Time for another round of Women’s Words Weekly where I take a look at what businesswomen bloggers were talking about during the previous week.

Susan Gunelius on Brandcurve (that’s me!) provides 5 Musts for Logo Design - don’t create a new logo for your business without reading this post first!

Roberta Rosenberg at The Copywriting Maven shares Why Using Twitter is Like Talking to My Mother-in-Law where she gives her amusing take on the micro-blogging craze.

Elana Centor at Funny Business asks At Work Do You Follow a No Cleavage Policy? which gives an amusing and enlightening look at workplace dress codes.

Jennifer Hoffman of My Organized Biz brings us her Tip of the Week: Turn Your Phone into a Secretary in which she introduces a very cool website, Jott.com, where you can turn voice messages into email messages.

Bailey McCann from The Glass Hammer asks Where are the Women Business Gurus? which dissects the Wall Street Journal’s recent ranking of the top business gurus.

I stumbled across an article on Yahoo! Education today called “Great Jobs that Profit Women: Five Flexible Careers with Man-Sized Paychecks.” The career suggestions were nothing earth-shattering - personal financial advisor, psychologist/therapist, entrepreneur, education administrator and human resources manager. In fact, I think those career choices reflect the sad state of the inequality of men and women in the workplace. At least administrative assistant, customer service representative and paralegal weren’t on the list. Those seem to be the standbys that people suggest for women trying to find flexibility and a decent pay rate. Someday that will change, but I’ll save that inequality discussion for another post.

Today, I’m going to focus on three statistics in this article cited from the National Committe on Pay Equity:

1. In 2006, women earned approximately 25% less than men in the same jobs with similar qualifications.
2. The statistic above has not changed significantly for the past decade.
3. It is estimated that this wage gap will not close until 2057.

Numbers don’t lie. The gender gap is alive and well with no signs of closing anytime soon. What do you think about these statistics?

Tags: gender gap, difference in pay for men and women, equality, workplace equality, pay equality, women in business, women on business, businesswomen, national committee on pay equity, statistics men women workplace business

It’s a fact that women leave science and tech jobs in disproportionate numbers, and the gender gap is alive and well in both fields.  Until now, the reasons for the under-representation and high turnover haven’t been documented through a thorough research study. 

Well, it’s time to reveal the real reasons behind the gender gap in the science and tech fields.  Thanks to a study conducted by the Center for Work-Life Policy which will be published in the Harvard Business Review in June, there are hard numbers to support the secrets behind the gender gap in these industries. 

Unlike the suspicions of a former Harvard President who three years ago asserted that women are under-represented in the science and tech fields because they lack what it takes to excel in those fields (note, those comments prompted this study), the reasons behind the gender gap are quite disturbing.

Continue reading »

Time for another round of Women’s Words Weekly where I take a look at what businesswomen bloggers were talking about during the previous week.

Jennifer Gniadecki of Everyday Networker gives us Gossip vs. WOM Marketing where she gives us her view on using gossip vs. word of mouth marketing to promote.

Jean Murray at Small Business Boomers asks Sunny Side Up or Small Business Boomers as Optimists? where she queries whether baby boomers have businesses because they’re optimists or vice versa.

Kelly Phillips Erb at Taxgirl shares a very funny clip from The Colbert Report in Colbert Explains How to Spend Your Tax Rebate Check where Steven Colbert discusses how to spend that rebate check.

Melonie Murray at Workerette asks Blackberry Bold: Is It Worth It? where she gives us the lowdown on the newest Blackberry to hit the market.

Celine Roque at Pimp Your Work brings us 35 Excel Tips that Can Save You from Working All Night.

I came across the WomenCentric website during a trip around the internet earlier this week.  I think the organization sounds very interesting primarily because it brings together women in business to help them find speaking engagements.  Public speaking is a great way to boost your position as an expert in your field. 

I sent an email to WomenCentric using the link provided on their website, but it bounced back as undelivered.  I’d love to learn more about the organization and its opportunities in order to share them here at Women On Business. 

Has anyone worked with WomenCentric or Patricia Simone and Liz Benuscak who head up the organization?  What do you think of the WomenCentric website and business model? 

The Women’s President’s Organization (WPO) doesn’t consider itself a networking group but rather a group that offers useful programs to its members, including seminars, podcasts, meetings and conferences.  The Women’s President’s Organization is made up of an elite group of female entrepreneurs.  To become a member, the applicant’s company must have a minimum revenue of $1 million for a service company or$2 million for a consumer products company.

There are currently 75 WPO chapters throughout the United States and Canada and over 1,000 members.  New chapters are in the works with international chapters coming to Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.  The first international chapter is already operating in Peru.

You can follow the link to read about the member benefits of the WPO.  It sounds like an interesting organization for successful female entrepreneurs.  What do you think?

This week I joined the growing team of business writers at Corporate-Eye.com.  The goal of Corporate Eye is to provide information from business experts to help readers gain insight into best practices related to corporate communications. 

Stop by when you get a chance and read some of the great content, including my first three posts:

Branding in the Spotlight: What is Branding?

Branding in the Spotlight: How to Develop a Brand

The 6 Hats of a Chief Brand Officer (CBO)

Martha Stewart’s “Dreamers into Doers” contest is on for the second year in a row.  If you turned a hobby into a business or nonprofit, then you could win $10,000, a vacation at a Wyndham Resort and a trip to New York City to appear on the “Martha Stewart Show”.  Ten finalists will also get $1,000 each as well as a 1-week vacation to Puerto Rico.

All you have to do to enter is write a 250-word essay describing how you turned a hobby into a career, and submit your entry by July 11, 2008.

You can get all the details by following the link to the Martha Stewart contest page.  You can enter or nominate a friend through the contest web page.

Good luck!

I’m back from vacation and back to blogging!  Time for another round of Women’s Words Weekly where I take a look at what businesswomen bloggers were talking about during the previous week.

First, I’d like to highlight two posts I wrote for the new blog I’m helping to author - Corporate Eye - Branding in the Spotlight - What is Branding? and Branding in the Spotlight: How to Develop a Brand which give some basic information about what a brand is and how to begin creating your brand image, message and promise.

Donna Marie Coles Johnson of Indie Business Blog brings us Wow I Coulda Had a VA where she interviews virtual assistant Ginger Derrickson.  Have you used a virtual assistant?  It’s a great option!

Traci Anderson at My Happy Place Designs gives us PhpBay Review: Add eBay Auctions to Your Blog/Website with PhpBay Pro where she tells us how to add an eBay store to your blog with the new phpBay Pro plug-in for Wordpress.

Kelly Phillips Erb of TaxGirl asks How Much is Your Mother Worth? where she challenges the value of intangible labor, specifically - motherhood.

Shannon Cherry at Start Up Spark gives us Success Secrets: Marley Majcher where she provides an audio interview with the owner of The Party Goddess, one of the top catering businesses in Los Angeles, California.

I received an email about an interesting webcast that’s coming up later this month.  Aquent is hosting a free webcast, Web Design for ROI - How Design Impacts the Bottom Line, on Thursday, May 22nd at 1:00 (Eastern). 

The webcast will explain how:

• Design effectively for different types of Web pages
• Increase Web sales/leads 
• Increase overall site effectiveness
• Change your company’s perceptions of Web design

The webcast will be hosted by Lance Loveday and Sandra Niehaus from Closed Loop Marketing and will explain how design directly impacts your bottom line; identify which elements have the greatest impact on Web page effectiveness; and provide a practical, how-to approach to Web design.

You can follow the link to register for the Web Design for ROI webcast.