The Gender Agenda

Books of 2008

Hello again and Happy New Year.  I hope everyone enjoyed a lovely festive break …. I certainly did, and I even spared my family the threatened Christmas Day viewing of “Closing the Gender Gap.”

To close the year, here are a few thoughts around my favourite books of 2008.  When I wrote about this as a blog concept a few weeks ago, I was pleased to hear from Gary Bowker of Thomson-Reuters, a friend and colleague who edits a regular bulletin of news clippings on women in business on behalf of PwC.

“I've just been reading your blog and the reference to 'my books of 2008' led me to reflect on mine. Two come to mind immediately (neither are directly gender-related but both concern disadvantage and the pursuit of truth and fairness) - The Truth Commissioner by David Park which looks at a (fictional) attempt to heal the scars of Northern Ireland's past through truth and reconciliation; and The Home We Build Together by Jonathan Sacks who looks critically at the notion of multiculturalism and makes the case for integrated diversity within a framework of shared political values.”

Many thanks, Gary.  And, as an aside, remember that you don’t have to be a PwC employee to be a blog subscriber – it’s open to all, via the “stay updated with free email alerts” link on the top right of your screen.

Turning now to my own reading this year … in 2008, I read 104 books!  A legacy of much time spent on planes and in hotel rooms, I think.  Of those volumes, 88 were by female writers, which is a statistic that I didn’t actually appreciate until I came to have a look at my reading log.  It’s in no way deliberate other than, when I think about it, several of my favourite authors (Elizabeth Jane Howard, Anna Quindlen, and Nora Ephron) are female, so I do tend to zoom in on their new works as soon as they are published and then read around other suggested authors in the same vein. Sixteen of the books read in 2008 were non-fiction, and a couple of those are in my list of my Books of the Year.

So here they are, in no particular order other than calendar:

Austerity Britain by David Kynaston.  This was the first book I read in 2008 (a 2007 Christmas present) and, with the benefit of a year’s hindsight, perhaps it now reads like a modern day warning of what lies ahead of us.  It’s actually about Britain in the immediate aftermath of the second world war (1945 – c. 1952)  and provides a very readable overview of a time which feels far away in terms of social and economic changes and is yet within the lifetime of many.

March saw me reading (and laughing at) Jancee’s Dunn’s hilarious memoir, But Enough About Me. Jancee is a writer for Rolling Stone magazine and the book intersperses her anecdotes about life as a celebrity interviewer with tales from growing up in New Jersey in the 1970s and 80s.  Very, very funny. Top tip: do not read it on a long plane journey seated next to a stranger, unless you want them to think that you have some kind of unusual choking disease.

Also in March, I read America Unchained by Dave Gorman, in addition to having seen the documentary of the same name.  This is Dave’s story of his attempt to drive across America from California to the east coast, without giving any money at all to “The Man”: ie, by only buying petrol, accommodation and food from independent, “mom ‘n’ pop” operators and eschewing the likes of Esso, Best Western and Starbucks. It probably won’t surprise anyone who’s ever driven in the US to know that the petrol was the hardest element of Dave’s “gas, food and lodging” triumvirate to come by independently, and the book has some very interesting points to make about the branding and globalisation of corporate America.

In May, I read the first of what would become quite a large group of books featuring India and women from that country – this was Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri, a book of short stories by a British born, now resident in America writer of Indian heritage.  Her stories have a melancholy kind of longing and wondering to them and feature characters who somehow never quite feel at “home”, wherever they are.  Absolutely beautiful writing.

A few weeks later, I picked up Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee, a hefty novel set in New York which tells the story of Casey, an American born daughter of Korean immigrant parents and how she fights against the weight of expectations imposed on her by her family, her cultural heritage and her Ivy League education.  It says something for the quality of the writing and the plot that, even as certain elements of the really quite poor editing and fact checking were annoying me, I still read on and have recommended the book quite widely to friends since then.

In August, I re-read and then recommended on here - Frankie and Stankie by Barbara Trapido, which I still think is not only one of the best novels written about South Africa but is also just a great story by a marvellously atmospheric writer.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer ought to win an award or two: not only for having quite possibly the most tongue twisting title of the year but also for being a wonderfully insightful novel (in the form of a series of letters) which explores a period of British history about which I (and I imagine, many others) was largely unaware, namely the occupation of the Channel Islands by the Germans in the second world war. And yet somehow, in spite of what I agree sounds like an unpromising setting, the book is wonderfully uplifting and witty, with a great deal of charm.  I was sorry to arrive at the final page, and even more sorry to learn that there will not be a sequel.

