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0UTin theM0UNTA|N5

 

Breaking
Through the
Pink Ceiling  

 

BY ALYX LYONS

t the beginning of February,
Aover 500 GLBT students
and professionals attended
the seventh annual Reaching Out
MBA (Masters of Business
Administration) conference at the
Westin Copley in Boston. The con-
ference is hosted each year by dif-
ferent universities,_ and planned and
organized by MBA students from
those schools. This year’s hosts
were Harvard Business School,
MIT Sloan Business School and
Yale School of Management.
According to the confer-
ence website (www.reachingoutm-
ba.org), the goal of the conference
is to “promote the education, visi-
bility, and networking capabilities '
of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans-

.gender business leaders in the

United States and around the

globe.” The annual conference pro-

vides a forum for students, recent
alumni and business leaders to share
information, build networks and
promote cooperation.

The first conference,
named “From the Closet to the
Boardroom,” was held in 1999 at
the Harvard Business School and
was attended by 150 studentsand
professionals. The focus of the con-
ferences has shifted over the years.
Early on, the focus was on personal
experiences of individuals in the
corporate world and on how to
reduce the isolation of GLBT busi-
ness leaders.

The next several years of
the conference saw a shift towards
strategizing about advocacy issues,
such as domestic partner benefits.
The primary focus of this year’s
conference, according to steering
committee member Dale Schilling
(MBA 2005, Harvard Business
School), was on how GLBT leaders
in the corporate world can stand up,
be out, and effect change in individ-
ual organizations.

More than 40 corporate
sponsors supported the event and
looked for new talent in graduating
MBA candidates. The list of spon-
sors included IBM, citigroup, Credit
Suisse/First Boston, Ford Motor
Company, American Airlines, JP

Morgan / Chase, Pfizer, and
Microsoft (fora complete list, go to
www.reachingoutmba.org).

The first keynote speaker
was Ted Childs, Vice President of
Global Workforce Diversity at IBM.
His responsibility is to ensure the
application of workforce diversity
programs and policies for all
130,000 employees worldwide at
IBM; According to Mr. Childs, IBM
is a global leader in diversity issues
and was the first company to offer
benefits to pay for the medical bills
of individuals undergoing gender
reassignment. IBM also extends
domestic partner benefits to all its
locations. If you are an employee

living in Mexico, Japan, or Russia,

 

and “raise the bar.”
Selvin challenged the

crowdthatit is not simply enough

to be out in the workplace. As busi-

ness professionals we are often

faced with a “Pink Ceiling” that

gives us three choices: ignore’it, run

from it or break through it. We were

exhorted to create an individual , i
strategic plan or personal mission
statement. Holding onto our indi-
vidual core values, Selvin said, is a
fundamental step into breaking
through the barriers and effecting
change.

Of 508 participants, there
were just 70 lesbians. When I asked
Dale Schillings why there weren’t
more women, he told me that this
under-representation has been an
issue since the conferences began.
Under-representation is not just lim-
ited to the conference, but also to
the composition of business schools
and corporations nationwide.
Women make up 30 percent of the
graduate student body in business
schools across the country, and how
many of them are lesbian is
unknown. ‘

The barriers facing les-
bians in corporate management are

GLBT professionals are typically 

held to a higher standard and =
therefore must be the “best of
the breed” and “raise the bar.”

for instance, you and your partner
would be covered under IBM’s
domestic partner benefits. Mr.
Childs also spoke about the impor-
tance of not isolating ourselves: “It
is hard to stand against someone
when you know them.”
Keynote speaker Jean
Dolan recapped her coming out
story. With a long-time interest in
the military,_intelligence, and
national security, she often has had
to walk a fine line of being out or
not. After several years in the U.S.
Army, serving in both tactical and
strategic assignments worldwide,
she resigned and joined the firm
Booz Allen Hamilton, a security
and intelligence security company.
Keynote speaker Lowell ,

Selvin challenged us to break
through the “Pink Ceiling.” He is
the chairman and CEO of
PlanetOut, Inc., the first GLBT
company to be listed on Wall Street
(LBGT on the Nasdaq). Selvin
described the keys to GLBT success
as leaders. First, like many minori-
ties, GLBT professionals are typi-
cally held to a higher standard and
therefore must prove themselves.
We must be the “best of the breed”

, organizers are very aware of this 9
l

many: exclusion from informal net-
works (the “old boys” club), stereo-
typing and preconceptions of
women’s roles and abilities, and '
failure of senior leadership to ‘
advance women’s careers. Out of

the six organizers for this year’s
conference, just one was a lesbian.
Schilling said that the conference

issue, and are striving to include
lesbians on the steering committee.
It was evident at the con-

ference that although the current
political climate may be hostile to
GLBT people, business leaders,
both gay and straight, continue to A
push for equality. Over 220 Fortune
500 companies now offer domestic
partner benefits, A substantial num-
ber of U.S. companies continue to
blaze the trail because equality is
good business. V

Alyx Lyons lives in Burlington. was

formerly in niwiugemenr at Onion

River C0-op/City Market, and is

pursuing her MBA at the University

of Vermont. For more iry“ormm‘inn

about major U .S . corporations’ ,
treatment r)fGLl3T (’lll[7l()_V(’(=’.S'. go to ’ j
wwwlirc.org/wnrkner.