleyball have the same average amount of sponsors and even more fans … Read more and comment

Stitch Fix: Inventory nightmare, or the part-time fashionista/part-time worker’s dream?

By: Kathryn Rainville

Katrina Lake, CEO of Stitch Fix, took her Harvard Business School e-commerce proposal to an IPO of $2 billion last fall. As the youngest woman to ever do so, Lake was praised; as one Twitter user stated, “It [was] so perfectly a ‘yes, we are ladies in charge’ moment” (Elle). For all the praise, the world confronted her with the classic female executive question: “How do you do it all?”

This question, among others in the same vein, fueled Lake, and as she stated in multiple interviews “There was one point where [she] felt [she] should be [called] a tech CEO and not a woman CEO” (Elle). This delineation is a powerful statement – a normalization of being a female executive in a male-dominated industry. Not only is she normalizing women in the C-Suite, her company employs greater than 80% women in the technology field.

Initially, Lake was doubted for her e-commerce idea. This was a challenge though, not a threat. Being a woman allowed Lake to see opportunities in e-commerce that men did not or would not attempt. In fact, her professors believed it was a complete “inventory nightmare,” and could not … Read more and comment

Happy Mother’s Day!