Two more books about India pre-occupied me as holiday reading when I was away in September. East of the Sun by Julia Gregson is set in the 1920s and tells the story of a group of English women who arrive in India looking for husbands.  So far, so chick lit, but the author’s skill is to take the story of what was known as “the fishing fleet” and tell their tales in a way which also tells us about India at that time.  And The Hindi-Bindi Club by Monica Pradhan is a modern day look at life in the USA for two generations of Indian women – those who arrived as spouses to their technical husbands in the 1960s, and their American born daughters. Pradhan weaves their stories with great talent and intersperses the chapters with recipes for the food she describes in the narrative – so you get a cookery book as well as a novel with this recommendation.

My last recommendation from 2008 is a memoir – One Drop by Bliss Broyard. This tells the story of both her father, Anatole Broyard, who revealed to his children on his deathbed that he was actually of black ancestry and had been “passing” as white for most of his adult life, and of the author’s reaction to this news and of her subsequent search for identity in an America where race matters and where even “one drop” of African-American blood has meant being dubbed “black” irrespective of appearance and racial heritage.

Finally, many congratulations to my colleague Bindiya Chopra of PwC in Gurgaon, who won the competition at the end of November, by correctly guessing that the common thread to link three of my blog entries was, of course, that they are the titles of books, namely:

Passage to India – EM Forster

Heat and Dust – Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Unaccustomed Earth – Jhumpa Lahiri

Happy New Year to you all –

Cleo

On culture, Malcolm and books

Hello again. A while ago, I mentioned that I’d share a bit more about a very interesting event that I attended in central London, in which Malcolm Gladwell talked about some of the themes and premises contained within in his new book, “Outliers”. I must caveat all of this by saying that I haven’t as yet read the book myself, but hey … Christmas is coming and perhaps I’ll get lucky and receive a copy next week.

“Outliers” is subtitled “the story of success” but, interestingly enough given that he had a book to sell, Malcolm didn’t spend his 45 minute slot talking about the (male!) people featured in the book who fulfil a definition of success (Bill Gates et al) but rather focussed on culture (as in, the way that we think and behave based on our nationality, personality and external influences) and how cultural context can affect behaviours, beliefs and outcomes. He told a long and surprisingly witty, given the subject, story about a New York plane crash and how no one thing – a failed engine, a lack of fuel – had actually caused the accident but how it was rather the result of a chain of errors, primarily based around differing communication styles, which had led to a number of individually small and quite insignificant errors all welding together and becoming one disastrous error.

Which in turn led to both a plane crash but also (thankfully) to a change in approach in training pilots and co-pilots to communicate with each other and also with entities such as air traffic control.

The global cultural piece really fascinated me, as it chimes very strongly with what I’ve witnessed in my travels around the PwC world during 2008. Our women in the UK, the US, India, South Africa and so on have so much in common with respect to their “PwC-ness” - and yet have many different challenges to face outside the workplace in terms of external attitudes to work, as well as practical considerations such as childcare. My time in India last month led me to reflect that perhaps sometimes we focus our awareness a little too much on the perceived practical barriers such as childcare and flexibility and not enough on the cultural issues (attitudes towards work, the need to “please” external customers at all times, opposition from the older generation) which can impact how easy or difficult it can be to create and sustain a career.

I’m currently writing a new piece for the www.pwc.com/women website about some of the women who lead PwC in their respective countries (the profiles of the female partners in Bahrain and Turkey are already up there) and it struck me that the four women who will feature in the article are not necessarily from countries where, in cultural terms, you would “expect” a woman to be the leader. They haven’t benefitted from corporate interventions or programmes or initiatives. But they were smart, talented, determined and freely admit that, in a couple of cases, the timing was right for them. In other words, they made their cultural contexts work for them, and overcame the significant hurdles of the expectations of others and the definitions of “the norm” - to succeed.

That to me is the true “story of success”.

