"Dad, you really should write more about women in business."

My daughter Samantha lives in New York, and after some years in the corporate world, has her own interiors and design business. She was recently home for a visit, and handed me a brochure from an event she attended at The Rockefeller University's Women & Science Initiative. The program topic, Hormones and Profits: Is Gender Balance Better For Business? was the subject and talk at a Spring Breakfast Forum.

My daughter told me that in leadership traits, women rule! A Pew Research Center survey of 2,250 adults found that women lead men in five of eight key leadership traits; are equal to men in two, and miss by a small margin in just one trait. Click in the right-hand column to read the survey, Men or Women: Who's the Better Leader?

But don't assume the playing field has been leveled. Even with MBAs, women still lag behind men in job level and compensation and rarely catch up, according to a report from Catalyst, a women's issues organization.

Says Ilene H. Lang, President & Chief Executive Officer of Catalyst, "The time is up for 'give it time.' Women are approximately 50 percent of the labor pool and influence over 70 percent of household spending in the United States. It's just smart business to include women in the decision-making process, and companies should implement strategies that set targets and timetables to do so."


Les Gore