dispatches from the new world of work

Wired Women

Wired.com: "Where Are All the Women?" leads with these lines:

After Carly Fiorina was ousted from Hewlett-Packard last week, just seven female CEOs remained among Fortune 500 companies. None of them heads a Silicon Valley technology company.

While the first part of that statement only stayed true for a day, with the appointment of Brenda Barnes as the CEO of Sara Lee on February 10th, the last part is still very true. Read the article to find out why that may not be a good thing.

Cathy Mosca posted this on 02/16/05.

Comments

"Everybody Doesn't Like Something, But Nobody Doesn't Like Sara Lee." Mitch Lee's words could be adapted today: "Nobody does it like Sara Lee!" Go Sara! Go Brenda Barnes!

Posted by Pam Brill at February 16, 2005 11:14 PM

(The first link didn't work.) I love Sara Lee. Too much... I'll be keeping my eyes open for any new developments. I'm sure I'll have to 'taste-test' just to make sure it satisfies customer expectations. :-)

Hey, is anyone going to the Marketing to Women Conference in Chicago, April 18-19? I would love to hear a report.

Posted by M. R. Maguire at February 17, 2005 12:01 AM

Sara Lee and Krispy Cream, hmmm .... they both are losing their cache as the USA is slimming down somewhat.

Posted by John at February 17, 2005 7:23 AM

I have recently discovered the wonderful band Lonestar from over there in the States - why don't they tour UK?

In this dicsussion the Lonestar track 'Women Rule the World' springs to mind.

As a 'long in the tooth fully signed up male' I see absolutely no problem with some positive discrimination to get women in top jobs throughout organisations worldwide.

Posted by Trevor Gay at February 17, 2005 10:19 AM

Is there a female centric VC firm? Why don't women put their money where their mouths are, instead of taking stats of how many women are CEOs. Consumers will buy the best product regardless of the CEO. Female VCs can hire a CN or TW mfg firm to build some great products that males can't dream of or are too dense to figure out. We love competition, right? And when they succeed, it will because it is a great product, not gender politics.

Posted by jw at February 17, 2005 5:22 PM

I haven't met many women who are passionate about technology, so I guess we're not going to see too many running Si-valley companies. Am I missing something?

Posted by Paul Golding at February 18, 2005 8:52 AM

Hi Paul

Women concentrate on the important stuff - relationships - they are simply better at that stuff then us men.

As a communications manager in healthcare I always said technology is a slave not the master. I believe that passionately.

That is probably why women are not technofobes generally - they see it as secondary to relationships - I think they are right

Yes I am a man saying that!!!

Great topic - keep 'em rolling!

Posted by Trevor Gay at February 18, 2005 9:24 AM

Most tech companies are start-ups and they are run by the founders, who are usually men. Is there a reason that women don't start tech companies? Is JW onto something with his female-VC firm idea? As I understand things, there are a lot of women who dabble in stocks and shares. Why not create a sisterhood tech fund?

(Trevor - I'm also in the UK)
(p.s. women techies are an even rarer breed over here aren't they?)

Posted by Paul Golding at February 18, 2005 11:34 AM

Yes Paul I agree - more rare in the UK

The best woman techie I ever knew was my daughter when she was 10!!! - my 'in house' consultant. A Slight exaggeration - she was probably 14!!

One shouldn't generalise but relationships are more important to women then men. I remember Tom saying in one talk that research showed the average women recommends to 22 friends - the average man recommends to 2 or 3 .... there is a huge message there for all of us.

I am fully signed up to IT and I love it ... it is definetely a plus in my opinion .. but we men can learn a lot from women about the other stuff that is arguably more important.

Survival and something beyond excellence is going to depend more on relationship building than IT methinks in the long haul ....

Great discussion

Posted by Trevor Gay at February 18, 2005 12:53 PM

There are very very few female CEOs, and there have never been a female US president, and we are in the 21st century.
What I understand is that America is a capitalist democratic country where businesses seek the best people who would be able to achieve the goals of the company.
My question is why there aren't many women in the top 500 US companies? Is it because of discrimination? or is it because of qualifications? Or is it something else?
Thanks

Posted by Tareq at February 23, 2005 10:26 AM