Edition No 129. I'm not doing anything else for men this month.

DEAR WOMEN WHO DO,

Did you know that in 1980, President Jimmy Carter declared the week of March 8 Women's History Week across the country. By 1986, 14 states had declared the entire month of March Women's History Month. The following year, in March of 1987, Congress declared March Women's History Month. And, yet, here we are in 2024, still having to fight to demand equal pay, body equality, and maternity leave. 

Today at the start of Women's History Month, it's evident that we haven't come far enough especially not for women of color, especially not in a moment where technology is rapidly changing the landscape, especially not in a moment where women are the most vulnerable to our collapsing climate. 

That's why we are celebrating leaders and change makers like Maja Hazell, a leader at D.E. Shaw and Co and Paras Qureshi, at Moody's, who are helping to make sure women do not get left behind. 

Finally, a quick note that Alphabet's Shannon Nash who we profiled last year, has a new film coming out on March 8th highlighting the growing success of black women on boards called OnBoard. If you have time, please check it out. We can make impactful progress but boy, don't we have to push to get there.

WIE SUITE WOMAN 

Maja Hazell on DEI, Leadership and the Year Ahead

Maja D. Hazell is a managing director of D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P. and Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the D. E. Shaw group. Prior to joining the firm in 2021, Ms. Hazell was global head of Diversity and inclusion at White & Case LLP, where she advised clients, global partners, and senior leaders across practice areas, business units, functions, and industry groups on embedding DEI in their business strategies and talent goals.  

WHAT’S ONE TREND YOU ARE EXCITED ABOUT IN 2024?

The continued democratization of elevating the best ideas. My hope is that as a result, we can continue to move our culture towards true meritocracy in the face of major challenges.  Post the pandemic disruptions and amid major shifts impacting the workplace, from social media’s information superhighway, to hybrid, flexible working, to massive societal and legal landscape upheaval, unconventional thinking and approaches are required. More than ever before, those with domain knowledge and passion can leverage technology like generative AI to have deep impact. I think that creates a lot of opportunity for anyone to bring the next big idea that will position organizations for success.  We are all leaders with a sphere of influence, regardless of title. 

Read more.

MOVE THE NEEDLE

Why Equal Pay Really Matters: The Stats You Need to Know

Next week is Equal Pay Day… why is that important? 

 According to UN women, "The gender pay gap stands at 20 per cent, meaning women workers earn 80 per cent of what men do. For women of colour, migrant women, those with disabilities, and women with children, the gap is even greater.

The cumulative effect of pay disparities has real, daily negative consequences for women, their families, and society, especially during crises. The widespread effects of COVID-19 have plunged up to 95 million people into extreme poverty, with one in every 10 women globally living in extreme poverty. If current trends continue, 342.4 million women and girls will be living on less than $2.15 a day by 2030."

Read more.

MASTERCLASS MOMENTS

Decoding AI: Translating Today’s Insights into Tomorrow’s Innovations with Paras Qureshi

Paras Qureshi has over 20 years of experience as a product leader in the financial industry. Currently, she is responsible for Moody’s Investors Service data and utility solutions, rating and analytic capabilities in service of structured transactions and broad AI enablement across the global credit rating agency.

What exactly is AI? And what is general AI? And are they the same thing?

They are not. 

Artificial intelligence broadly leverages machines to replicate human behavior and be able to break down steps and act out different functions that can be replaced with machines.

Machine learning is able to then actually look into the relationships that are hidden in the data and build out models of those real systems. Then you're able to actually then start building out algorithms and patterns that go beyond your basic artificial intelligence, deep learning and you're starting to get into neural networks.

Neural networks mimic how the human brain works and figure out that if I'm trying to solve a particular problem, I'm going to need information from these various datasets. It pulls them together in a way that makes sense.

Generative AI goes a step further than all of that and it's actually able to then create new content that has not existed before. It's completely brand new. But it's based on those patterns that information that has been trained upon.

Read more. 

MUST READ NEWS

OUR WEEKEND READING LIST. 

Black women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the U.S. (CNBC)

Your Organization Isn’t Designed to Work with GenAI (HBR)

Supreme Court Questions State Efforts to Regulate Social-Media Content (WSJ)

Community News

MEMBER NEWS

• CEO Susan McPherson appeared on Pix11 to talk about connections.
• CEO Cindy Gallop launched her equity crowdfunding campaign for MakeLoveNotPorn.
• CEO Elana Drell Szyfer was featured in WWD.

EVENTS

• March 21 –If you’re a woman, you know this already: You face unique challenges and obstacles as you work to scale the corporate ladder. From not seeing other faces in the room that look like you to dealing with the stereotypes and (often unconscious) biases in the workplace, you may know what to do to succeed, but not how to get it done as a leader in this environment. Shelmina Abji will share a transformative blueprint for owning your power and showing your worth to scale new heights in your career. RSVP Here.