Manhattan Marketing Maven

Have Women Made Business Better or Even Different?

Women in business are in the news. But I can't measure or calculate women's contribution to the business world they fought so hard to enter. 

From the dramatic opening weekend box office of the Sex and the City movie to women corporate directors ringing the NASDAQ closing bell to Fortune Magazine's "Most Powerful Women" dinner and its New York echo in Sunday's New York Post everybody seems to be celebrating women by making lists of the women who count. It's a publicists dream come true. Though all this hoopla makes me yearn for a list of women leaders who've crashed and burned.

Amidst all this hubbub Newsweek is convening a lunch next week of 25 prominent businesswomen to flesh out ideas for their Women and Leadership issue and its attending conference slated for October. In helping my friend ace publicist Diane Terman prepare for these round tables, we began to try to access the real impact of women in business. But beyond the initial feminist agenda of access, ascendancy and equal opportunity its hard for me to describe the impact of millions of women in business.   

If you ask the fundamental questions, it becomes quickly clear than since Betty Friedan threw down the gauntlet, women have

• Gained access to virtually every business and industry
• Overcome bias, discrimination and achieved equal opportunity under the law
• Made strides toward getting equal work for equal pay and toward gaining leadership roles
• Changed the definition of acceptable behavior in the workplace
• Succeeded in precedent-setting wage discrimination and sexual harassment suits
• Redefined maternity leave, some healthcare issues and ideas about flexible hours and job sharing

And while nobody can say that the revolution is over or that the situation is at a fair and completely equal end state, there is reason to believe that if we keep doing what we've been doing, women will take their place in the pantheon of business elites as leaders, innovators and drivers. In some industries women already hold up much more than "half the sky" of the Chinese proverb.

But have women changed the world of business or has the world of business changed women?

Take the macro view and consider the qualities usually ascribed to women -- compassion, cooperation, consideration, nurturing, diligence, collaboration, intuition and creativity. Now ask yourself; has business enjoyed a massive infusion of these qualities or have women adopted the competitive, aggressive qualities of their male counterparts? Then ask yourself; have women changed the way business is conducted? Have they introduced new processes or new organizational forms? Have they found new ways to create or unleash shareholder value? Have they brought new leadership styles or new leadership results to the forefront?

Having worked extensively with and for women, I've witnessed and worked with great individuals and I've worked with and witnessed women who were the worst. But on a macro level, I'm hard pressed to to enumerate how women have added to or changed the game.     

    

Recalling William F. Buckley, Jr.

In November 1976 to honor the Bicentennial, William F. Buckley yielded the moderator's chair on "Firing Line" to me for a public debate on the need for democracy. Televised from the rotunda of Low Memorial Library at Columbia University, I was a doctoral student and Coach/Chairman of the Columbia Debating Society.

"Bill" joined the affirmative team along with one of my students. It was a furious yet formal debate held before an audience of 1000 people. Under the domed ceiling and in the formal space, the arguments were presented with well practiced rhetoric and a slight echo. Mr. Buckley displayed his strongly held ideas, quoted the classics, wielded foot long words, flashed his sly smile and used his great sense of humor to devastating effect. It was great fun and a grand night; a memory I've always cherished.

News of his passing reminded me that although I am diametrically opposed to most of his conservative canon, the man taught me, by example,  a great deal about the need for fair, enlightened debate, the careful and strategic use of words, the techniques for marshaling arguments and evidence, the cadence and the tactical impact of a well timed Latin quotation and the necessity to respect one's opponent. Off camera, he was truly curious about people, places and ideas, enjoyed the repartee of an evening with others and was a great story teller. Being in his company felt like having a connection to another era and to the world of ideas and ideologies. 

He made an affirmative contribution to our on-going national debate in terms of content and in terms of the humanity he brought to the arena. He will be missed and remembered.