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Jessica Grounds Jessica Grounds

Companies Should Be Asking Themselves, Does #MeToo Happen Here?

Sex discrimination, misconduct, and assault are nothing new in America.  These abuses have played out throughout history.  In the United States, we have seen cycles of exposure to the reality of this behavior and this most recent wave of stories is just the latest version.  

(Photo: Shutterstock)

by Mine The Gap co-founder, Jessica N. Grounds 

Sex discrimination, misconduct, and assault are nothing new in America.  These abuses have played out throughout history.  In the United States, we have seen cycles of exposure to the reality of this behavior and this most recent wave of stories is just the latest version.  

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, we had sweeping responses to rampant sex discrimination against professional women exemplified in the Amazon series Good Girls Revolt about the massive discrimination case brought on by 46 women at Newsweek. In the 80’s and 90’s, we had discussions about unfair and sexist practices in both government and business which led to federal and state laws aimed at protecting women.  In each generational revelation, we see a similar pattern of inappropriate actions perpetrated primarily by men in power on women with less power. While our culture has become more aware and has responded to these offenses over time, we will continue to be plagued by these issues as long as American culture places a higher value on one sex over the other.

But the latest wave of sexual harassment accusations has exposed this ugly reality in a new way. We see the financial impact on business. We see the public perception fallout in politics.  We see an American sports culture in which we revere saturated with abuse and violence. Looking at the practical business dimension of this behavior, companies, and organizations are facing tangible financial implications and long-term reputational damage that can be avoided.

Just this weekend, the Los Angeles Times outlined the financial impact comedian Louis C.K.’s sexual misconduct scandal is already having on multiple media companies, including Orchard and 21st Century Fox.  We are talking hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts, distribution partnerships, and potential bankruptcy. In another example, the financial fallout will be staggering for the Weinstein Company in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.  And these challenges are not by any means limited to the entertainment industry.

In tech, companies like Uber and SoFi are scrambling to clean up the mess that has been left by sweeping allegations of sexual misconduct, discrimination, and practices that allowed for a rampant toxic corporate “frat-house” culture. Uber has already lost massive market share to their primary competitor Lyft in the wake of these stories.

In the venture capitalist space, arguably one of the most male-dominated industries, story after story of investors and VC’s who took advantage of their power are shining a light on an industry that seems to have sex discrimination baked into its calculus.  Recent research shows that for companies seeking VC funding, those run by men got 16 times more money than companies run by women.

Not only do these scandals represent public relations headaches that distract from the goals of the company, they represent real risk, real dollars and cents, and deep cultural problems that cannot be fixed overnight. So why are these companies simply hiring communications firms to deal with a messy press day, when they can be proactive and address these problems in a more meaningful way?

These issues can be addressed.  But it requires culture change – and we know this is possible.  It takes dedication and an awareness that a company is truly stronger when all of its talent can flourish and not be victimized. Moreover, the business case for doing this has been made again and again, with research showing that women improve innovation and complex decision-making and companies with more women in leadership make more money.

With any risk factor facing a company, why aren’t more companies looking at gender balance as a key imperative? They should be strategically working to build a corporate culture that doesn’t allow for one group to prey on another. This should not be simply seen not as an “HR” issue but as a competitive advantage and key strategic priority.  All too often companies are sweeping these problems under the rug as though they will somehow resolve themselves. They are ignoring the variety of implications at a huge cost, both short and long-term.

If you are building a company with purpose, a strong vision, and goals to be successful – then building a culture that sees gender balance, awareness, and respect should be at the forefront.  The behavior of your employees matters –  at the top and at every level.  Bottom line: even for the companies who are dense enough to only care about immediate financial returns (and there are a lot out there), ignoring this problem will continue to expose them to massive risk and jeopardize their financial future.   

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Jessica Grounds Jessica Grounds

Inducted into National Association of Women Business Owners Hall of Fame

Mine The Gap inducted into the National Association of Women Business Owners Hall of Fame at the annual conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota last month.

Mine The Gap was inducted into the National Association of Women Business Owners Hall of Fame at the annual conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota last month.

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Co-founder Kristin Haffert

attended the conference where she spoke about what Mine the Gap is currently doing to advance women leaders in the public and private sectors.

