Sunday, August 12, 2007

Opening the On-Ramp for Women


Twenty-something women have surged past young men on the salary scale in New York and other large cities, according to recent news reports. But these fast starters may find themselves blindsided as they progress into their 30s and 40s. Indeed, even though 59 percent of recent undergraduate degrees are held by women, more than 90 percent of the top earners at Fortune 500 companies are men. Sylvia Ann Hewlett has made it her mission to change that.
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Dr. Hewlett, an economist, directs the gender and public policy program at Columbia University, where, she says, she was once turned down for tenure in the early 1980s because she allowed childbearing to “dilute my focus.” After writing several books about women and work, she returned to academia, then persuaded 34 companies employing 2.5 million people to participate in a “Hidden Brain Drain” task force.

“Why is it,” the task force asked, “that after decades of creating opportunities for women and proactively nurturing diversity, companies are still struggling with the challenge of retaining and advancing women?” Dr. Hewlett provides an answer in her new book, “Off-Ramps and On-Ramps” (Harvard Business School Press, $29.95).

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