In this session, Gwen Young, COO of WBC, met with our newest host, Linda Peek Schacht, on January 13th at 12pm EST Gwen introduced Linda as she joins the LinkedIn Live series to host two sessions per month. In addition, Gwen and Linda gave an overview of what to expect for this series over the next year, and how each of the themes and issues covered fit into WBC’s overall mission of equal pay, position, and power for all businesswomen.

Watch the recording on Linkedin here, or below!

The post #WBCFasterTogether: Leading the Trends in 2022 appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

Nonprofit Collaborative Grows Participation by More than 200% Since its Founding; Remains Committed to Accelerating Progress Across Nine Key Action Initiatives

Published via PR Newswire and Yahoo Finance on December 14th, 2021

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Women Business Collaborative (WBC) has established itself as the leading collaborative and high-growth movement committed to achieving equal position, pay and power for all women in business. Founded in 2019, the nonprofit alliance of business organizations and leaders has grown to include more than 60+ women’s organizations, 40 corporate sponsors and 400+ Council Champions.

WBC’s vast network of business organizations and leaders are focused on achieving long-term results around Nine Action Initiatives, including: more women CEOs, in the C-Suite and on Boards; a demand for gender and pay parity; increasing capital for women entrepreneurs; driving more women as controllers of capital allocation; parity for women in technology; and leveraging learning and development to drive pipeline promotions. With diversity, equity and inclusion at of the core of the collaborative’s mission, every WBC Initiative has a goal to advance diversity.

Since WBC’s founding, the number of collaborating women’s business organizations has grown from 19 to 62 and corporate sponsorship has grown from five to nearly 40 top companies. Supporters include Diversified Search Group, Wells Fargo, Capital One, IBM, Bank of America, BCG, Cigna, and Deloitte. WBC’s flagship Summit hosted a record 3,600 participants this past September.

“We’re incredibly thankful for the passion and commitment that each of our partners and champions offer to this critical movement,” said Edie Fraser, CEO of WBC. “While Boards have seen a sea change and there’s been a major surge of women-owned and minority-owned businesses seeking capital, there is still much more to be done to accelerate gender parity for women. We project further acceleration in 2022.”

In 2021 the WBC with Catalyst, C200 and Ascend released the 2^nd annual Women CEOs in America Report.   According to the report, women comprise 8.2% of the Fortune 500 companies and are about 7% of CEOs across public and private companies. WBC monthly Women Joining Public Boards report shows an average of 42% women being named to public boards and one third of these women of color.

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @WBCollaborative, Instagram @womenbusinesscollaborative and join the discussion with #WBCFasterTogether.

The post WBC Reports Major 2021 Progress Toward Gender Parity for Business Women appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

Gwen Young, WBC COO, and Edie Fraser, WBC CEO, hosted the final #WBCFasterTogether session of 2021 on December 16th, 2021! Gwen and Edie summarized the progress and achievements of the WBC from the past year, while previewing what’s to come in 2022 for the women’s business movement.

Watch the recording on LinkedIn or below on Youtube!

The post WBCFasterTogether Series: Building the Movement – 2021 and Beyond appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

On November 11th, WBC COO, Gwen Young, interviewed Purba Majumder, President of Cybervation and a champion of the WBC Leaders Council!

This session focused on women CEOs in the technology sector – one of the most underrepresented industries for women and women of color, especially on an executive level. This important conversation centered the pathways and sponsorship opportunities women in the technology sector have, and how organizations like the WBC are working to make them more accessible.

Watch the recording on Linkedin, here!

Or on Youtube, below

The post WBC FasterTogether Series: Women CEOs in the Tech Industry appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

This release was published on PRNewswire on Sep 20, 2021, 08:16 ET

Among the Summit’s Featured Speakers are CEOs from GM, Walmart, P&G, BlackRock, State Street, Dow, Progressive, Siemens, PepsiCo, IBM, Humana, Sodexo, CVS, TIAA, and others

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Women Business Collaborative (WBC) – the fastest growing alliance of top business organizations driving impact to create equality for women in business — will convene more than 3,000 participants, including CEOs, thought leaders and the workforce-at-large, at its third Annual Summit  “Empowering Through Gender Equity and Diversity,” taking place virtually, September 21-22, 2021.