About the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO): Founded in 1975, the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) is the unified voice of over 10.1 million women-owned businesses in the United States representing the fastest growing segment of the economy. NAWBO's mission is to propel women entrepreneurs into economic, social and political spheres of power worldwide.

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Jessica Grounds Jessica Grounds

Why More Women in Politics is Good for Business

Authored by Mine the Gap's Jessica N. Grounds and She Should Run's Erin Loos Cutraro, they explore why the private sector has a business imperative to invest in women's leadership.

Originally published in the San Jose Mercury Times on July 27, 2017

What if we told you that we have the key to better government? Government that is more efficient, responsive, productive and civil? Would you be willing to invest? Would you be willing to get involved?

This isn’t a carnival show. We do have the answer. Get more women into the over 500,000 elected offices in this country. It is that simple.

Decades of research proves that the presence of women as political leaders means a positive impact on legislative culture, policy, efficiency and civility — something we could really use these days.

And women are eager to lead. In the seven months since the election, She Should Run’s Incubator Program, built to inspire and support women to act on their own political leadership potential, has had a 1,700 percent increase in the number of women sign up. Organizations across the nation that encourage, support, train and elect women, all experienced an incredible surge of interest.

We also know that when women run, they win at the same rate as men. So better government — more responsive and civil government, is within our grasp.

The interest is there but with the United States ranked 101st in the world in women’s political representation, we need powerful partners to achieve the government that we deserve.

Business is doing better than government at elevating women to positions of influence. Some companies are seeing that more diversity brings innovative solutions to complex challenges, while others act on research that says companies with more women result in higher profits. Regardless of the motivation, we know that gender diversity inside companies leads to more innovation, more efficiency, and more profits.

Thankfully, a few companies have recognized those benefits both in business and government and are investing in strategies to encourage more women to shape policy and serve in elected office.

The first steps were taken this past March with the creation of the California Leadership Collaborative, with support from PG&E right here in the Bay Area.  The purpose of this project was new and strategic – to get business and political women together to collectively develop new approaches to encourage companies to get more women elected to public office.

This included helping women’s political organizations make a business case about their work.

But we can’t stop there. The insights and partnerships from the California Leadership Collaborative must serve as a catalyst to business and political sectors around the country to work together to value and support women leaders (from all political parties) in elected office.

Because,  just like business, when women are at the table, they get things done.

For the United States to have the most efficient and effective government possible, corporate America needs to step up and support women candidates at all levels and through a variety of organizations.

We challenge the corporate leaders in this country to invest in the future of our government. Join us for the California Leadership Collaborative. Support women’s organizations. Encourage your employees to get involved. Invest in a future of more efficient, more civil and more productive government.

We ask them to take a successful business strategy and help us apply it to government — because more women in office means better government and better government is good for business.  Now that’s what we call a business case for investment.

Jessica N. Grounds is the co-founder of Mine the Gap, a consulting and advocacy firm specializing in developing gender strategy for companies and organizations. Erin Loos Cutraro is the CEO and co-founder of She Should Run, a nonpartisan, national organization aiming to get 250,000 women running for office by 2030. They wrote this for The Mercury News.

 

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Why It’s Time for Mine The Gap

Our founders share why Mine The Gap is needed today more than ever.

by Mine The Gap Founders, Kristin Haffert & Jessica N. Grounds 

We both are very fortunate to have found our career passions early in life. For Kristin, it was during her studies at Douglass College at Rutgers University where she learned that the National Institutes of Health clinical trials to find a cure for heart disease (the leading killer of women) included only men.  Women’s bodies were believed to simply be another version of male bodies, complicated by biological factors, and therefore excluded from research.  And for Jessica, it was her junior year in college when she worked on her first political campaign in California for a woman running for the state assembly. She quickly fell in love with politics, and also gained the knowledge that few women held seats in elected office across the country. In each instance, we wondered, how was this lack of women's representation impacting our leadership structures and decisions everywhere?

We were inspired to this work for different reasons and now after over thirty-five years of combined experience working in the U.S. and globally to advance women’s leadership, and develop approaches to incorporate gender differences into policy and leadership strategy, we find that we are still stuck. 

