Honoring women


Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from Frozen & Refrigerated Buyer magazine.
Our June cover story will be about outstanding women in our industry and company cultures that support their success. It’s my fault that it’s overdue.
Not that I’ve lacked sympathy for the plight of women and the infuriating garbage they put up with daily. But in over-thinking the issues over the years, I had felt that honoring women for their outstanding work might somehow be condescending to them. Don’t ask me to explain that; I can’t. But I believed it. Now, based on watching the news and having many conversations with women, I don’t believe it anymore.
I was also bothered when other magazines seemed to pander to advertisers when one of their own was being honored. That was based on my belief that some of the men pitching the ads were, themselves, pretty darn sexist. It seemed cynical and hypocritical to me. But I was being horribly stupid. And it shouldn’t have held me back from honoring women who thrive in this male-dominated jungle.
So, I’m sorry. Really. But let me add here that back in 1973, I got into trouble with the newspaper where I worked because I refused to cover the Miss Coast Guard Contest. Supposed to be a plum assignment, I felt it was sexist and wouldn’t go. All hell broke loose, someone else was sent, and for years thereafter a couple of male reporters on staff insisted I had to be “queer.” Whatever.
I’ve asked Denise Leathers, our editor, to do the June cover story for us. I’ve also started making women the subjects of The Endcap, the page that appears opposite our inside back covers. So much still needs to be done. Have you seen how relatively few women there are at industry seminars and cocktail parties lately? Or in leadership positions?
Kate Manne, the Cornell University professor who recently wrote “Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny,” argues that misogyny is not about male hostility or hatred toward women. Instead, she says, it’s about controlling and punishing women who challenge male dominance. As she sees it, misogyny rewards women who reinforce the status quo and punishes those who don’t.
She says she’s not sure how to fix this, but “What would need to change is for men in positions of power to accept that women can surpass them without having wronged them.”
Amen to that.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: How can leaders lessen or eradicate the conscious and unconscious biases across their staff that is holding back the advancement of women? Has your organization taken any steps to address any such biases?
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35 Comments on "Honoring women"
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Chief Executive Officer, The TSi Company
Principal, Retail Technology Group
This is another socio-political problem, not exclusive to retail. Biases exist in sex, race, age, and religion. Eradicating bias has been going on for years and it has been slower than necessary. We are now reaching a semi-revolutionary stage when it comes to eradicating bias against women. Leaders have to first recognize and accept that it exists, then they have to take a pro-active, ethical stand, then they have to implement the policies that are clear and repeated like a mantra within the organization. Starbucks just came to that conclusion the hard way. It is about time.
Global Retail & CPG Sales Strategist, IBM
Wow, thanks for sharing so much with full transparency. I am proud to be part of an organization that blazed the trail for women to achieve the most senior executive positions for more than 80 years. This has everything to do with the individual organization’s culture, as opposed to the industry in which it operates. For the 17 years I’ve been here, I have had far more female managers, and their managerial uplines have mostly been female.
The point is, this has never been a challenge. We just do it. We don’t highlight it so much to make it seem like something strange or rare. We just make it happen. ALL organizations need to do this. Find the best “man” for the jobs, and you’ll quickly find it quite often isn’t a man.
Co-founder, RSR Research
Consultant, Strategist, Tech Innovator, UX Evangelist
President, The Treistman Group LLC
Founder
This morning I was inspired by an article in the WSJ titled “The Right Stuff at Southwest Airlines.” It is a commentary on the pilot of the plane in which one passenger was killed yet the rest of the passengers were saved.
Tammie Jo Shults, the pilot on the flight, is a person who fought her way into the Navy and was the first woman to take the stick on an F/A-18 fighter and is now a Captain for Southwest. She is dubbed the “Sully of Southwest.” Inspirational in that she fought her way through the bias she faced and via her own personal efforts attained the skills, talents and capabilities to be a pilot admired for her performance in the face of adversity. It is not because she is a woman that she inspires me, it is because she is a person that we can all aspire to be.
