Lt. Gov. Barbara Lawton moderated a panel session Wednesday night for an Academy Evening event, 'Women in the Boardrooms: Getting it Right in Wisconsin,' in an effort to address lessons learned and potential strategies to increase female leadership in the boardroom.
Featured panel speakers included representatives from several major corporations throughout Wisconsin. SC Johnson, GE Healthcare and Harley Davidson were among the companies chosen due to their success in expanding and supporting womens' positions and opportunities within their infrastructure.
Lawton highlighted these results as an example that an increase in female leadership transcends a mere increase in numbers.
Maria Campbell, director of diversity for SC Johnson in Racine, echoed Lawton, saying her company is concerned with 'not just counting heads, but making [those] heads count.'
Such emphasis expounds on the idea that female leadership brings unique perspectives and talents, and employers should listen to their needs.
In her opening comments, Lawton mentioned a recent New York Times article that referred to departing women CEOs as 'regretted losses,' implying that they departed due to their inability to balance home life and work requirements, when, in actuality, such departures had more to do with different corporations' lack of female-directed benefits.
Jenny Hanson, of GE Healthcare, suggested that general benefits are imperative in her company's aims to promote, develop and retain women in top positions. A common sense approach to corporate leadership will also help to demystify career paths and institutionalize flexibility, she added.
Flexibility, as many speakers noted, is the optimal function for any corporation to have in order to maintain top female leadership.
Although women-owned firms have nearly tripled the growth of all other companies to date, as recently as two years ago, the state of Wisconsin was given a grade of C- from the Women's Institute for Women's Policy Research.
In reaction, Lawton initiated the Wisconsin Women Equals Prosperity economic initiative in an attempt to 'raise the grade for women,' effectively advancing public policy solutions and private sector innovations that would '[Unleash] women's talent.'
Lawton credited the project with the positive impact that the attending corporations have demonstrated.
