THE LADDER DIARIES: WOMEN UP AND DOWN

Spexy Lady is stepping onto her soap box. What a surprise, no?

The Wall Street Journal is Spexy's night reading, for lack of anything more exciting these days (but that's another story for another day!!). WSJ's report on "Women in the Economy" April 11 left SL aghast and emboldened. When it comes to women in the workplace, the gears have shifted into reverse. After all these years, all these Labor laws, all these Family Life laws, diversity quotas, blah, blah, blah...the research is showing women have lost ground.

Over the next several months,, the "mouth from the south," otherwise known as Spexy Lady, will be using her old newspaper skills to comment on the WSJ's "Women in the Economy" Conference Report. Knowledge is power "they" say, but knowledge without action is futile.

Here's a stat that should make you feel warm and fuzzy: "Only 11 chief executives of Fortune 500 companies are women, down from 15 in 2010" Catalyst tells us. Catalyst is that very cool non-profit group that has been tracking the stiletto-steps of women for more than 30 years.

Just yesterday, I was explaining to one of my mentees, whom I love and adore, that women are promoted on performance -- think work hard, work harder, work hardest and you might climb another rung. Mid-management men get promoted on potential McKinsey & Co. says.

What this means is that we THINK we have to prove ourselves. We THINK we have to work harder, so therefore we do, and therefore we further reinforce that ridiculous thinking that women are only as good as their current or past performance rather than their potential. Not.

Message to mentee: learn the rules of the game at hand, play on the field you're in, and get an ace coach (and nurturing child care)-- a subject SL will get into soon.

Today's take-way from they way Spexy sees things: Promote the untapped, highly valuable, and truly bottom-line POTENTIAL of women on the ladder.

More spex-tacular food for thought for getting on the ladder, staying there, and climbing to the top without breaking a heel...