The disparity between the two genders is a major issue in our society today. Most women in the business world make 30% less than a man would for the same occupation. Only 19% of C-suite executives are women. In many developing countries there are approximately 50% less females than males in secondary education. Such statistics show that change is necessary for our society and economy to prosper.
In the class we heard from a few female guests that not only lead successfull organizations and firms but also worked towards creating opportunities for other women. One such organization was Arielle Kandell’s non profit New Women New Yorkers which has several initiatives in order to help women immigrants adapt to their host country and give them the tools and skills necessary to succeed and become leaders. Another fascinating organization was Kim Wales’ crowdfuncing firm called Wales Capital. Kim Wales explained how crowdfunding allows women to acquire capital in ways that would not have been possible for women.
Inspired by these ventures, my group and I designed our own solution to the problems that women face in the workplace. By analyzing the statistics stated above and talking to two anthropology students at the City College of New York who conducted research in women in male dominated majors, we saw that a major issue seemed to be the lack of women in leadership positions in business and in politics. We therefore decided to create the Society of Successful Women – a network for motivating women to pursue leadership roles, providing them with the necessary skills, and providing such opportunities. Looking at our campus here at the City College we saw that we have two highschools with 891 female students, approximately 8,750 female college students, and a myriad of highly accomplished and esteemed female professors in all the various departments. Our organization would work by creating a network between the college faculty, the college students, and the high school students. The college students would talk to the high school students, offering skill building and confidence workshops, encouraging them to pursue male dominated majors such as economics, business, politics, engineering, architecture, and other sciences. The City College faculty would serve as mentors to the college students, providing opportunities and advice, as well as leadership and skill building workshops. We hope for our network to grow within itself; the high school students becoming mentors when they enter college, and the college students expanding the network once they graduate and become professionals, providing our new wave of college students with opportunities and workshops, and even more importantly serving as role models.
As a beginning, in order to attract members we would host promotional events in the college, present at the two high schools AP Randolph and HSMSE, reach out to professors, and coordinate with the City College Alumni Association. At these events we will be distributing interest surveys in order to gauge how the City College community would respond to such an organization. A sample of what the Society of Successful Women will offer its members is a series of resume writing, college interview, and other skills based workshops, open discussions with professional women about the issues faced in the workplace, and social events for networking and skill building.