Back to Malcolm. This article referring to him as a “Geek Pop Star” from New York magazine provides a great overview of his career to date and the new book. And, if you, like me, believe that you can learn a lot about a person from their choice of reading material, then here are:

Malcolm Gladwell’s favourite books

• The Blind Side – Michael Lewis
• Should I Be Tested for Cancer?: Maybe Not and Here’s Why – HG Welch
• Freakonomics – Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
• Traffic – Tom Vanderbilt [described as: “a very clever young writer tells us all sorts of things about what driving says about us”. My husband read this book a few weeks ago and has been regaling me with nuggets from it ever since …]
• Nixon Agonistas: The Crisis of the Self-Made Man – Gary Wills
• The Opposable Mind: How Successful Leaders Win Through Integrative Thinking – Roger Martin

[Source: The Week magazine]

His own blog is also, unsurprisingly, an interesting read.

More on my personal books of 2008 next time – not quite as erudite as Malcolm’s, though.

Until then, seasons’ greetings –

Cleo

PS: I’ve had a lot of blog feedback lately saying that you appreciate the links I provide to global news stories and interesting articles. All PwC people can email me and get themselves added to my mailing list of global items, so please make that a New Year’s resolution if you’re not already on the list.

And here’s an article which I found whilst on-line at New York magazine’s site, entitled ‘The “Bitch” and the ‘Ditz’ ” which sets out to examine how the participation of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin in the US Presidential election race “reinforced the two most pernicious sexist stereotypes and actually set women back.”

Empowering women through micro-finance

Hello again.  This week’s entry is provided as a follow up to Dyan Decker’s article from the summer, in which she described her hopes for her forthcoming trip to Tanzania as part of the PwC Ulysses programme. 

Dyan, pictured below with her colleagues Nicolas and German, spent eight weeks in Tanzania as part of Ulysses - the PwC initiative which enables our partners to undertake a unique global leadership development programme.

Dyan, Nicolas and German were in Tanzania to work with Selfina – an NGO established for the purpose of delivering micro-finance solutions exclusively to entrepreneurial women in Tanzania in the form of loans, leases of equipment and sale and lease back. That project was launched by Dr Victoria Kisyombe, Selfina's Managing Director, in 1994 when her circumstances made her aware that Tanzanian women - and specifically widows - deserved to be offered solutions which could empower them economically. Selfina has now delivered almost 10,000 loans and is aiming at reaching c. 100,000 loans over the next five years.

(This short film clip, The Girl Effect, tells a very compelling story of how education and micro-finance can make a real difference to women in countries such as Tanzania.)

About Nicolas

Nicolas is a senior corporate law partner in the M&A practice of Landwell & Associés, the correspondent law firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers based in Paris. He joined the partnership in 2006 and specialises in merger and acquisition transactions for clients operating in France and abroad. Nicolas has acted as a lead advisor in the context of a large number of acquisitions and disposals in a variety of industry sectors. He is also one of the founding members of the PwC France India Business Group and has worked on a number of transactions involving French and Indian companies.

Here’s a picture of Nicolas (on the far left) with Dr Victoria and the rest of the Ulysses project team,  Dyan and German, and here is his story of what he learned from working with Dr Victoria:

“I was lucky enough - together with Dyan Decker and German Ganado, PwC partners based respectively in Los Angeles and Mexico City - to spend 8 weeks, as part of the PwC Ulysses Responsible Leadership development programme, working for Sero Finance Leasing Ltd (Selfina) in Tanzania.

Starting in early July 2008, we spent eight weeks in Tanzania assessing Selfina’s operations, analyzing Selfina’s needs and providing recommendations related to operational and financial areas. Our work in Selfina came at a time when it is attracting the growing interest of a number of stakeholders, such as the Tanzanian Government (who were measuring the social impact and general environment of Selfina’s activities), the Tanzanian Parliament (in the framework of the enactment of a new leasing law), the Tanzanian Central Bank, the International Women and Social Entrepreneurs Forums, and the World Bank. In particular, Selfina has been now recognised by the World Bank Group’s Gender Action Plan as an organisation that promotes women’s economic empowerment.

This growing interest in Selfina by a variety of institutions worldwide is recognition of its success in serving low income Tanzanian women and allowing them to develop economically for the good of their families and the community at large, by proposing innovative products more adapted to their situations than those offered by traditional banks. It is also recognition of its capacity in reaching a critical size in a profitable way.

It became clear that, loan over loan, Selfina's female clients, in many instances, develop a business that is profitable enough to allow them to repay their loans (less than 2% default), and to impact their living standards, increase their autonomy vis-à-vis their husbands (when married) and the community, allow them to send their children to school, hire personnel and more generally influence the development of their community. Micro-finance appeared as an efficient way to empower women and reduce poverty. Many clients nevertheless expressed their wish to see interest rates (which can reach 33% per year) decrease.

