Are women better off today than they were in 1980?
The answer, for those women who aren’t too tired from their multiple responsibilities to hear it, is:
“Yes!”
But this particular good news is only for women who are college graduates, college students or planning to attend college. They were the ones included in a recent study of marketplace trends that impact women and their success.
“Women today are enjoying unprecedented economic prosperity and have a greater sense of well-being than they did 20 years ago,” the report states. It was conducted by Hollins University in Roanoke, Va., which, at the undergraduate level, is for women only; and by Kannon Consulting, a marketing and strategy consulting firm in Chicago.
Yet the challenges remain.
“The pressure of working and child rearing continued to grow as women tried to balance the expectation of doing both successfully,” said Barbara Cohen, president and founder of Kannon Consulting. Cohen, who has an MBA, has been in marketing and consulting for the 20-year period the study covers.
The researchers base their conclusions on more than 75 studies and other research involving women and success. And the report suggests that what women need to achieve success is to learn how to handle their many roles; to become adept at technology; to network; to pursue lifelong learning; and to be able to adapt to a diverse society.
I positively endorse findings that show how well women are doing, even if the advances are a mix of “great strides and modest progress in the past two decades,” as the study shows. And what I especially like about this comparison of women’s progress in the past 20 years is that it gives specific advice for women in order to continue that forward movement.
According to the study, “21st Century women will face the growing challenge of managing multiple roles in the home, at work and in the community. Success will be achieved by getting the biggest return on the energy they invest.”
And the energy to be invested is not of the Enron stock variety. It’s “personal energy,” the researchers assert–and it certainly will be needed to combat what I call the “female problems” of unequal pay, lack of equal access to the new technology and the sometimes overwhelming challenges of personal and professional demands that women often shoulder alone.
“Personal energy” is the “currency of the new millennium,” according to Walter Rugaber, interim president of Hollins. And the Hollins Energy Index for Women, which the university and Kannon have devised, indicates that those of the female gender are indeed “achieving a greater return on the energy they invest in work, family and personal lives.” In fact, according to the index, it has jumped 83 points from 1980.
To make it go even higher, the research suggests you should be proactive, take charge of managing your private life and your career and should know in your gut you have the right to success on equal terms with men.
Here are some suggestions I have for ways to boost your personal energy rating that certainly will help you advance your career:
– Being in charge: Tell your spouse or significant other he is in charge of the house and children for the next month.
– Technology: Create your own Web site with photos of how you look at the beginning of the workday and how you look at the end. Show it to your boss.
– Networking: Try to gain access to the men’s room, where some of the most important networking and exchange of information occur.
– Lifelong learning: Sign up for courses in how to stamp out sexism, and make sure your company pays for it.
– Diversity: Inform the CEOs of the nation’s top companies that women and minorities also know how to run a business, if only given the chance.
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And then use your remaining personal energy for something for yourself. Anything you want.
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Carol Kleiman’s column also appears in Wednesday’s Working section and Sunday’s Business section. Watch her Career Coach segments Sunday and Tuesday mornings on CLTV. Send e-mail to [email protected].