Contributing Editor, RetailWire; Founder and CEO, Vision First
I think women need a seat at the table early so peers, upwards and executives, get used to seeing them, their value and accomplishments. This applies to all types of diversity with employees.
Founder & President, David Biernbaum & Associates LLC
Principal, Cathy Hotka & Associates
Many thanks, Warren. I know of so many happy teams of women, particularly in store operations, who enjoy working with one another without having to endure put-downs by men. It would be great if we could recognize men’s and women’s different strengths and celebrate them.
Founder, Branded Ground
VP of Strategy, Aptos
Founder, CEO, Black Monk Consulting
Managing Director, RAM Communications
It all starts with the acceptance that women and men are the same. The fact is that except for the Y chromosome men have, all humans are basically equivalent. From there, individuals and organizations must be blind to gender. I’m not suggesting co-ed restroom facilities, but just about everything short of that. The key is constant promotion and reward for a neutral gender stance on all business decisions and the simultaneous punishment for any hint of gender bias.
The bottom line is that, woman or man, we’re all very far from perfect and we all need to work harder to ensure equal pay for equal work, workplaces that are free from gender (and race!) bias and a world where performance and the display of personal ethics trumps all other considerations.
Principal, KIZER & BENDER Speaking
Managing Director, GlobalData
Happy business anniversary to you both! That’s a fantastic achievement!
Principal, KIZER & BENDER Speaking
Thanks Neil! Every day is an adventure.
President, Global Collaborations, Inc.
The most forward thinking activity I have seen happened when I was part of a committee planning an event. As we considered who to invite to be part of the program, one of the high powered men said (with no prompting or comment by me) that we needed to be sure to include a woman. This was over 20 years ago and I was very impressed that one of the men was making an effort to include a woman.
Unfortunately over the intervening 20 years I have never heard that sentiment again. How and when will the consciousness of men change?
Founder, CEO, Black Monk Consulting
Camille,
You raise a good point, but let’s note the criticality of language here. The “progressive” man was, “… one of the high powered men.” You were, “very impressed,” that a man was, “making an effort,” to include, “a,” — as in one — woman.
One of the ways consciousnesses changes is through language. That man wan’t, “high powered,” he was the beneficiary of a patriarchal system that promotes men above women.
He shouldn’t have just been making an effort to include one woman, he should have been insisting that the best people appear on the program — more than one of whom was likely to be a woman.
Tokenism isn’t reform and it shouldn’t be celebrated.
As to your last question, men’s consciousnesses are going to change the day after we eliminate the last cultural and institutional tropes propping up gender bias — including language.
President, Global Collaborations, Inc.
Maybe the language used appeared to be tokenism to you. However, consider the other side of the argument — hiring the best person. In how many instances have men written the job descriptions and interpreted actions reported so that “leadership” is desired, meaning men need to take charge and offer their unbiased opinions whereas a woman displaying those same behaviors is considered “bossy” and “aggressive” and so either does not get glowing recommendations or is not considered to have “leadership” potential.
In the conversation to which I referred, seeing a man in a position of power, especially considering the patriarchal position, review names that had been suggested and say that we needed to make sure that a woman be included was notable, welcomed, and gave me hope that men were becoming sensitive to including women. So sad that I have not seen the sentiment since then.
Founder, CEO, Black Monk Consulting
President, Global Collaborations, Inc.
I agree with the mandates. I was just surprised that with no mandate and after a cursory review that a man noticed something missing. I had never before heard that kind of comment from a man in a decision making role and was surprised he noticed!
EVP Thought Leadership, Marketing, WD Partners
I worked for The Limited (now L Brands) for 11 years where the majority of the executive staff, including the CEO, were women. So it’s hard for me to even comprehend the so-called barriers that exist. That aside, and forgive me for generalizing, but I find women more collaborative, less ego driven and much more intuitive on the personal side in almost any workplace scenario. And if you think about how key those attributes are today and look for them, all those characteristics will show up in any interview.
I certainly don’t think it’s about a Title 9 kind of thing for the workplace, but I think a more objective and open mindset when considering who would help your company the most in any given role certainly would be the first step towards a more equal environment. Do we really have to say that in 2018? I guess so.
