Talking Womenomics with Claire Shipman and Katty Kay
Cross posted from the new Families and Work Institute blog
Flexibility at work “isn’t like a favor you hand out at a children’s birthday party.” It’s good for business and good for people.
“For the past 30 years [women] were happy to sit quietly at the boardroom table and that’s changed: the boardroom table has to change. We think that can finally happen now.”
These were the key messages shared by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman, who together have written Womenomics. It’s no. 10 on the New York Times Bestseller list, so it’s clearly resonating. Shipman and Kay spent 90 minutes with Families and Work Institute staff and Corporate Leadership Council members.
Born of a friendship—they talk about “whispering in corners at cocktail parties in Washington” about their desire to manage work and family—both Shipman and Kay note they have other priorities other than a “climb up the ladder,” although they certainly excel in their work. They wanted successful careers but they also wanted time for family. And so they negotiated with their own employers. I was so surprised to hear that Claire Shipman, a famous new anchor, accepted a pay cut to work fewer hours! In their new book, they share personal lessons, results from research (including the FWI National Study of the Changing Workforce and interviews with Ellen Galinsky) and interviews with corporate leaders and employees.
Kay and Shipman stress that their approach is good for men, too, but that it’s vital for women. Depressed by the “opt out revolution” argument, the authors embrace the controversial notion that women work and manage differently: and that’s a good thing. Women, they say, have somewhat different values of what women want at work. Claire Shipman: “We are willing to say no to things in a way that men (at least of our generation) are not. And we’re saying that the workplace is changing to fit that.” She continued, “The case we’re trying to make with Womenomics is that women have so much more power in the workplace than they even understand.” We can use this power to help ourselves, and companies. Research shows that the more senior level women in the company, the more money the company makes.
Kay noted they encountered some skepticism from older women- the pioneers who’d “had to put their heads down and work.” Some of these women felt:
“you’re telling women not to aim high, to just opt out. But we came to a different conclusion: this is real feminism. If we can create a work world where women’s needs are genuinely met rather than a world where women are trying to be men, that’s real power. We empower workers, and empower families, it doesn’t need to be seen as non-feminist.…We’re not saying people don’t want to work; they just want to control the hours they have to be in the office.”
About Me
Morra Aarons-Mele utilizes social media strategies to help employers, employees and communities connect. She also consults with leading organizations on how women can use the internet for professional and personal development. In her spare time, Morra enjoys blogging about women and politics. Read her full bio >>
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