Career Success Tip: “Rainmake” for Other Women

“Women are their own worst enemies in the workplace”

“Once a woman ‘makes it’ in the corporate world, she doesn’t want to help other women get there. They can fend for themselves just as she had to”

“Women don’t help women in business”

These comments are often used to describe why women have not made greater strides in the workplace. I have been part of corporate America for many years in very competitive environments and other women have helped me every step of the way. In fact, if it weren’t for some of my female managers and mentors, my road to success would probably have been a lot more difficult. So, women supporting other women: is it fact or fiction?

Catalyst’s study “Advancing Women Leaders: The Connection between Women Board Directors and Women Corporate Officers” begins to answer the question. The study reveals that women board directors are a predictor of future women corporate officers: a company with 30% female board directors will have 45% more female corporate officers two years in the future than a company with no women on its board.

Other studies show that the women-owned firms have more gender equity than their male counterparts. Women business owners overall employ a fairly gender-balanced workforce (52% women; 48% men) while male business owners employ on average only 38% women. In addition, women business owners are more likely to offer flex time and tuition reimbursement—benefits that are very important to many women.

But what about my personal experience from years in very competitive companies? My first job out of business school with the investment bank Salomon Brothers provides the best example. Wall Street and Salomon in particular were known for their intense, competitive and self-focused personalities. John Gutfreund, the firm’s former CEO in the ‘80s, was famous for being quoted in the Wall Street Journal as saying that his employees had to be ready to “bite the ass off a bear [market]” when they came to the office every day. This was clearly not a nurturing, touchy-feely environment. One would think that with the competition so intense, this would NOT be a place where women would help women. And yet here at bite-the-ass-off-a-bear Salomon Brothers, I worked for one of the best managers I have ever had—a woman named Leslie Christian who ran the “hedge desk”.

When I joined the hedge desk in 1985, “green” couldn’t begin to describe how clueless I was about fixed income derivatives—puts, calls, caps, swaps, strips, straddles. They sounded like some bizarre game. However, Leslie was able to see my potential and oversee my ignorance: she believed in me more than I believed in myself. She gave me enough rope to make me feel empowered, kept me from hanging myself, and managed by instilling confidence rather than fear. No man could have been more helpful to my career.

The Solution:
I feel certain that the situation for women is not very different from that of men. Men help men much of the time…but not always. Similarly, women often help other women…but not always.

Perhaps the reality is that men understand the game better and are able to practice the illusion of supporting each other. Or perhaps women fall into the trap of many “cultural minorities” (and yes, in the workplace we are still a cultural minority). Seeing few spots in the business elite for women, we mistakenly perceive that this state of affairs is fixed. We believe that our competition for upward mobility is other women—and only other women—since we are vying for those “female” slots. We ignore the reality that it helps all of us if more women ascend the ranks.

We women can do better. We currently make up a large percentage of the workforce yet we don’t use our clout. We need to support each other, yes, but we also should go one step further: we need to rainmake for each other. We should think of our female contacts when an RFP goes out or when our companies are looking for new vendors. We should suggest our female colleagues to others when their skill sets fit a need.

“Women supporting other women” doesn’t simply mean being a friend or mentor, it means being a rainmaker. The only way we will all rise in the workplace is by helping each other. Are you ready to be a rainmaker for other women?

By Erin Wolf