Women in Italy represent 58% of university students, but occupy only 17% of top management positions. What is it that stops women in their career path? Returning to work after maternity leave is a major obstacle for Italian women. What are the critical factors that determine success? How are companies assisting women in reintegrating into the workplace? What policies are missing that would help close the gap?

Join us for an interactive panel discussion of challenges women have faced and overcome upon returning from maternity leave and what companies are doing - or not doing - to retain talented women and aid them in their professional growth.

The panel will share their personal experiences from both sides: those who have temporarily left the workplace for maternity and the managers who handle their departures and reentries.

About The Panel

Mara Caverni, Partner PricewaterhouseCoopers / Private Equity Leader -  Mara  is a partner of PwC Italy, and since 2005 she has been the private equity leader. She was graduated in economics at Bocconi University. She gained international experience working in Paris and London and is a professor at LIUC University (Master in Merchant Banking)

Lynn Chasson PWA member and EU Controller at ArvinMeritor - Lynn is a Finance professional with over 20 years experience in financial reporting, strategic planning and project modelling.  She started her international career in Mexico/South America and has spent the past 12 years in Europe; currently she is the EU Group Controller for ArvinMeritor (Cameri, NO).  She originally joined PWA in 1999 and has served in a variety of board positions.  Lynn lives in Milan with her husband Andrea and their three children.

Barbara Cominelli, PWA member and Strategic Planning Director at Tenaris Dalmine. -  Barbara holds a Laurea and Master from Bocconi University and has also studied at ESADE, RSM, and Stanford. She is currently Director of Planning at Tenaris Dalmine, responsible for Strategy, Management Control , Industrial Planning and Marketing, overseeing a team of 50 in Italy, Romania and the US. Previously she has held management positions at AT Kearney and was Assistant Professor at Bocconi. She was chosen  Donna Manager 2009 by Aldai/Federmanager. Barbara is married and has one child.

Cocktails 7-8 p.m. / Presentation 8-9.30 p.m.
Grand Hotel et de Milan. Via Manzoni 29, (MM Montenapoleone)

Free for members, €20 for guests, payable by cash at the event

Members please register your attendance in the calendar section of www.EuropeanPWN.net

For guest reservations, or additional information, please contact speakers@pwa-milan.org

Indra Nooyi became chief executive of PepsiCo in May 2007. Indian born and Yale educated, she is one of a handful of women who appeared in the Financial Times list of 50 people who shaped the past 10 years.

Where do you see more growth coming? Do you see it in emerging markets? Can you talk about that a little bit?

If you want to listed to the interview click here.

The Presidents and leaders of the 17 City European Professional Women’s Network (EuropeanPWN) elected a new Board on Jan 22, 2010. The two day General Meeting was hosted in Barcelona, part of the federation since 2008. In addition to formal elections, the leaders exchanged ideas and insights on EuropeanPWN’s evolving vision, strategy and priorities for 2010 and beyond in response to significant growth in the number of networks, activities and strategic partners across Europe.

If you want to read more click here.

What is the situation of women in the 21st century? The International Herald tribune is trying to answer to this question with a series of articles covering different areas of the world and different positions within companies.

“Getting Women Into Boardrooms, by Law” examines the situation of Norway a few years after the introduction of quotas.

“Female Bankers in India Earn Chances to Rule” presents the unusual situation of Indian Women highly represented in top positions among bankers.

“Where Are the Women on Wall Street?” on the other hand discusses about the difficulty of the top women in Wall Street in getting back to top positions now that the economy is recovering.

“In Germany, a Tradition Falls, and Women Rise” presents the evolving situation of Germany, where more schools are introducing afternoon classes and more women are getting back to work after maternity leave.

Profumodicarriera, a web magazine dedicated to people willing to improve and grow professionally, interviewed our Corporate member Francesca Patellani, Partner at Accenture.

Thank you Francesca for mentioning your collaboration with PWA Milan as a way to support and develop Accenture’s Inclusion&Diversity program.

Read the interview here.

PWA invites you to a Networking Aperitivo with Mini-Workshop
All professional women welcome, whether members or guests.

Wednesday 3 February 7-9 p.m.

