Fixing the Economy Is Women’s Work
By Katty Kay and Claire ShipmanSunday, July 12, 2009
While the pinstripe crowd fixates on troubled assets, a stalled stimulus and mortgage remedies, it turns out that a more sure-fire financial fix is within our grasp — and has been for years. New research says a healthy dose of estrogen may be the key not only to our fiscal recovery, but also to economic strength worldwide.
The sexy new discussion in policy circles around the world, thanks to the recession, is whether a significant shift of power from men to women is underway — or whether it should be. Accounting giant Ernst & Young pulled out charts and graphs at a recent power lunch in Washington with female lawmakers to argue a provocative bottom line: Companies with more women in senior management roles make more money. The latest issue of Foreign Policy magazine sweepingly predicts the “death of macho.” Economists at Davos this year speculated that the presence of more women on Wall Street might have averted the downturn. Adding to this debate is the fact that the laid-off victims of this recession are overwhelmingly men.
All those right-brain skills disparaged as soft in the roaring ’90s are suddenly 21st-century-hot, while cocky is experiencing a slow fizzle.
The numbers make a compelling case. The studies Ernst & Young rounded up show that women can make the difference between economic success and failure in the developing world, between good and bad decision-making in the industrialized world, and between profit and loss in the corporate world. Their conclusion: American companies would do well with more senior women.
And it’s not only one study, but at least half a dozen, from a broad spectrum of organizations such as Columbia University, McKinsey & Co., Goldman Sachs and Pepperdine University, that document a clear relationship between women in senior management and corporate financial success. By all measures, more women in your company means better performance. SOURCE
July 13th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
This has been a theory for a long time. I think the actual research was hard because there were so few women in that position to draw data from until more recently.
In the fall of 1970, I stumbled in to the student union, got my cup of coffee and headed to the big round table where I met my friends every morning before beginning our day. At the table, this particular morning was a small older lady sitting with a graduate student from the Anthropology Dept. It was Margaret Mead. She is most famouse for her study on adolescent girls in Samoa coming of age and managed to outrage many about her disclosure of the casual sex the young girls had before settling into marriage and raising children. She was blamed as much as Dr Spock for the “loosening of morals” in the 60’s in America. But she did studies on morals and gender roles too. The conversation we had that morning over coffee was how women would be as managers and CEO’s in the corporate world. That’s where I first heard the term “saber rattling” as a term for competition. She pointed out that women were not risk takers men were. So this has been a long time coming.
I remember thinking she looked exhausted and frail. But at 17 who was I to to figure out her taxing schedule and rounds of lectures.
She was 69 at the time.
July 13th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Hahahaha,,,, I think somewhere we must have all known this was true! Right? I am the one in my house who says Oh No Sorry,,,we cannot buy a big screen tv, not now , not ever, dear ! I am the one who goes out and hunts for a cash car when the husband thinks we should just go buy something NEW and put it on payments, O M G!!! So, I fully believe these findings. Idiot men, look how bad they’ve screwed up everything up to now !
Sage Reply:
July 13th, 2009 at 5:16 pm
I think women are much more likely to look for a bargain and refuse to pay full price for something.
July 13th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Oh remember when the 3 auto giants were sitting before congress begging for money,,,,,,, all those lovely ladies with their manicured nails and scultped eyebrows?
That’s because they weren’t THERE !
July 13th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
There’s a big difference between agressive and assertive. Assertive wins big time.
Sage Reply:
July 13th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Can you imagine some defense supplier telling a woman that a hammer costs $200? LOL
July 13th, 2009 at 7:00 pm
LOL! I remember figuring out the great male myth of fixing things out of necessity. There was no one else and I had little money. I actually enjoy it. Guess it rubbed off on my daughters. My youngest just spent 2 days in the backcountry of Yellowstone constructing a bear pole. It looks like a tepee frame with a winch on it to pull your food up out of bears reach. They cut trees with a cross saw and used hand tools to debark the trees.The thing is 25′ high! She told me it made her think of playing in the garage when she was younger. She was in 7th heaven!
My oldest, though married, does all the house maintenance because she’s better at it than her hubby. Even building a screened porch. The husband excells at organizational things. The middle one is a wiz at electrical and roofing. Makes sense to me since I used to find her in high places as a child. One time she was the equivalent of 3 stories up perched on the roof pretending to be a gargoyle. Just waiting for me to notice. She was the official gutter cleaner. I don’t recall teaching them but I know they observed me figuring stuff out.
I learned to make tools that I couldn’t find. I got that from my dad. I have quite a collection of them made from scraps of wood and metal and duct tape.
July 14th, 2009 at 7:45 am
LOL! WIZ!
I just want to say in case I never told you how great it is to have met you on this blog and read your posts. You are a wealth of important and usually ‘different’ perspectives. Your life experience is something I look forward to hearing about each morning. You know SO MUCH and have a very calming affect on what might otherwise be very controversial subjects. YOU ROCK MY FRIEND
July 14th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Thank you. Sometime I wonder if I get to chatty about my personal experiences. But I have always held that you pay attention to your experiences because of the perspectives it gives you. Sometimes the parable approach explains things better.
My kids want me to write things down. For now I am enjoying the conversations we have. I think, bottom line, dependency is a dangerous thing. It clouds the reason.