REDWOOD CITY, California, U.S.A. -- A generation or two ago, fearless feminists fought for equal pay and equal opportunities for women in the modern workforce. Then, for a myriad of sociopolitical reasons covered by scholars and the media, the next wave of young women shied away from the "militant" feminist label. Now, in the Age of Obama, mainstream businesswomen are lifting what BBC anchor Katty Kay calls "the veil of secrecy," to talk more openly about workplace issues such as the balance between careers and motherhood.
In their new bestselling book, Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success (HarperCollins), ABC News correspondent Claire Shipman and BBC Washington correspondent Kay write that women are "hot commodities" with tremendous, untapped power in the marketplace. Citing academic research and interviews with women professionals, the co-authors remind us that women consumers boast great buying power, that the consensual management styles of women are potent business tools, and that companies led by women often outperform rivals. To survive, companies will have to recruit millions of talented women, and also address work-life issues that a younger generation of employees are demanding. (Here's the co-authors' blog on TrueSlant, the new online site featuring opinion-leaders hosting their own blogs.)
During a book talk Tuesday night at the corporate offices of software giant Oracle in Silicon Valley, Kay said that today's women owe much thanks to the pioneering businesswomen who broke down boardroom doors years ago. But now, rather than toiling 60 hours a week and imitating men, professional women hope "to really re-fashion the workplace, to be a workplace that works for women." If they succeed, she said, "that's power beyond our dreams." Shipman, who said that Wal-Mart and other companies are embracing flextime and related issues with a religious fervor, added: "The change is coming. It just makes business sense, to focus on results and not time spent in the office." Their economic clout should give working women more leverage to negotiate their lives and careers. Wendy Beecham, CEO of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives, the Silicon Valley professional group that co-sponsored the event with Oracle, joked that her old slogan as a workaholic manager was "No pets, no plants, no partners . . . and I was proud of that -- until I realized I was scaring my team." But Beecham realized she also was leading "a very unfulfilling life." So she quit her job in Europe, moved to California and started over. "If I had read Womenomics, I would have known there were different rules to negotiate."
These issues aren't brand new. A whole cottage industry of human-resource consultants and corporate experts has addressed the topics in recent decades. Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, a Paris-based business consultant, and Alison Maitland, wrote a similar book last year called Why Women Mean Business. And here's an overview of the status of women executives in WomensMedia.com by well-known management scholar Judy Rosener. But it's always been uncomfortable dealing with diversity subjects in the nicey-nice corporate culture, where people fear conflict. And surprisingly few, high-profile businesswomen with global media platforms have come out of the closet to openly air such issues in the mainstream. So Womenomics is especially welcome. Readers clearly are responding -- the book already has hit the New York Times bestseller list. And publishers believe that business books with women's themes will do well, even during the recession. (See Publishers Weekly story, "Managing to Survive.")
Hopefully, books like Womenomics -- and the candor of accomplished career women like Claire Shipman and Katty Kay -- will make it easier for all to discuss those issues in a business-friendly way. As one audience member, a longtime executive coach, said during the Q&A session in Silicon Valley: "I can't tell you how many women are doing a happy dance over this. I'm so glad we're having this conversation."
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