Even After the Glass Ceiling Yields, Female Executives Find Shaky Ground

From The New York Times authored by Julie Creswell:

“For the better part of five years as the chief executive of the cosmetics giant Avon Products, Sheri McCoy battled collapsing sales, a plunging stock price, a bribery scandal in China and the constant drumbeat of an attack from an activist investor.

On Thursday, Avon announced that Ms. McCoy would step down and that it had started the search for her successor.

The day before, Irene Rosenfeld, the chief executive of the Oreo cookie maker Mondelez International, announced her plans to retire later this year. In June, Marissa Mayer resigned as chief executive of Yahoo after it was acquired by Verizon Communications. Like Ms. McCoy, they, too had faced pressure from activist investors.

Several months ago, it appeared as if 2017 would be a bit of a breakout year for women in the C-Suite because, for the first time, more than 5 percent of chief executive roles at publicly traded companies on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were held by women.

But with only 27 women holding the chief executive post, the departures of even a few will quickly thin the ranks. Those 27 included Ms. Rosenfeld from Mondelez and Debra Crew, the chief executive of Reynolds American, which is no longer a stand-alone company after being acquired last month by British American Tobacco.”

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Beyond Balance: How Women Lawyers Can Find Happiness at Work

From Law Practice Today authored by Sharon O’Connor, Karen Hoffman and Dale Sokoloff:

 

“Susan sat down in a chair in our office, put her head in her hands and said, “I need you to help me get out. I am so miserable I don’t know what to do. I’m not doing the work I thought I would be and I’m not being the best parent I want to be either. I am taking client calls at 8 p.m. when I should be reading my kids a book before bed. I want a totally new career… I’ve been thinking about becoming a nurse or opening up a bakery.”

Susan is a top-performing partner at a prestigious New York law firm and is thoroughly unhappy. Many women lawyers come to us with similar stories, but the truth of the matter is that working at a large firm is hard, for men and women. With the demands of billing hours, committee meetings, servicing clients who want access 24/7, and bringing in new business, they often feel unhappy because they are surviving but not thriving at work. We find this to be the case even if a firm has progressive family friendly policies such as flex time and paid parental leave. In fact, women lawyers are particularly unhappy, and have told us that when they do take advantage of something like flex time, they feel they are marginalized onto a “mommy track” and penalized at compensation time. So although attempts to achieve work life balance may be helpful, we have seen firsthand, as well as from statistics, that women attorneys continue to be unhappy in law firms, and frequently leave before they make partner. By shifting the focus to what is meaningful about the work women lawyers do and what aspects of it make them happy, women can thrive in a law firm setting.”

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Want to Ensure Solo Success? Obsess Yourself.

From My Shingle.com:

 

 Don’t Express Yourself – Obsess Yourself!“Over the past few years, passionate has been one of the most overused modifiers of entrepreneurs and startups. If you don’t believe me, check out LinkedIn, where “passionate” turns up 872,400 times in various profiles.

Increasingly, solo and small firm lawyers, in an effort to distinguish themselves from their big law peers have started tossing the term around as well – over 4000 times on LinkedIn. And while I’ve celebrated the importance of passion in practice myself, increasingly, I’m realizing that while passion can make law practice more enjoyable, it isn’t necessarily key to solo and small firm success. Obsession is.”

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Time for Women In Business To Embrace The Success

From Playbook authored by Kim Shepherd:

“How great is it to be a CEO? Not only do I get to nurture the culture of a great company, but I’m also invited to speak to organizations for women in business. These groups usually expect to hear stories about women’s struggles, suggestions for breaking the glass ceiling, and words of motivation for women fighting the good fight.

Here’s the catch: I don’t think focusing on the struggle is such a good thing. I’m deeply grateful to all those who have struggled through the years to help women be where we are today. Without the efforts of the suffragettes or people such as Betty Friedan, I might not be a CEO today. After all, it’s been only 96 years since women won the right to vote in the United States. Do you know anyone over 96? I do. The 19th Amendment is not ancient history—it’s only a human lifetime ago.”

