Pioneer Woman Veteran

This Mid LIFE Matters clip previews a half-hour conversation with Dr. Linda S. Schwartz, the CT Commissioner of Veterans' Affairs for 10 years.  She served as an Air Force Nurse during Vietnam; earned a Ph.D. from Yale and is a faculty member; and was a founding member of the Women's Vietnam Memorial in Washington. Visit www.wpaa.tv and choose Video On Demand to be inspired by the full interview:  "Legacy - Women Veterans"

Offshored Danger

In 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in NYC caused immigrant working girls to jump to their deaths.  Locked workplace doors made the windows the only way out - except, of course, for the managers, who found safety on the rooftops.

As an H. R. crone, that incident is a touchstone for me.  While labor laws can confound the most earnest business owners, they often grow out of grave injustice.  Like the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory -- and recently, Bangladesh.

In the NYT article "Clothed in Misery", M. T. Anderson reports that an increase of 1-3% in prices could provide living wages and safer work environments for those who toil to make American women look more fashionable.  (OP-ED 4/30/13) 

Ladies - our iPads are reportedly also made in dangerous workplaces, heavily populated by young women.  Can't we mobilize ourselves to demand better for our sisters across the globe?

Margaret & Christine

The world recently mourned the loss of a iconic woman leader, Margaret Thatcher; she was a dominant force in the news while I was finding my way in the business world.  Today, women have several role models influencing global  events, including Christine Lagarde, currently the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund. 

In a USA TODAY article by Maria Bartiromo, Christine shared her views on 'jobs, growth and women at the top' (MONEY section, 4/15/13).  In addition to offering a a '3-speed' economic model, Christine weighed in on the chatter generated by Sheryl Sandberg's best-selling book, which says women need to 'lean in' to career opportunities. 

It stikes me that Christine and Margaret had some similar ideas about women's success:

Christine:  Don't imitate the boys.  Be yourself and bear the difference.  It has to do with having sufficient confidence in yourself and giving confidence in others, so that you can actually afford to be different and be proud of it. 

Margaret:  Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction.

Christine:  I would observe one thing, which I have consistently seen over the years:  Whenever the going get tough, the women are called into sort out the mess.

Margaret:  I've got a woman's ability to stick to a job and get on with it when everyone else walks off and leaves it.  And, most famously ... If you want something said, ask a man.  If your want something done, ask a woman.

Words to work by.

Sponsors vs. Mentors

Sallie L. Krawcheck, a Wall Street star -- as well as a casualty, offers her honest perspective on why so few women make it to the top.  In the NYT "Dealb%k"  Special Section on 4/3/13, she asserted that very successful people have sponsors.  She credits Sylvia Hewlett at the Center for Talent Innovation for advancing this concept.

Sheryl Sandberg had Larry Summers, who "pulled her along."  Sallie had Chuck Cahn at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., as well as Sandy Weill at Citigroup.  Proactive sponsors help people get visible assignments and promotions, vs. coaching from the sidelines.

I think women will know we've made progress when we are the ones pulling others along.  In the same Special Section, Irene Dorner,  chief executive of HSBC USA reflects that it wasn't unti she was 50 that she was in a position to champion organizational change regarding women.  She urges the next generation of senior middle-management women to stand up and be counted earlier in the game. 

Femalefesto?

Lean In is hailed as a new manifesto for women; to Sheryl's Sandberg's point, it's still a man's world.  In my little book, 55+ Unite! Welcome All Wise Working Women, I propose a 'manifesto' for older working women - you know, the ones who kicked in doors and cracked glass ceilings -- but are now likely to have their houses under water.  I urge older women not to buy into aging myths (with an assist from fMRI findings), to reflect on strengths that have gotten them this far, and to reclaim their lives with a little help from fierce friends. Gal pals are our secret weapons in the war on older women.

Sheryl Sandberg is criticized for speaking from a pulpit in rarified air - no, not heaven, but rather the top of the new, new Corporate America - Silicon Valley.  To her defense, we can only speak of what we really know, observe and study.  Good for her, to restart the conversation.

In Sunday's NYT, Erin Callan, former CFO of the former Lehman Brothers, speaks of what she knows.  Looking back after going belly-up, she bemoans the lack of boundaries she set as a high-flying female executive.  Maybe her experience is not so different from male CFOS in equally epic-sized organizations, but she is now 47, and starting over, sans children.  Erin offers hard-won wisdom about living life vs. being locked in a career.  (Is There Life After Work?  Opinion/NYT - 3/10/13).

As Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes (author of Women Who Run With the Wolves) offers at the end of her excellent audio works, 'And so be it for me, and so it be for you - Amen, Amen - and a little woman, too.'