With 8.4% of Fortune 500 CEO positions currently held by women – up from 5.7% in 2019, women appear to be on the rise in Corporate America.  Committed to accelerating the progress to include more women across all leadership roles, the WBC Annual Summit brings together the organizations, companies and leaders that are working tirelessly to create cultures of diversity, equity and inclusion across every industry and area of business.

Key data points and best practices for how these leading organizations are taking action will be shared and highlighted throughout the Summit.

“We are crystal clear that all are no longer just talking, but now collaborating on building pathways and nontraditional ways of accelerating women business leaders,” said Edie Fraser, CEO of WBC. “Over the next several days, we will hear from trailblazers in DEI, work to better understand the intersectionality of diversity and discuss how to continually advance the WBC’s Nine Action Initiatives to create equal position, pay and power for all businesswomen.”

In addition to the day and half of engaging discussions, WBC will recognize and highlight achievements in diversity throughout the program. WBC’s 2021 Excellence in Gender and Diversity CEO Award recognizes top officials in major companies for their efforts to diversify their companies and increase opportunities for women in business roles. The 2021 awardees include: Mary T. Barra, Chair and CEO, General Motors; David Taylor, Chairman, President & CEO, P&G; Ronald P. O’Hanley, Chairman and CEO, State Street Corporation; Doug McMillon, President & CEO, Walmart, Inc.; Jim Fitterling, Chairman and CEO, Dow; Laurence D. Fink, Founder, Chairman and CEO, BlackRock, Inc.; Tricia Griffith, President & CEO, Progressive Insurance; and Barbara Humpton, President and CEO, Siemens Corporation.

The full Summit program, agenda, list of speakers, session descriptions and information on how to register for the event can be found here: WBC’s Virtual Annual Summit: Empowering Through Gender Equity and Diversity.  Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @WBCollaborative, on Instagram @womenbusinesscollaborative and join the discussion with #WBCFasterTogether.

The post Women Business Collaborative (WBC) 3rd Annual Summit to Convene Leading CEOs and Business Organizations to Accelerate Gender Equity Across the Global Workforce, September 21-22, 2021 appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

Whether your goal is to promote women into the C-Suite, a woman as your company’s next CEO, to diversify your board of directors, or to help women into their first leadership job – your goals cannot be achieved if you don’t accelerate female talent, especially women of color, from the start of their career and through the leadership pipeline. To check out WBC’s own Resources for Parity Guide covering six categories of services, click here!

The post Resources For Parity Guide appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

As I reflect on Women’s History Month, I celebrate the progress of where we’ve been and the progress made of women joining the workforce. It’s a continuous journey and in the “Digital Age” of technological advances and disruption the workforce demands are ever changing and progressing faster than the human mind can keep up. Companies can no longer be complacent and must transform, or be left behind. The same applies to our workforce, corporations and particularly the opportunities presented for women in the workforce.  In 2020 and with COVID-19, we saw women exiting the workforce and years of progress wiped out in a single year.  How do we recover and encourage women to rejoin the workforce, or retain those who contemplate departure? The opportunity to support women is needed now more than ever as we face a greater shortage and companies scramble for retention strategies to bridge the gap.

An article from USA Today in October revealed that amidst the pandemic, 865,000 women dropped out of the workforce compared to 216,000 men. Overall, the United States job market added 661,000 jobs between August and September, according to the latest jobs report released last October by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Our work within the Women Business Collaborative (WBC) is one that brings together collaboration and “power in numbers” to enable greater impact and make a difference.

As a woman in the tech workforce, I reflect in reaching back to support others throughout their career. Having a support system is key to women in the workforce and one we encourage as they struggle with work/life balance.  Every individual has their own personal story and the challenges  faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.   The numbers in 2021 reflect the “1st Female Recession” within the workforce.  This is a Call to Action for women to help change the trajectory.  Our call to support other women to navigate through the stages of the  career lifecycle is one of great need. Through great mentorship, sponsorship, coaching, and advocating, we can provide women lessons learned, encouragement, strength,  and emotional fortitude. Throughout my career, my support system encouraged me to remain in the technology industry. Like many of my colleagues, we traveled the journey together while reaching back to help other women and coaching them all along the way.  Formulating various ways to create “trusted networks” and outreach to our female workforce is an opportunity to impact and pivot the numbers of women in the workforce.

