Panel -

Session chair: Susan Mernit, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, iFOCOS, and blogger

Mary Hodder, Founder, Dabble

Judith Meskill, COO, Crowd Fusion

Carolyn Washburn, VP & Executive Editor, The Des Moines Register

Barbara Kahn, Dean, University of Miami School of Business Administration

Jan Schaffer, Executive Director, J-Lab

Everyone in the room is an “expert” and the forum will be very interactive.

Jan Schaffer – Research done at women leaders in the news room. Take aways from the study showed women were going to leave the business entirely. Two subsets of women, career confident and career conflicted. Most were career conflicted and didn’t see a role for their skills.

Newmediawomen.org launched today. Women comprise 67% of journalism students, but only 1/3 of working journalists. It has been this way for decades.

Many women go into public relations or other areas. Women don’t stay in news rooms, they enter into the work force this way, but move on to different positions.

Audience comments – Women in the work place automatically includes children. Is that an issue?

Schaffer – The research shows that men and women are the same in terms of their views on childcare. So it is not “mommy tracking.” More women felt they just didn’t fit into the news room landscape.

Barbara Kahn – Consumer expertise for women. Previously at Wharton for 17 years and they did spend a lot of time researching women in business and women in education. Trend is at least 50/50 for women and men in enrollment for medecine, law. But it is about 40/60 for business education. Women in an MBA program, only about 35 percent. Women aren’t getting the same skill sets in business as in other areas. Even at the Ivy League level, women get out and are offered the best jobs with the best salaries, but they still leave the field anyway.

Audience – We need to look at the environment that women are working in?

Women and children in the workplace – it can come down to a competition. Who gets heard, who gets promotions.

In start-up businesses, men tend to categorize women into a “marketing chic” or “PR chick” role.

In a start-up from a woman, there is a lack of stressful competition, the environment is more collaborative. Men tend to be geared toward competition. Battles over status may be pushing women out of the workforce.

Carolyn Washburn – Has not had a negative experience in the newsroom. Has felt very supported in her career to move into leaderhip positions.

The environment of family needs touches men and women. It can be harder for men because they aren’t expected to stay home and it looks like they are unsuccessful.

Audience – Do women notice the gender gap and does it effect readership?

Readership for newspapers seems to be higher among men. There could be a lot of opportunity there for publishers to attract more female readers.

The Des Moines Register has a very strong female audience. They offer a variety of resources to women.

Kahn – Women make a lot of the household and family decisions. Women go to the doctor more than their husbands. Healthcare media is geared towards women.

There is a huge rush to tap into younger female audiences for marketers.

Job descriptions can skew who applies for certain jobs. An example is in the engineering field. Hiring can be difficult if women are turned off by the job description.

Men tend to be very linear thinkers. Men can give more A or B answers. Women are more contextual thinkers. This can be off putting to bosses because it may seem that women are more scattered.

Audience – How can women create their own social networks? What other networks can be created? A challenge to women to think outside the box!

Female social networks shouldn’t just be about “mommy” issues. Many address other issues, help with problem solving, etc.

Kahn – New media is one way to go, but old-fashioned networking is still very valuable. Wharton Women is very successful. Personal connection is critical in the business world.

Mernit – Take the time to create a new environment, even if its just hosting a dinner. Get out there. It doesn’t have to exclude men, its good to hear opposing viewpoints.

Audience – Had the experience at a marketing firm where a female health account was run by mostly men. It was difficult to stop the planning and conversations and interject what real women think and want.

Sometimes it is a woman’s responsibility to take the role of the “educator” to an all male audience.

Parting Summary

Washburn – Cultural change takes many generations. If this generation sets the example, our sons and daughters will follow suit.

Schaffer – Don’t focus on numbers, focus on opportunities! News rooms need to rethink how they use women and there will be a more creative workforce.

Kahn – When women come into a business environment, the dynamic changes. It can be illuminating and it can be a bigger influence than we originally thought.

Media and Techonology, We Media 2008 Leadership World: Women, We Media Miami 2008 2 comments