This blog is part of an ongoing series that focuses on what we need to do, to know, and to have for women to be truly equal in the workplace. Liz Brown, assistant professor of Law, Taxation and Financial Planning, offers new female college graduates some ideas that can make a big impact from the very start of their careers.
The business world has been abuzz recently with the shocking news that two of journalism’s most respected and high-powered women, Jill Abramson of the New York Times and Natalie Nougayrede of Le Monde, were vacating their positions as executive editors amidst controversy attributed to their gender and supposed gender perceptions, which may have played a part in their job performance reviews.
As a woman in business school and the traditionally male dominated IT industry, I’ve taken a particular interest in understanding the perception of women in the workplace. I’ve also been trying to identify and emulate how women overcome obstacles in their careers.
Our Women on Success series presents opinions, advice, and observations from women in a variety of positions. Some are just starting out, others are more advanced. The PreparedU research probed the issues they face. These writers are living those issues. In this first installment, Bentley undergraduate student Angela Scott '15 shares her thoughts on how women professionals just starting out can prepare for future career success.
Can today’s millennial women break through the barriers, stereotypes and inequities that have so plagued women in the past?
Why do women lag far behind men in the senior ranks of business? What can be done to level the playing field?
In a keynote address to a forum hosted by Bentley University’s Center for Women and Business (CWB), a prominent researcher on race and gender relations in organizations said finding answers to these questions requires challenging long-held assumptions.
The fact that many of us had to overcome significant hurdles as we banged our heads against the glass ceiling doesn’t relieve us of the responsibility to help smooth the path for the women who come after us. If we don’t, how can we expect our male colleagues to do so? As Madeleine Albright famously quipped, in her 2006 keynote address to the WNBA, “There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.”
Bentley’s PreparedU research study outlined a number of possible solutions to help millennials, higher education faculty and staff, and business leaders better meet one another’s needs. What does that mean in practical terms for college-age millennials? We asked a panel of experts from Boston-area schools.
When Bentley senior Aaron Pinet walked in to a job interview at PricewaterhouseCoopers, the first question he got wasn’t about his grade point average or accounting courses. The conversation starter was his service-learning work: presenting policy-related research on energy literacy to congressmen on Capitol Hill, or developing a financial literacy curriculum for prospective college students.
Higher education has taken a hit lately for not preparing graduates for a successful career. Arguments are flying that graduates walk across the stage with degrees that have left them ill-equipped for today’s complex workplace. In particular, employers are disillusioned by their inability to relate to and manage millennials. It would be easy to dismiss this as a generational gap, or millennials not understanding the realities of the workplace, but the story is more complicated.