In 2015, Corporate America began a greater focus in recruiting, and promoting women in the workforce.  Several CEOs and corporations launched initiatives to increase the numbers of women in tech, some targeting 25% of their workforce by 2025. While progress continues – but not to the extent of 25% – the impact of COVID brought a tremendous decline as women were overwhelmed with the responsibility of balancing work and life, specifically caring for their children during the COVID shutdown of schools.  We saw an evolution of corporations providing greater support to retain their workforce, yet women were impacted the most . We have work to be done as we rebuild. Now more than ever, CEOs/corporations are realizing the importance of diversity for innovation and impact. Recruiting efforts for women are stronger and stronger. CEOs are taking action, including providing training to help people recognize their unconscious biases and investigating salaries to ensure fairness in pay.

The work of WBC in the Women in the Pipeline Action Initiative allows us an opportunity to raise greater awareness of the call to action and reach the goals set forth in the Women in Technology Action Initiative, one of which is to decrease the female quit rate in the technology sector by 50% by 2030. The benefits of having a diverse workforce is powerful to corporations. As we see in the Deloitte INsights – Perspectives from Leading Women CIOs, the impact of diverse teams is impactful on all levels of corporate performance. With intentional actions to keep women in the workforce and measurable goals to work towards, WBC is setting a great example of how we can offset this “she-cession.”

The post Women in the Workforce: Overcoming the 1st Female Recession appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

WBC was featured in the Winter 2020 issue of Enterprising Women along with our partner organizations: WPO, WBENC, NAWBO, C200, Springboard, Golden Seeds, SheEO, Astia, and PEWIN. Starting on page 16, find WBC's piece here. 

The post Enterprising Women Magazine: Winter 2020 Issue appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

Why is there a gender imbalance in the technology industry? Based on recent research, the ratio of men to women is roughly 70% to 30%, respectfully. And, as we continue to further explore these statistics, we learn that the representation of women of color is less than 10%, with Black women only representing 3%. As I reflect on this, it brings to the forefront several questions for consideration. Are women of color aware of the job opportunities in this field?  Are there enough supportive systems in place for these women to succeed?  Are they being given equal opportunities for career advancement, and pay equity?  I invite you to think about the possible answers to these questions when poised from the vantage point of a Black woman working in the tech industry.

As a retired technology executive, and a Black woman, I certainly have my perspectives on this topic and a few answers to these questions. Some of my perspectives are a result of my personal experiences, and others are from countless conversations I have had with other Black women in this field. There is absolutely a direct correlation between these women’s success and the workplace environment.

During a research study conducted by Information Technology Senior Management Forum (ITSMF), Accenture, and North Carolina Central University, ITSMF learned that Black women were very aware of career paths in technology at early stages in their academic life. However, when they entered the workforce, they often found the environment at many companies lacked gender and ethnic balance. There were seldom people of color, let alone Black women, in C-Suite positions, and they often felt there were “unwritten rules” that impacted their career progression. In their workplace, the women experienced a lack of sponsorship, industry bias, a lack of exposure, toxic company cultures, and a lack of opportunities to advance. As a result, it highlighted a correlation between their negative experiences in the workplace and the individual’s ability to advance, as well as the company’s inability to retain their Black female technology professionals.

Utilizing this knowledge, ITSMF designed a comprehensive development program called Emerge for mid- and executive-level women of color to support their career progression as authentic, driven, knowledgeable, and conscious leaders. The Emerge program was not only designed to help these women grow professionally, but also to lead them on a path of discovery and direction through a Seek (who I am), Study (what I know), and Soar (who I become) curriculum. Eighty-five percent of the participants have received a promotion or increase in job responsibilities within a year to eighteen-months of graduation.

As a board member of the Women’s Business Collaborative, an unprecedented alliance of 44+ women’s business organizations collaborating to achieve equal position, pay, and power for all businesswomen, I co-chair the Women in Technology Action Initiative. Our goals are to decrease the female quit rate in the technology sector by 50% in 2030; have women constitute 35% of all leadership positions in technology by 2025 – with women of color making up 15% of that 35%; and increase the representation of women in C-Suite technology positions by 3% by 2025, with at least 4% of the positions held by women of color.

