YourOnRamp Speaks at Columbia Women in Business

Last Friday, February 22nd I had the pleasure of participating in the Columbia Women in Business, “CWIB” conference for 700 women.  The conference sells out every year (this year in 4 hours) and the first big snowfall of the year did not keep the crowd away.  I spoke on the Why We Need More Women in Business Panel.  Our panel addressed the obvious need for women in business (looming talent crunch, 60% college grads are women, and women drive the economy and control 80%+ consumer spending).  We learned how important women are in recruiting efforts for American Express and Deloitte and how important it is to have women in male dominated fields like video gaming (Massive) and sports media (ESPN).  I talked about how companies need to embrace in-house OffRamping and OnRamping strategies to retain women in their companies. 

The theme of the conference was Success Your Way, Share Your Vision, Find Your Voice, and it seemed that at every session I attended, not matter what the panel topic was, Work/Life conflict and strategies was where the conversation ended up.  Several alums commented that 5 years ago, Work/Life was a taboo discussion relegated to closed door conversation and the topic was not given panel time.  Clearly times have changed.  Figuring out how to manage Career and Life, whether that included raising a family, managing elder care or managing the many outside interests singles have was a key theme to this year’s conference.  It was clear that while many companies have Work/Life policies many of them are not working.  New radical strategies must be implemented to stop the female talent drain.  We need new role models for women to look up to.  It was refreshing to hear Andrea Jung, Avon’s CEO tell about how she declined a meeting at the White House with President Bush because it was her daughter’s send off for an important school trip…5 minutes later, George would not remember if she attended or not, but her daughter would spend a life-time remembering if she missed this important event.

So while a lot has changed, cocktail and networking conversation proved that much was still the same.  Professional women struggle with the rigid structure required by climbing the corporate ladder, and many successful women throw in the towel just when companies need them to stay.  For many, Success Your Way, is starting a new business, consulting or OffRamping completely. But what we do know is these decisions are not always permanent and if corporate America really wants to keep their talent they must build the OnRamp to lure them back.