Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Top Career Women Are Dropping Out

In Buzzle.com

Escape, drop out, call it what you wish. But the truth of the matter is that the women mentioned in this article are asking, "Couldn't there be another way?" Remember these key words: "opt-out revolution."

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Sexism, celebrity and the glass ceiling

In RawStory.com

The Economist published a particularly depressing article about the position of women in high-level business jobs. The piece begins by noting that twenty years have passed since The Wall Street Journal coined the phrase “glass ceiling” to refer to the invisible (yet seemingly effective,) barriers to women’s advancement to the top echelons of managerial success in corporations. It has also been ten years since the Glass Ceiling Commission, created by Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, issued its fact-finding report, “Good for Business: Making Full Use of the Nation’s Human Capital,” describing and explaining the dismal status of women and minorities within the corporate world.

Read the entire article here.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Divorce (Escape), corporate American style

In Rutland Herald

By GERALDINE FABRIKANT -- The New York Times

When Jeffrey W. Greenberg was forced out as chief executive of Marsh & McLennan, the big insurance broker, amid a bid-rigging investigation of the company last year, journalists raced to call his ex-wife, Nikki Finke, a journalist herself.

Eager for any insights into the dynamics of Greenberg's highly secretive family -- his father, Maurice, was then the chief executive of the American International Group, the giant insurer, and a brother, Evan, is the chief executive of Ace Ltd., another big insurance company -- they found that Finke was one of the few people willing to talk.

[Laurel here ... What's the point? Not sure. Here's what I got out of this article: "In other words, women are often putting up with less and going for more."]

Monday, August 08, 2005

Charting a new course

In STLtoday.com


Photo caption: Islanders on Banam Bay at Malekula, the second-largest island in a chain that comprises the Republic of Vanuatu in the South Pacific. Photo by Capt. Daniel Moreland.

It may seem a little odd that I am featuring the article, Set Sail For The World, but when you read it, I think you will understand. It reminds me of what people go through when they are about to embark on a big change in their life. Read it. See if you need to put your career on hold to set sail for the world. It might be just what the captain ordered to give you a new perspective and help you start that business you have been thinking about for years. If nothing else, going on a voyage like the one the author writes about will allow you to routinely solve complex problems. Not a bad outcome considering it can be applied elsewhere in your life.

Each person who decided to go on the year-long voyage, had a different reason. Take a look at these two:

• After spending 14 years in the corporate world looking at a computer screen, Bruce realized he "wanted a job that did not plug into anything."

• Ivan Klok, 41, of Taber in Alberta, Canada, also began looking for something "that just doesn't happen very often," he says. "I didn't want to end up in a rocking chair on the front porch when I am 75, saying, 'I wish I would have.' "

Fascinating stuff.