Empowering girls with confidence and skills to become leaders...
Megan Murphy, Executive Director
National Coalition of Girls Schools
On January 23, 2015 she wrote:
The New York Times recently started running "Women at Work," a four-part series by Adam Grant and Sheryl Sandberg about women in the workplace. Grant is a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Give and Take. Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook, is of course best known for her book Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead, which launched a national movement.
This op-ed series delves into issues that are the hallmark of an all-girls education: developing girls and young women with the confidence and skills to become leaders and empowering them to have their voices heard. Part one of the series, "When Talking About Bias Backfires," focuses on discrimination in the workplace. Part two, "Speaking While Female," touches on why women are not more outspoken at work.
In part one, Sandberg and Grant write, "When more women lead, performance improves. Start-ups led by women are more likely to succeed; innovative firms with more women in top management are more profitable; and companies with more gender diversity have more revenue, customers, market share and profits."
Based on the article's comments section, these statements and statistics were surprising to most readers. They were not, however, to me, as I imagine they aren't to you.
In part two, Grant and Sandberg suggest, "As more women enter the upper echelons of organizations, people become more accustomed to women's contributing and leading."
They raised the point that, "When President Obama held his last news conference of 2014, he called on eight reporters -- all women. It made headlines worldwide. Had a politician given only men a chance to ask questions, it would not have been news; it would have been a regular day." At the article's conclusion, the authors wondered, "...what would happen if we all held Obama-style meetings, offering women the floor whenever possible." Readers were invited to try it and share their experiences.
We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to share how the girls' school experience produces young women who help upset the gender bias by becoming leaders in the workforce and who aren't afraid to speak up.