Mine The Gap was created in a climate where we continue to see that gender is not seen as strategic advantage.  What we mean by that is that the research is clear: when there are more women in leadership, companies do better.  When men and women understand and respect each other more deeply in their professions, productivity flourishes and retention improves. When an organization works to build a gender inclusive environment, the organization is more innovative and nimble.  But most industries have a long way to go to see this in practice.  There is a competitive advantage to advancing a climate where gender differences are seen as a benefit, not a liability.  We have built a firm to assist industries across sectors and around the globe.

As this month’s Scientific American cover page explains, This is Not a Women’s Issue.  This is an issue that is disrupting the workplace today.  We are limiting the potential of our workforce.  We are underutilizing our talent and we are losing ground.  The potential is there if we are aware and strategic.  

Mine The Gap is advising companies both large and small. We are supporting and consulting organizations domestically and globally, including countries.  We are incubating new ideas to advance the many challenges related to gender – to solve problems more quickly, and to inspire more to lead.

At the heart of Mine The Gap, we mine and bridge gender gaps. We’re here to help you, so call us or email us with your ideas and challenges.  We’re here to listen, expose and mine the gaps – and help your industry flourish.  

Mine The Gap
80 M Street SE
Washington, DC 20003
United States

info@projectminethegap.com
202-494-7624

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Jessica Grounds Jessica Grounds

National Geographic's Explorers Festival

Mine the Gap works with National Geographic Society's top researchers and scientists around the globe leading a workshop and training to build skills and collaboration between women in the field. 

From shark experts, to tsunami researchers, archaeologists and more, Mine the Gap worked with National Geographic Society this summer to train and workshop with top women researchers and scientists from around the globe. During National Geographic Explorers Festival, our team addressed key challenges facing women leaders at the top of their fields.  Our team also built and led an interactive workshop, "Owning and Promoting Your Expertise" tailored for women researchers and scientists supported by National Geographic. 

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Jessica Grounds Jessica Grounds

Contributors to Research on Women's Political Networks

Mine the Gap founders contributed to major international research on women's political networks written by gender expert and researcher Lucina Di Meco.

Mine the Gap founders were interviewed by international gender researcher Lucina Di Meco about global women's political networks and their impact on women ascending to political office.  Research includes perspectives from top women researchers from across the globe. 

Find the study here.  

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Melanie Charlton Melanie Charlton

California Leadership Collaborative

The Collaborative brings together high-level women in business and politics to innovate new ways to advance women policy makers in California.

On March 8, 2017, the California Leadership Collaborative launched its inaugural Innovation Team meeting in partnership with PG&E and She Should Run. The Collaborative brings together high-level women in business and politics to innovate new ways to advance women policy makers in California.  At the first Innovation Team event in San Francisco we presented new, cutting edge research and provided key areas where innovation could more quickly advance women in political leadership positions in the state.  This cross-sector project will begin to tackle key areas of innovation for women leaders in the state of California.

Learn more >

 

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Jessica Grounds Jessica Grounds

Mine the Gap Speaks at StackOverFlow, NYC

Mine the Gap was invited by CFW Careers to speak as part of their Changing the Conversation series.  Kristin Haffert presented cutting edge research on women's leadership globally and Jessica Grounds moderated an exciting panel at Stack Overflow NYC about how to build a gender inclusive workforce.  They were joined by panelists from LinkedIn and AppNexus. 

Read more here.

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Women Leadership, Diversity, Gender gap, Gender parity Melanie Charlton Women Leadership, Diversity, Gender gap, Gender parity Melanie Charlton

The Credit Suisse Gender 3000: Women in Senior Management

We have decided to revisit our analysis and seek to establish, not just whether greater diversity and enhanced financial performance still holds in a post-crisis world, but also to consider what happens below the boardroom.

Originally published by Credit Suisse


In the two years since the Credit Suisse Research Institute published its Gender Diversity and Corporate Performance report, there has been a notable increase in academic research and debate as to whether diversity at the board level is reflected in improved corporate financial performance.

Given the ongoing focus on the topic, we have decided to revisit our analysis and seek to establish, not just whether greater diversity and enhanced financial performance still holds in a post-crisis world, but also to consider what happens below the boardroom—at a senior-management level. We may have seen more diverse boardrooms emerging, but how diverse are top management teams?

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