Location: Grand Hotel et de Milan
Via Manzoni, 29
MM Montenapoleone

How confident are you in the selling process? Does having to “sell yourself” spark anxiety? Does selling make you feel forced or false?

During this interactive mini-workshop, Leadership and Business Coach Monique Svazlian will teach you how to be authentic and genuine during the sales process, and attract clients more easily and effortlessly.

After her brief presentation, the rest of the evening will be dedicated to putting to practice the techniques you have learned.

You can read more about Monique at www.highestpath.com

Drinks 10 euro each, light buffet included

Guests, please send an email to networking@pwa-milan.org

Why are there so few women sitting on boards of directors in Italy? A SDA Bocconi study states that only 4% of the positions in publicly held companies are held by women – ridiculously low when research from all over the globe points to a strong positive correlation between a firm’s economic success and the percentage of women in decision-making positions. Too often the answer given is that there are not enough women qualified for these positions.

This historical excuse is not true. During the preparations leading up to PWA’s May 2008 “Women on Boards” event, the “Ready-for-Board Women” Project was born to show concrete proof of this falsehood. It was officially presented on November 18 by PWA, representing what is only the first edition of the ongoing project. As PWA President Monica Pesce stated – “plenty of qualified women are out there, the problem is to recognize and locate them. To introduce them to the decision makers. And the first step has now been made with the publication of this dossier listing women with qualifications and experience necessary, some of them in fact already sitting on boards - in business, institutions and academia.”

Together with the support of SDA Bocconi’s Osservatorio sul Diversity Management, D’Antona & Partners, and four leading executive search companies (Eric Salmon & Partners, Heidrick & Struggles, Key2People, and Korn Ferry International), PWA delivered concrete proof in their “Ready-for-Board Women” Project, a list of 72 women in Italy with the experience, skills and qualifications necessary to serve on boards of directors.

A panel of speakers was presented by Assolombarda president Alberto Meomartini who echoed Nobel prize winner Elias Canetti’s fundamental question: can a society ignore roughly half of its human resources? Agreed that it cannot, then why is it occurring? The answer is that Italian society is stagnant, evolving at a painfully glacial pace, or to paraphrase the film title: “No country for women”. But fortunately things are changing.

The panel was comprised of Giampio Bracchi, Presidente of AIFI; Carmine Di Noia, Vice Direttore Generale Assonime; Marcello Messori, Presidente of Assogestioni, and Giovanni Sabatini, Direttore Generale of ABI and was moderated by journalist Debora Rosciani of Radio24.

The members of the panel acknowledged the fact that the women who serve on boards of directors in Italy are few. But is it a matter of qualification or rather a cultural legacy (Italian or not) that penalizes the female gender when it comes to assigning the major responsibilities in large firms? The latter in fact seems the case.

Is it the case, then, to lobby for the “quote rosa” in order to resolve the situation with federal laws? Is that the way to close this particular gender gap? Perhaps, was the consensus, the starting point of view should be to remove the obstacles that impede equal rights, which are prescribed by no less than the Constitution. Psychological, social, cultural obstacles are all present. And in fact there arose one conclusive fact from the debate: the organization of the workplace at all levels is principally masculine, made by and for men, a power dynamic that leaves little space for women, especially in Italy. So what should be the objective? Equality? Equality with whom, asked a female member of the audience, equality with men? Not only that, but equality with other women with similar experience and ability to excel, even at the highest levels.

by Speaker Director Kristina Tool

Ruth Ann Lake presented Professional Women - Choosing Your Own Leadership Style to PWA members and guests at the October 21 Speaker Meeting. As an independent consultant Ruth Ann has worked for more than 20 years in advising on leadership and change management, cross cultural management and negotiations. With this presentation, she shared information on leadership styles and involved the audience to create an interactive event which illustrated different approaches to leadership.

She presented how leadership levels can occur in macro environments such as global scale political and business leaders but also in micro environments, such as our personal interactions in working with teachers, colleagues and bosses. Regardless of the environment, good leaders exhibit consistent traits. These traits can be seen in both what they do and do not do.

What do good leaders do?

• Inspire a shared vision
• Listen
• Celebrate small victories
• Celebrate success

What do good leaders not do?

