Women and Men, Work and Power

Measurements matter. Business is run (mostly) by numbers. So if you can make your case with statistics, it will get a better hearing. One of the most powerful numbers at C&L was the female-departure rate. We were losing talented women with strong records who were working between the levels of manager and partner. And we weren't losing them to babies - the all-too-convenient male explanation. We were losing them to other companies.

Share the spotlight. Once the company starts making progress, don't be shy about spreading the word. Work to get positive PR. Apply for awards. And let the guys get some of the glory. It's not easy to change corporate cultures that have developed over decades. But if making change is nothing but hard work and pain, who's going to want to help?

Katherine D'Urso has been with Coopers & Lybrand since 1994.

Michelle Bernard
Partner, Patton Boggs LLP
Washington, DC
mbernard@pattonboggs.com

In law firms, power goes to the partners who generate the most business - which usually means a small group of white men. Women do become partners, but we often don't make as much money as our male counterparts, we don't have the same face-to-face client relationships, and men don't always refer business to us. In a very real sense, we are on our own.

I've recently initiated a "Patton Boggs Center for Women and Enterprise." I want to market our women lawyers to women in positions of power - both high-ranking women in the nation's 1,000 largest companies and the leaders of women-owned businesses. The opportunities are undeniable. Women are starting companies at twice the rate of men, and they account for 40% of the people in the United States with more than $600,000 in assets.

I started the project with two goals in mind: to generate more business for the firm, and to generate more business for women partners and associates. It's my version of the old boys' network. But here's what's so interesting: I brought my idea straight to the top of the firm. I didn't spend lots of time building consensus among the other women - I didn't think I had to. But I was wrong. The men loved it. So did the younger female associates. But the more senior women lawyers resisted.

I don't know if they felt threatened or if they felt I was rocking a boat that they had worked hard to climb into. I listened to their concerns, but I kept moving forward. Women need to be in business for - and to do business with - one another. We're just getting started.

Before joining Patton Boggs, Michelle Bernard was chairperson of the District of Columbia Redevelopment Land Agency, which negotiated the public-private financing of the District's recently opened MCI Arena.

Harriet Rubin
Founder and Editor at Large Doubleday/Currency
New York, New York
hrubin@aol.com

Women need to become more like men than men are. We need to become hyperaggressive and hyperdetermined - because business is about intense daring and a reckless abandon to succeed. Of course, men have those qualities. It has to do with their once being boys. While girls learn to be good, boys play at being great. And men build their companies the way they used to build their forts - as clubs of exclusion.

Sure, women are making progress. But it's not nearly deep or fast enough. My business, publishing, is dominated by women. But it's led by men. That's a big difference. Women are jockeying for positions in the middle ranks of organizations, but the top is still a barren plane for them. Women hold fewer than 643 of the 6,081 board seats at the country's 500 largest companies - that's a meager 11%. But until we're on those boards, we're nowhere - because that's where real power dwells. Remember, plantations were run by slaves, but the slave owners called all the shots.

None of the polite "female" techniques for getting ahead - networking, mentoring - really work. Men run companies, and men basically want to be with their own kind. If you look at deep-seated social change, which is what we're talking about, you realize that the slow, peaceful march has never made a real difference. Hillary Clinton says it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it takes a mob to change a company. Women need to engage in more dramatic tactics, both as individuals and in groups. If you think you're too sophisticated for guerrilla theater, think again.

A year ago, I wrote a letter to the CEO of Bertelsmann, our parent company. I knew that he was going to retire and that a search was on for his successor. In my letter, I proposed that I be made acting CEO for the year while the search took place. I wanted him to consider and understand how much the company would gain by reaching down into the organization and pulling up someone with a lot of moxie, drive, and determination.