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23 Motivational Thoughts That’ll Make You Hate Monday a Little Bit Less

From The Muse authored by Kaitlyn Russell:

“Raise your hand if you hate Monday. Now, keep it raised if you feel stressed at the start of (almost) every week. We don’t blame you. Weekends are supposed to leave you feeling relaxed , yet within five minutes of arriving on Monday morning, you already feel the stress piling back up.

The struggle is real, but sometimes all it takes is a little inspiration and a few positive quotes to get you prepared for the week ahead. We’ve grabbed 23 of our favorite tweets—from people just like you—to help you survive the Monday blues. So, take a few minutes and read these motivational messages before delving into your work or trying to make it through your overflowing inbox.”

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Her dilemma: Do I let my employer microchip me?

From The Washington Post authored by Danielle Paquette:

“Melissa Timmins has a week to decide: Does she keep her hand to herself, or does she let her employer microchip it?

The implant is the size of a grain of rice. It would slip under the skin between her forefinger and thumb. It would sting for only a second. Then she could unlock doors or log onto her computer with a wave. Her flesh could hold her credit card, her medical records, her passport . . .

“At first, I thought it was a joke,” she said.

Timmins, 46, works in sales at Three Square Market, a Wisconsin company that makes vending-machine software. The offer came after her boss returned from a business trip in Stockholm, where he encountered Biohax Sweden, a start-up that aims to endow body parts with technological power.”

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Some Truly Awful Things Can Happen During The Bar Exam

From Above the Law authored by Kathryn Rubino:

“Bar exam 2017 has come and gone — nothing left now but waiting for the scores. But while you play the waiting game (and hopefully start packing for a killer bar exam trip) here’s something to distract you: bar exam horror stories!Seems we play this game every year, as there seems to be an unending number of ways the day of the biggest exam of your life can get screwed up. Like this imgur user, who reports an actual tire fire outside of the testing center. Nothing like a bad omen…”

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Finding Joy in Feminism

From Medium authored by Jane Harkness:

In high school, I didn’t know anyone who called themselves a feminist.

“I would occasionally read an article about discrimination against women and find myself nodding in agreement, feeling like I could relate but unable to fully articulate why. Perhaps it was because I had heard feminists smeared as “angry man-haters,” or maybe it was because my interest in any political movement rarely strayed beyond an occasional fight with my dad over a Fox News segment. Either way, I had limited experience and interest in feminism as a teenager. If you had asked me what I thought of feminism, I probably would’ve spouted off the popular line, “Well, I believe in equality, but I wouldn’t call myself a feminist.”

When I arrived at college and encountered a new crowd who comfortably and proudly embraced the feminist label, I initially resisted. But I considered myself open-minded, so while I still refused to call myself a feminist, I was willing to listen. There was no singular moment that changed my mind, no “light bulb over my head” epiphany, no traumatizing experience that flipped my worldview on its head. Over time, feminism just seemed to make more and more sense. I believe Maya Angelou put it better than I ever could:

‘I am a feminist. I’ve been a female for a long time now. I’d be stupid not to be on my own side.’”

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On Justice Ginsburg’s Summer Docket: Blunt Talk on Big Cases

From The New York Times authored by Adam Liptak:

“Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the most outspoken member of the Supreme Court, sometimes to her regret. Last year, she issued a statement saying that her criticisms of Donald J. Trump during the presidential campaign had been ill advised. “In the future,” she said, “I will be more circumspect.”

She has stayed true to her word, to a point, but she remains blunt and candid. In a pair of recent appearances, Justice Ginsburg critiqued the Trump administration’s travel ban, previewed the coming court term, predicted an end to capital punishment and suggested that the other branches of government are in disarray.

Justice Ginsburg, 84, also described her grueling exercise routine, her link to a rap icon and her “graveyard” dissents.”

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8 Ways to Deal with H8TERS

From Law Practice Today authored by Jeana L. Goosmann:

 

“As a successful female lawyer, you will run into people who do not like you and talk bad about you. You will hear from moms who criticize your parenting, attorneys who disparage your legal work, online reviews that attack your image, a mother-in-law who doesn’t understand you. Women at the top rarely discuss these H8TERS, but struggle internally with them. Below are eight proven methods to keep the sparkle in your eyes without losing sleep.”

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