• Give up
• Monopolize conversation
• Take all of the credit

With a clearer understanding of what qualities make up a good leader, Ruth Ann asked if good leaders were born or made. Do you believe that as a leader that “you’ve either got it or you don’t?”  The group consensus leaned away from leadership qualities being exhibited by only those fortunate enough to be born with such traits. While it was acknowledged that like any skill, some people may begin with more natural abilities than others, it was agreed that through training most people can develop into good leaders.

Ruth Ann shared that studies on charisma have shown that those who are credited with having what seems like an innate ability, are in fact displaying tangible communication skills, (which can be studied and practiced) such as rhythm of speech and  tone if voice.
Another component of leadership style presented is where on the continuum of styles do leaders fall from “projector” to “attractor” and which types of situations warrant one style over the other.

Projectors:

• Successful in settings with a hierarchical power structure
• Tell people what to do
• Make final decisions without debate
• Good in crisis and emergencies, the style may be quicker to implement
• Good method for deciding on unimportant and simple tasks
• Are effective if  already a recognized expert
• Require compliance and obedience
• May have problems  they do not demonstrate high credibility in a given situation
• Must be careful about managing resistance

Attractors

• Pull people towards them
• Take more time to make a decision and involve more input from others
• Effective in situations with more complex problems
• Effective in situations in which resistance to change is more likely
• Especially effective when buy in and commitment from others is essential

This approach takes more time up front but may often be quicker to implement thus leading to a shorter total time

Ruth Ann ended the evening by having the group select a partner. One partner held her hand up, palm outwards. The other partner pushed her fist against the palm. The result? All of those who held up their palm instinctively resisted and all of those pushing into the palm felt this resistance.  It was a chance to experience a physical metaphor for what happens to those who try to impose a projecting or pushing leadership style; very often a natural resistance arises from those whom have not been involved.

The Pew Research Center has just published an interesting report entitled “Women, Men and the New Economics of Marriage” (in pdf) and the related article “New Economics of Marriage: The Rise of Wives” (click here).

This report examines how changes at the nexus of marriage, income and education have played out among U.S.-
born men and women who are ages 30-44 between 1970 and 2007 -a stage of life when typical adults have completed their education, gone to work and gotten married.

Cynthia Milani, Director Institute for Global Development (IgD) presents “Intercultural Negotiation & Conflict Resolution: Tips from a Corporate Anthropologist”

Conflict is an inherent part of every day life - we all need to negotiate for what we want and need. Many professional women say they find this especially challenging here in Italy, and with their international clientele. Success depends on personal style and bargaining behaviours, but also on the underlying beliefs, attitudes and assumptions of the negotiating partners. It is essential to understand which behaviours might prohibit or increase negotiation effectiveness in various cultures by deciphering their core values and worldviews.

Cynthia Milani, a corporate anthropologist, will lead a lively discussion about the origins of conflict we experience in and outside the office, and explain how to bridge the cultural differences to successfully negotiate solutions. She will share tips from over twenty years of experience training and consulting with multinational companies in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Topics include:

• Assessment of members’ key issues and experiences with conflict
• Demonstration: How to map the impact of culture and gender on conflict and negotiations
• The challenges and pitfalls of intercultural communication for professional women
• Identification of preferred negotiation styles
• Strategies & Solutions: Culture bridging tips for resolving conflicts

 About Cynthia Milani

Cynthia Milani is director of the Institute for Global Development, which provides intercultural communications training and consulting for a wide variety of multinational clients from the banking, pharmaceutical, oil and natural gas, technological and government sectors.  IgD has offices in Milan, and training facilities in the south of France. (www.igd.moulin3arcs.com)

Cynthia is the author of BRAND ITALY: A Guide to the Italians (Olive Mill Press, 2009). In this book, she analyzes the values, culture and behaviors of the Italian peoples. She has a Masters in anthropology from Columbia University, did post graduate work in Semiotics (Columbia’s Paris branch) and received her certification in negotiations and conflict resolution from Harvard University Law School’s Center for Conflict Resolution. She is a dual citizen of Italy and the U.S..

Cocktails 7-8 p.m. / Presentation 8-9.30 p.m.
Grand Hotel et de Milan. Via Manzoni 29, 20121 Milan. 

Free for members, €20 for guests, payable by cash at the event

For guest reservations, or additional information, please contact speakers@pwa-milan.org