Based on my experiences and work with Fortune 1000 companies, I believe this is achievable if  companies are committed to creating a workplace that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive for Black women, and consider implementing the following actions:

• Assign a sponsor to monitor the woman’s career progression, ensure pay equity, and to be her advocate and “voice” in the room where career advancement decisions and assignments are being discussed.
• Identify executive/leadership development programs that are designed for women of color – like ITSMF – and enroll the women in these programs to position them for success.
• Identify mentors who are internal to the company and can assist with career navigation.
• Identify external mentors and places for her to network with people who are Black and can share their learnings in a safe, secure setting, while providing her with invaluable insights.
• Eliminate any inequities that exist:
• Ensure her title is the same as her peers
• Align her compensation with her peers
• Identify and address the “roadblocks” that exist as she navigates her career path
• Educate your employees, especially those who are in influential positions, to the inequities that exist, and about the cultural and gender biases that your employees of color are experiencing.

“You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering, and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.”

I was moved by this quote because it was said by Shirley Chisolm, the first Black woman elected to the United States Congress.  She was a trailblazer and an iconic leader, and I can only imagine how challenging it was for her to achieve that goal in the late 60’s.  As we honor leaders, like Congresswoman Chisolm, during Black History Month, we must also continue to create pathways for others.  That is why, as a Black woman who has had a highly successful technology career, I am compelled to encourage people to move away from the sidelines and move to the front.  It is time for us to create a new vision for how we will work together, write a new narrative about diversity, equity, and inclusion, and implement changes that will “level the playing field” in corporate America. Be the change, own the vision, and watch to see what will emerge!

The post Black History Month Highlight: Black Women in the Technology Workplace – Why Supportive Systems and Equal Pay Matter appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.

We know that social and financial factors impact and often stop women from pursing STEM careers – including lack of mentors and role models; gender bias and derogatory behavior; unequal growth opportunities and lesser wage for same position as male counterparts. This brief provides an overview of why focusing on women in tech is a passionate focus for WBC.

Why focus on women in tech?

Women in the technology industry encounter more gender inequality than in any other workforce population.

• Computing roles for women in tech have been on a decline over the past 25 years (Pew Research)
• In 2015, 25% of all leadership positions in technology were held by women (Source: Statista)
• In 2015, only 11% of all executive positions in Silicon Valley were held by women (Source: Business Insider)
• White women hold 16% of computing roles and women of color hold less than 10% (NCWIT)
• The quit rate of women in technology is almost twice as high as that of men. (Source: NCWIT)
  • In 2018, the number of women who left their STEM jobs was 53%. In comparison, that number for men was 31%
  • The female quit rate is even higher in the technology sector, compared to science and engineering; 56% of women quit their technology jobs in 2016
• In 2018 women were 3.5 times more likely to be 35+ and still in a junior tech position (The Next Web)
• According to researchers, men are far less likely to stay at junior level roles for long:
  • 30% of women over the age of 35 are still in junior positions; while less than 5% of men who are 35 or older are still in junior positions
  • Less than 50% of women between 25 – 34 are Senior Developers; while more than 85% of men between 25 – 34 are Senior Developers
  • Only 17% of all Fortune 500 CIO positions are held by women. (Source: NCWIT)

Our Goals

So what can we do? We’ve partnered with an incredible group of organizations to drive change: Hispanic IT Executive Council (HITECH); Information Technology Senior Management Forum (ITSMF); The WIT Network; Watermark.

Together we plan to pilot a program that will be focused on providing women in tech with a path to C-suite positions, conduct research to establish our baseline and the possibilities, work towards expanding the program across the country, and more.

We believe that through these actions we can see:

• Female quit rate in the technology sector down by 50% by 2030
• Women constitute 35% of all leadership positions by 2025 of which 15% are women of color
• Increase the representation of women in C-Suite technology positions (CIO, CTO, CISO, CDO) by 3% by 2025 of which 4% are women of color

The post Issue Brief: Women in Technology appeared first on Women Business Collaborative.