President, Spieckerman Retail
The merchandising-centric good-old-days of retail are coming to a close. As technology drives the next era, new challenges for women are emerging. Initially framed as a bro-culture annoyance, this tech-shift can present a downright hostile systemic problem as numerous articles, including this wake-up call from the New Yorker, have documented.
I’ve not personally experienced roadblocks in many years, but am concerned for the next generation of tech-savvy women. Retail desperately needs them and must cultivate an environment of respect in order to keep them.
Managing Director, GlobalData
The solution to this is simple, at least in theory: recruit on merit, promote on merit, and ensure that opportunities are open to all and that all are encouraged to advance as far as their talent and desire will take them. Admittedly, putting that into practice in a world where bias does exist is somewhat more difficult.
Let’s remember that there are many great women in retail doing a fantastic job: Ulta’s Mary Dillon, Build-A-Bear’s Sharon Price John, Williams Sonoma’s Laura Alber, TJX’s Carol Meyrowitz, Apple’s Angela Ahrendts, Children’s Place’s Jane Elfers, Kingfisher’s Véronique Laury, and so on.
Interestingly, most of those retailers listed have outperformed the market! Is it because women are at the helm? Maybe. But it completely proves that women are more than up to the job!
Content Marketing Manager, Surefront
Retail Tech Marketing Strategist | B2B Expert Storytelling™ Guru | President, VSN Media LLC
CEO, GenZinsider.com
I believe it was always about control & still is. Woman were always a threat to men & still are, that’s why they hold them down. From birth, parents must teach “all” there children to respect each other equally. Not any specific type of person more than another. Boys aren’t better than girls in any way.
I don’t come from a bias background as my father’s equal partner for over 25 years was a woman. My father complimented her on a regular basis saying, “Sandy is the smartest person I ever met”! My parents treat my 4 siblings “equally,” we have 2 girls & 2 boys. In my company, besides my mother is my COO Robyn McGuinness, allow me to honor her personally. She is a visionary, she doesn’t see age or gender etc, she treats me as an equal. I am honored to have a strong woman like her who always believed in me and has my back. Gen Zers are “team players.” Hopefully you all can learn from us. Thank you!
CEO and Disruptive Retail Specialist, Gustie Creative LLC
As a female founder of a startup devoted to disruptive retail, and with 30 years of professional design experience behind me, I’ve seen and directly experienced enormous improvement in the advancement of women in the workplace. Many of these advancements are due to women who have stepped up and created opportunities for other women. And, industry efforts, such as Warren’s initiative outlined here, create opportunity such as the June cover story and The Endcap feature stories he is spearheading.
Women in today’s workplace are ready and looking for opportunities to advance their careers, companies and industries. Creating these opportunities is key to eradicating bias and advancing women.
General Manager, Promo Intel & Insights, Numerator
Editorial Director & Co-Founder, Frozen & Refrigerated Buyer
Wow! What great and thought-provoking posts everyone! Thank you! They’ve helped me refine my thoughts, and the June cover story will now be “Women in Retail” and not “Outstanding Women.” As you know, I have long had discomfort with the latter. So the story will be on the points so many of you have articulated here so well. I am sincerely grateful!
Founder | CEO, Female Brain Ai & Prefeye - Preference Science Technologies Inc.
Vice President of Marketing, Paper Mart
Leaders can eradicate the biases by openly discussing the issues. Presidents and CEOs need to share what is unacceptable in the workplace and create a vision for change. Many people, like the writer of this article, have been unsure of how to express themselves and at times felt intimidated to speak up. These conversations need to start happening and women have to be part of the conversation. That’s the only way empathy and understanding will begin.
It’s easy to say that women should feel comfortable speaking up when they feel unfairly treated, but unless we are sure that our comments will be met with support at the top level, that is still unlikely to happen. It all starts at the top.
Experienced Marketing Executive, Retail Strategy Consultant - Reality Interactive
Vice President Retail, Tori Richard Principal, Osorio Group LLC, dba JAM with Mike®