Hey Ladies

Way back in 1993, Deloitte, a company I spent the first 13 years of my career with, founded its Women’s Initiative. When it came out, many of us scratched our heads and our puny little brains. There was lots of grumbling – mostly from the old white men who started to feel the vice grip tightening. Dedicated to the advancement of women in the firm, it was widely hailed as a bold move, a leading-edge strategy, and a practice to be quickly followed by the competition. And as almost a perfect validation of the initiative’s success over the years, Sharon Allen – yes, a women – just wrapped up a two-year stint as Chairwoman of the Board.

I came across a great infographic the other day on women and work. And with the gracious permission of the Online MBA Program at the University of North Carolina, I’m sharing it with you here. See what strikes you; this is what strikes me.

• Women are entrepreneurs! And they are starting more business than men by half. Look out.
• 40% of Large Companies had not a single woman on their Board of Directors. Really? Are you really that confused about how to run a successful business in this day and age? This is actually quite troubling to me.
• 95% of venture capital awarded in the Technology Space goes to men. Whatever happened to diversification as a sound investment strategy, yo? Or maybe it’s just that Women don’t need your stinking VC.
• Only 18% of patents granted in the US in 2010 went to Women; but that’s double the amount granted two decades ago. Innovation. Creativity. Ingenuity. Yep.
• Nearly 70% more Women earn bachelors degrees than man. This might very well be the most prophetic statement about the future of our world of work…

Via MBA@UNC MBA Online & Women 2.0