From a more personal standpoint, this experience has put me outside of my comfort zone, in a situation where my technical expertise as an M&A lawyer was not relevant.

"How should I act to make my stay in Tanzania meaningful to me, my team, Selfina, my family and other stakeholders?"

- was a constant concern (and there were times when I doubted I/we could achieve that goal).

Bringing value to Selfina and having an impact on its future development drove me to rely on personal inner resources such as my capacity to listen with an open mind and with kindness, be present to people and situations and sense what was at stake in each situation. It was crucial also to understand and accept cultural differences, let go of my certainties and prejudices, take time before making judgments and drawing conclusions and refuse to apply recipes or ready made solutions. That resulted in actually investing in relationships by relying on trust and a sense of care between people, and sharing and collaborating with others - in some cases, without avoiding robust dialogue. I became more and more invested personally in the success of Selfina, putting myself in the shoes of its Managing Director, staff, clients, investors and other stakeholders, which led me eventually to accept an offer to sit on their advisory board and pursue the collaboration further.

Meeting and working with Dr Victoria Kisyombe was a real privilege. She is an actual leader who once had a vision, a dream, at a particularly painful time in her life. Through patience, courage, trust, initiative and care to others, she managed to make her dream a reality, and a successful one.

This experience gave me a broader perspective of how my actions - both professionally and personally - can actually be meaningful to me and the community. It made me aware of the role that PwC, as a global professional service provider, has in the rapidly changing world in which we live, and of the impact each one of PwC’s professionals may have by being a responsible human being working not only for but also from PwC, with a view of promoting sustainable solutions for our clients, our firm and the community at large.”

Guest blog: what the Obama victory may mean for diversity in corporate America

Hello again.  Our latest guest blog entry comes this week from New York based Simi Sanni Nwogugu, an executive coach with her own diversity consulting firm that helps clients retain and advance women. Simi is a good friend of PwC in the US, where she co-ordinates the coaching programme for the PwC US initiative, Full Circle; she also organised and participated in last year’s PwC panel discussion on juggling work and motherhood, “Life Changes” - and has a very strong dedication to the leadership development of women at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

When I sat with Simi at October’s “Working Mother” dinner event, I asked her if she would write me a blog entry (or two!) about her views and experiences of life in corporate America and Nigeria.  She immediately sent me two great proposals and here is the first one – which is particularly timely in a week which saw President Elect Obama name three women (Hillary Clinton, Janet Napolitano and Susan Rice) to his cabinet http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/us_elections_2008/7716467.stm.

About Simi:

Simi received her MBA from Harvard Business School, and a professional certificate in Organizational and Executive Coaching from New York University.  She received her Bachelor’s degree with Honors from Mount Holyoke College, where she developed her passion for helping disadvantaged women and children.  She is married with two young sons and divides her time between her two favorite cities in the world – New York City and Lagos, Nigeria.

“I developed several diversity initiatives for corporations in the United States that understand the value of a multicultural workforce.  Many of the individuals I coach are multicultural women in middle management who have been identified as high performers that the companies want to retain.  One thing I hear over and over from the women I coach is their lack of trust for “the system.”  Some of these women have been enrolled in many half-baked diversity initiatives that go nowhere, and they believe that management is “all talk and no action” when it comes to actually promoting them to leadership positions. 

In short, there is a lack of trust – when the time comes, will the white people actually do what they say they will do?

During the last few months of the presidential election, many of the women I coach expressed this same sentiment about the possible election of Barack Obama as the next president of the United States.  Though many of their white managers and colleagues expressed admiration for Obama’s policies, speeches and experience, my clients were not sure that the color of his skin would not prove to be a deterrent when it came down to hitting that button in the polling booth.

I watched the election results with a very diverse audience – my neighbor, a white single mom; a biracial couple who run a local Brooklyn yoga studio; a group of German tourists who had been at the speech Obama gave in Berlin; some African immigrants like me, and many others – and we were all rooting for the same man (at least, we hoped so).  When Obama was declared the winner, there was a collective gasp, just before the shouts of joy and hugs.  In that gasp, I could also detect relief – it was okay to trust again.

I’m not saying that the election of our 44th president will end America’s racial tensions, but, as an immigrant who has been observing trends for the past fifteen years that I have lived in America, I am hopeful that this will mark the beginning of a more trusting relationship between the women that I coach and their managers. And that is exactly what we need to break down the barriers preventing a more multicultural executive suite.”