By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
“I remember Susan Butler, Accenture’s first female senior executive,” began Jorge Benitez, Managing Director, North America and Chief Executive, United States at Accenture. “To be the first at something – that’s huge.”
In fact, Benitez himself has been an advocate for and a role model of diversity at the company [...]

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By Melanie Axman (Boston)
Studies and statistics consistently point towards company benefits and increased profit margins when women are encouraged and emerge as leaders in the workplace. Consequently, companies are increasingly recognizing the importance of identifying and developing female executives. This movement parallels the success women feel when male senior executives become sponsors, mentors and champions [...]

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Contributed by Jeffrey Cohn and Jay Moran
Many women today worry about what it takes to reach the top. They want to know what they can do to become better leaders.
The old paradigm said that they should adopt a traditionally “masculine” style or set of traits. Very few experts believe that [...]

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By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
“There is a lot of research that shows, and we believe, that diverse teams create better solutions to client problems than homogeneous teams,” explained Jim Wall, Global Chief Diversity Officer for Deloitte.
Wall said he appreciates the firm’s organization’s commitment to diversity – not only because it’s strategically important, but [...]

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By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
Mark Chamberlain, Head of Diversity for the Americas at Deutsche Bank, said the best piece of advice he received actually came from his grandmother. He explained, “In the early part of the 20th century, women weren’t supposed to go on to higher education, play sports or work outside the [...]

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Contributed by Lynn Harris, author of Unwritten Rules: What Women Need to Know About Leading In Today’s Organizations
Since publishing Unwritten Rules: What Women Need To Know About Leading In Today’s Organizations, I’ve worked with others to try to get more women in positions of senior leadership.
Basically all change efforts boil down to the same thing [...]

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By Melissa J. Anderson (New York City)
“Pax World is very focused on the notion of gender equality as an investment concept,” said Joe Keefe, President and CEO of Pax World, the first US mutual fund to focus on environmental, social and governance factors (ESG) in investment analysis and decision making.
“Our women’s empowerment platform includes applying [...]

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By Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)
A few months ago Deloitte’s Ann Weisberg shared an anecdote with The Glass Hammer that struck a chord with many of us. She relayed the story of a Deloitte senior male partner who spoke on a panel about the issue of gender diversity. He asked the audience, “Would you want your [...]

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Contributed by Mark Palmer, CEO, StreamBase Systems, Inc.
Recently, I attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the gathering of 2,500 CEOs,heads of state, and visionaries from the arts. At Davos, I saw Chinese vice premier Li Keqiang, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, met Miss Universe, and participated with the “titans of social media” — [...]

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By Dr. Eric Shoars, author Women Under Glass: The Secret Nature of Glass Ceilings and the Steps to Overcome Them
When I began researching glass ceilings there were questions as to why a man was tackling the issue of in the first place. After all, this is a women’s issue, isn’t it?
My personal reason for supporting [...]

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