Women's career paths are not always straight or paved. Women make up nearly half of the U.S. managerial workforce, but they still encounter gender-based challenges as they progress through their careers. Women and businesses need to collaborate to understand, and capitalize on, the organizational and individual components of these challenges.
The Center for Women's Leadership has created multiple venues to encourage this collaboration to share "best practice" and to foster the kinds of professional development that really make a difference -- in organizations and in the lives of real women.
Women's Leadership Conference
The annual Women's Leadership Conference brings together more than 500 participants from around the country to focus on the unique opportunities and challenges women face as they build their careers, companies, lives. Past conference speakers have included:
- Bina Thompson, Vice President Investor Relations, Colgate-Palmolive
- Josephine Chaus, CEO, Bernard Chaus Inc.
- Ellyn McColgan, President, Fidelity Brokerage Company
- (Effective April 2008: COO and President, Morgan Stanley, Global Wealth Managment Group)
- Kim Goodman, Vice President of Marketing, Dell, Inc.
- Marilda Gandara, Aetna Foundation
- Rhonda Kallman, Founder & CEO, New Century Brewing Company
- Addie Swartz, Principal Creator & CEO, B*tween Productions
- Carly Fiorina, Former CEO, Hewlett-Packard
- Dr. Sally Ride, Educator, Entrepreneur, First American Woman in Space
- Ilene Lang, President, Catalyst
Executive Education
The Center collaborates with Babson Executive Education (BEE) to offer a program tailor made for the female business professional poised to climb to the next level in their chosen career paths. "Opting In - Women's Leadership at Points of Transition" is a six-day program delivering a strong leadership development experience using interactive classroom sessions and personal case consulting with each participant. Through individual coaching and feedback sessions with faculty and peers throughout the program, participants will analyze their personal situation and develop specific action items to take back to the workplace. Mentoring, coaching, and feedback skills-- essential to leadership success-- are key components of the program.
Author Series
The Author Series features women authors who have recently written books about leadership and professional development. These events typically attract a large number of professional women and students and provide a forum for learning, networking, and connecting with peers across the business spectrum. Past authors include:
- Ronna Lichtenberg, Pitch Like a Girl
- Laurie Puhn, Instant Persuasion
- Lois Frankel, Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office
- Patti Greene & Myra Hart, Clearing the Hurdles
- Suzanne Bates, Speak Like a CEO
- Ellen Wingard and a panel of authors, Enlightened Power
- Suzy Welch, Winning
- Wendy Sachs, How She Really Does It
- Lia Macko & Kerry Rubin, Mid-Life Crisis at 30
- Lois Phillips, Women Seen and Heard
- Robin Wolaner, Naked in the Boardroom
- Pam Lenehan, What You Don't Know And Your Boss Won't Tell You
- Ginny Wilmerding, Smart Women and Small Business: How to Make the Leap from Corporate Careers to the Right Small Enterprise
- Evelyn Murphy, Getting Even: Why Women Don't Get Paid Like Men and What To Do About It
