FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON UNIVERSITY
One of the first women I interviewed for this study was Dr. Ethne Swartz. She is a woman dedicated to the positive development of female entrepreneurs as part of her work at the Rothman Institute at the Madison Campus. Dr. Swartz suggested that there are several covert problems that still exist for women entrepreneurs: “Women are still outsiders,” she says. “For instance, doing business with corporations continues to be a problem because the key decision makers often are not women” (E. Swartz, November 15, 2005, personal communications).
Fortunately, the United States has become an international role model for female leaders within corporations such as Xerox, Avon, Liz Claiborne, IBM and Merrill Lynch, paving the path for future female business role models. For example, at Xerox, women hold nearly one-third of top management roles as part of a corporate attitude that began to take shape 40 years ago. However, even in a company culture like this one, there is still a need for women to have more profit-and-loss responsibility and to be among the top earners (McGinn, October 24, 2005, pp. 68-69). Often, the corporate world makes it difficult to manage a family however, academic institutions are not much better. Childcare often becomes a source of guilt when time and attention are divided by work because men have not been socialized to take on this burden in the same manner.
According to Swartz, women often find their energy depleted by low self-esteem, which is at the root of self-sabotage. Investment in psychological and social capital (terms that refer to clarity with respect to one’s goals, the creation of a “place of security,” routines which reinforce wellness, and networks of diverse colleagues) is Swartz’s recommended defense against these workplace maladies.
Fortunately, companies like Xerox and Merrill Lynch have chosen to create atmospheres that support women and their conflicting roles at home and at work by providing flexible hours and childcare so that they may achieve higher-rank positions in a more fairly designed corporate culture (E. Swartz, personal communication, November 15, 2005).
McGinn, D (2005, October 24). In good company. Newsweek, Leadership for the 21t Century, 68-69.
