More Ways the Economic Crisis Could Bring Women to the Fore - Building Gender Balanced Business

• We know that the economic crisis, by costing men proportionally more jobs than women, may be making the US workforce majority-female, but the crisis has other silver linings for women.

• A discussion hosted by Fordham University’s Institute for Women and Girls outlined some of the ways women may be pushed forward by the upheaval of the crisis.

• Noting the shift to more women in the US workplace than men, Mary Murphree, senior adviser at the Sloan Center on Innovative Training and Workforce Development at Rutgers University, said, “We can now say American women are the breadwinners and caregivers -— straight out.”

• Rosyln Chernesky of Fordham’s Graduate School of Social Service outlined how the climate “has led to toxic workplaces, and women are considered toxic handlers,” which could generate more interest in hiring and promoting women.

• More broadly, Chernesky said, “We’re likely to see more collaborative structures in our organizations and those types of structures women tend to do well in. Women will be able to show skills, and this will give them opportunities to move around and up.”

• Christine Birnbaum, director of human resources and diversity for the New York Life Insurance Company, said, “I’m already seeing women step out and start their own businesses or just plain step out and network.”

• But Birnbaum warned, “[A]nything discretionary is getting cut. Programs that support women and minorities could be at risk.”

Fordham University’s summary of the conference