The court was right in not treating Ray Rice more harshly for assaulting his now wife Janay. The NFL and the Baltimore Ravens were wrong in not treating him more harshly. Through it all, the media and other observers have largely missed that point.
In the competitive nonprofit sector, charitable organizations constantly have to prove themselves and their relative merit, to the general public and to funders, just to survive. Some believe that this requirement to prove worth especially reflects what women in business do every day. And it may explain why many of America’s charitable organizations are (and historically have been) driven by female leadership.
Let’s not fool ourselves. Qualified women of today are unlikely to find themselves on the board of directors at top companies in Massachusetts. However sad and counterproductive, this is a statistical reality.
Yet there are reasons to hope for strong and lasting change. Every year, the business world is held accountable and pushed forward by the annual Census of Women Directors and Executive Officers of Massachusetts Public Companies.
There’s one career strategy that is rarely considered but could prove useful, even pivotal, in the advancement of young women in the workplace.
It is simply this: Stop and find out if women exist in the upper echelons at a given company. Are there any women in the executive suites or on the board of directors? If you can’t find any, watch out.
