Monday, September 10, 2007
Darwin's Finches
“Low expectations of women can be as destructive as overt discrimination.”
“Squandering talent is one of the key issues of women in science and engineering.”
“According to the National Science Foundation, almost no doctoral degrees in engineering were awarded to women in 1966 (0.3 percent), in contrast to 16.9 percent in 2001. And in the biological and agricultural sciences, the number of doctorates earned by women rose from 12 percent to 43.5 percent between 1966 and 2001.”
“The question we must ask as a society is … ‘how can we encourage more women with exceptional abilities to pursue careers in these fields [of math, science, and engineering]?’”
Source: Dr. John L. Hennessy (Stanford), Dr. Susan Hockfield (MIT) and Dr. Shirley M. Tilghman (Princeton) in an op-ed piece, “Women and Science: The Real Issue” in The Boston Globe, February 12, 2005
According to the American Association of University Women’s (AAUW) May 2003 report on Women at Work, 28% of women study in a computer and technology field that will prepare them for work in science, engineering or information technology –- fields “critical to thriving in the new high-tech economy.”
The solution is not merely to lower the competitive playing field for women, but rather to challenging women to pursue the many possible alternative opportunities available to them. This means that women need to learn all of the possible ways they could compete effectively in the business marketplace.
Women who rise to leadership roles compete somewhat like Darwin’s finches. In the book, The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time (Vintage Press: 1995), Jonathan Weiner described how hungry newcomer finches with smaller beaks would eat the nuts and berries dropped into niches by larger finches that had evolved more cumbersome beaks during the time when they faced no competition. Rather than challenge the established finch hierarchy, the newcomers would feast off the bounty that was available to them because their smaller beaks could reach into the crevices in the rocks.
Research has identified 6 different paths that women have followed into the boardroom: nonprofit, academic, government, investment/securities, entrepreneurship and the corporate ladder. There is a fair amount of diversity within each of these primary paths. For women corporate directors today, niches include university trusteeships, federal reserve bank boards, entrepreneurial firms, venture/angel organizations and CxO roles or division presidencies at levels just below the traditional “big beak” CEO ranks.
Over the past eleven years (1995-2006), Catalyst Inc.’s own data shows that the total number of Fortune 500 corporate board seats declined by 638: male-occupied seats account for 861 of those lost seats, while women-occupied seats increased 223, indicating that many women directors successfully identified niches in that old boys’ hierarchy.
Half of the current (2005) women directors on California-based Fortune 1000 boards were named in 1999 or later. Half are 56 years of age or younger. Just under half of the women on California-based top firms live and work outside of the state, suggesting that boards searched for competent and experience candidates rather than simply settle for home-grown talent.
Growth in boardroom opportunities for women was matched by increases in the number of women getting top-level educations and their acquisition of business competencies. The women on top California boards earned 1.75 degrees apiece: 116 bachelors’ degrees, 66 masters’ degrees and 35 doctorate degrees. Eight of the masters’ degrees were 2nd masters’ degrees. At least 30 of all of the 66 masters’ degrees were MBAs. Among the women who came by way of the investment/securities path, over 96% had masters’ degrees.
While many women-on-board advocates look to the boards to do all of the heavy work by recruiting women directors and enticing women with work-family “incentives,” the research about women in leadership suggests interesting alternative lessons about what women, themselves, can do to earn a place at the boardroom table:
o Pursue a top-quality business education
o Develop experience in business, finance, investment and governance
o Expand their awareness of business formation, creation, mergers and acquisition strategies in entrepreneurial and financial management
And, if barriers to entry still exist among “the big beak” corporate top tiers, then look for value-rich niches in contemporary growth markets at smaller, younger firms:
o Technology and telecommunications
o Biosciences
o International markets
o Creative finance and investment
“Squandering talent is one of the key issues of women in science and engineering.”
“According to the National Science Foundation, almost no doctoral degrees in engineering were awarded to women in 1966 (0.3 percent), in contrast to 16.9 percent in 2001. And in the biological and agricultural sciences, the number of doctorates earned by women rose from 12 percent to 43.5 percent between 1966 and 2001.”
“The question we must ask as a society is … ‘how can we encourage more women with exceptional abilities to pursue careers in these fields [of math, science, and engineering]?’”
Source: Dr. John L. Hennessy (Stanford), Dr. Susan Hockfield (MIT) and Dr. Shirley M. Tilghman (Princeton) in an op-ed piece, “Women and Science: The Real Issue” in The Boston Globe, February 12, 2005
According to the American Association of University Women’s (AAUW) May 2003 report on Women at Work, 28% of women study in a computer and technology field that will prepare them for work in science, engineering or information technology –- fields “critical to thriving in the new high-tech economy.”
The solution is not merely to lower the competitive playing field for women, but rather to challenging women to pursue the many possible alternative opportunities available to them. This means that women need to learn all of the possible ways they could compete effectively in the business marketplace.
Women who rise to leadership roles compete somewhat like Darwin’s finches. In the book, The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time (Vintage Press: 1995), Jonathan Weiner described how hungry newcomer finches with smaller beaks would eat the nuts and berries dropped into niches by larger finches that had evolved more cumbersome beaks during the time when they faced no competition. Rather than challenge the established finch hierarchy, the newcomers would feast off the bounty that was available to them because their smaller beaks could reach into the crevices in the rocks.
Research has identified 6 different paths that women have followed into the boardroom: nonprofit, academic, government, investment/securities, entrepreneurship and the corporate ladder. There is a fair amount of diversity within each of these primary paths. For women corporate directors today, niches include university trusteeships, federal reserve bank boards, entrepreneurial firms, venture/angel organizations and CxO roles or division presidencies at levels just below the traditional “big beak” CEO ranks.
Over the past eleven years (1995-2006), Catalyst Inc.’s own data shows that the total number of Fortune 500 corporate board seats declined by 638: male-occupied seats account for 861 of those lost seats, while women-occupied seats increased 223, indicating that many women directors successfully identified niches in that old boys’ hierarchy.
Half of the current (2005) women directors on California-based Fortune 1000 boards were named in 1999 or later. Half are 56 years of age or younger. Just under half of the women on California-based top firms live and work outside of the state, suggesting that boards searched for competent and experience candidates rather than simply settle for home-grown talent.
Growth in boardroom opportunities for women was matched by increases in the number of women getting top-level educations and their acquisition of business competencies. The women on top California boards earned 1.75 degrees apiece: 116 bachelors’ degrees, 66 masters’ degrees and 35 doctorate degrees. Eight of the masters’ degrees were 2nd masters’ degrees. At least 30 of all of the 66 masters’ degrees were MBAs. Among the women who came by way of the investment/securities path, over 96% had masters’ degrees.
While many women-on-board advocates look to the boards to do all of the heavy work by recruiting women directors and enticing women with work-family “incentives,” the research about women in leadership suggests interesting alternative lessons about what women, themselves, can do to earn a place at the boardroom table:
o Pursue a top-quality business education
o Develop experience in business, finance, investment and governance
o Expand their awareness of business formation, creation, mergers and acquisition strategies in entrepreneurial and financial management
And, if barriers to entry still exist among “the big beak” corporate top tiers, then look for value-rich niches in contemporary growth markets at smaller, younger firms:
o Technology and telecommunications
o Biosciences
o International markets
o Creative finance and investment
# posted by ChampionBoards.com @ 2:34 PM 
