Two items in the news really grabbed me this week. I blogged about them at my home blog, but today I want to talk about how they are related.
First, I received an invitation from Forbes magazine to join a new site called Forbes Woman. I was angry and insulted when I visited the site because I thought it was not about primarily about women in their roles is business people. Rather it featured a lot of trite headlines about fashion and beauty and depression and the wives (who are not business women) of recently discredited men.
It’s not that women are not interested in these topics—men are too, in their own ways. But Forbes is a business magazine, and they came up short in understanding any kind of special interests or emphasis for women who are owners or executives or employees or students or job hunters or people trying to figure out their next move.
If I want to read about fashion or beauty supplies or celebrity gossip I already have plenty of sources for that. I don’t need Forbes! I want to go to Forbes for business news, insights, and ideas. And with this new Forbes Woman sub-site, I am questioning whether Forbes is a reliable source for business insight.
Second, the Washington Post today featured an article by that says companies with more women in governance and management positions are more successful. The article cites research, evidence, and examples to support the claim.
I appreciated that article because it moves us forward as business people—women and men. We have been a long time in expressing our case so simply—business decisions are better, and business returns are greater—when there is a diversity of people, hence a diversity of perspectives, at senior leadership levels. It doesn’t mean women are better or that men are better. It simply acknowledges that, collectively, diverse leadership teams are better and offers powerful evidence of that fact.
So on one hand we have one more example of flawed assumptions about women in business, and on the other hand we have insight into new evidence about the need for women to hold leadership positions in sufficient numbers and at the highest levels of business. As the “Women On Business” writers and readers, we can help to bring attention to these news events and add our individual perspectives.
I invite you to share your reactions to each of these events and to discuss how they relate to your business insights and experiences.
