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Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and soon to be one of the richest self-made women in the world, has a message for all those women struggling up the corporate ladder that she echoed at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week: take responsibility for your careers and stop blaming men for holding you back. Sandberg has become something of a lightning rod for women in business who are searching for a powerful role model, and though many businesswomen appreciate her call for them to "keep your foot on the gas pedal" during their careers, some have criticized Sandberg for failing to acknowledge that her path to success was paved just as much with hard work and ingenuity as it was with powerful mentors and just the right amount of good fortune that positions someone to reap a $1.6 billion windfall when a once-in-a-generation company files a $5 billion IPO. More »
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There's been a lot of excitement surrounding Facebook's IPO filing this week, but here's a little Facebook news that's not as exciting: There are zero women on its board of directors. In fact, it's all rich white guys—not terribly representative of the wide open world Facebook claims to represent. More »
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In 2007, Amber Schaub wanted to buy the "ruffle butt bloomers" like she'd had growing up as a present for a friend, but couldn't find any. So she started RuffleButts. Inc. reports that the company earned a revenue of $2,543,300 in 2011 — with 15 employees. $2 million dollars. Putting ruffles on baby bottoms. Surely we all have an idea as simple as this? More »
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Everyone was pretty emotional before, during, and after Gabrielle Giffords's farewell speech on the floor of the US House of Representatives today, including Speaker of the House John Boehner. But was he really crying about the departure of his colleague... or a lack of formality in legislators' business clothes? More »
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As if their complete control over your morning addiction wasn't enough, Starbucks has now announced it's going to start selling booze at some of its cafes during the evening. Oh, this is going to be good—you'll be able to get hammered at night and then sober up on a venti caramel macchiato the next morning. (Or if they really go all out, a venti bloody mary.) The only bummer is that you'll probably have to wait a little while before you can start getting sloshed at your local Starbucks. More »
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Every week or so, a book promises to "break all the rules" and "tell it like it is," and this week is no exception. This time, the mind blowingly predictable series of yawn bombs will be dropped on the world of business networking. Specifically, the role of sexy sex mcsex and sexiness in networking. What widely accepted stereotypes will be enforced this time? Let's find out! More »
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Are you a woman with an entrepreneurial bent? By all means, follow your dreams — but when you're drafting that business plan, stick to things you're naturally good at. Like shopping! More »
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Business columnist and recreational social theoretician Gene Marks recently posted an article article on Forbes' website titled, "Why Most Women Will Never Become CEO," which is sort of like writing an article titled, "Why Most People Named Gene Will Never Become CEO." What Marks means, and what he writes about in the body of his article, is that most CEOs won't be women, which is true even in the wake of Ginni Rometty and Meg Whitman's recent promotions — according to USA Today, of the 3,409 publicly traded companies analyzed in a recent survey, only 98 of them were lead by female chief executive officers. For anybody who's nodding and muttering, "Well 98 seems pretty m'ok," that's just 3.2 %. More »
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The introduction of Virginia "Ginni" Rometty as the new CEO for IBM means that women are at the helms of America's top two tech companies.  Rometty joins former eBay chief Meg Whitman, who became CEO of Hewlett-Packard last month, at the summit of an industry that is overwhelmingly dominated by men.  Since it's a well-known fact that all top executives have giant pools of money that they swim in like Scrooge McDuck, Rometty can probably expect earn more than her predecessor, Samuel Palmisano, who raked in about $30 million in single-year pay last year according to Forbes.  But what about the other women that head large, publicly traded companies?  Are women who take over the chief executive role from men riding the ever-growing wave of executive pay or are they waving from the shore, shading their delicate skin under fancy sunhats?   More »
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Were you aware that emoticons are being used by adults, not just 14-year-olds on AOL Instant Messager, MySpace, Twitter, or whatever the kids are using these days? Now professionals are signing off emails with a smiley or winky face, and it's either a helpful way to convey tone, or a sign that we've all become illiterate and will soon be watering crops with Gatorade and taking health advice from Dr. Justin Long. More »
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Today's New York Times profile of Randi Zukerberg — 29-year-old older sister of Mark, the founder of Facebook — is a little odd. It appears to be about Ms. Zuckerberg starting a new business venture, R to Z Media. But this business profile is in the Fashion & Style section. Also, this business article begins with a quote from Ms. Zuckerberg: "Who wants a tequila shot?" More »
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An exasperated tweet, above, from a female tech reporter has sparked a debate about whether there's a pink collar ghetto in tech — and whether we should be mad about it. More »
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Did you hear the one about the C.E.O. who told the radio show that women make less money because they menstruate? Yeah. More »
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While you may still be reeling from the Wal-Mart debacle, know this: The nation's largest employer is far from being the only company with serious issues regarding women. And when it comes to gender balance, Urban Outfitters isn't willing to change. More »
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"Lynn Tilton doesn't think women should have to act like men to be successful in business." But she still wants to be taken seriously as one of private equity's heaviest hitters. Which only sort of explains this photoshoot. Or her new reality show, Diva of Distressed. More »
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And us penurious ones dig it, too — so much so that, whether we were aware of it or not, most of us have found ourselves inexorably drawn to the squat plastic tubs with their vaguely Hellenic lettering and high prices-tags. Because, see, it's yogurt, so it's for women. But it's also Greek — and like Zorba it's somehow lusty, filling, sophisticated. How can you resist? More »
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Good news? Some stores are now making it easier to return unwanted items. Bad news? They're doing it by employing proprietary tracking software that displays each shopper's entire return history. Meet the Return Activity Report. You probably already have one! More »
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Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg was doing a deal in an NYC private equity office when she had to take a bathroom break. Except no one knew where the women's bathroom was, because no one had ever asked for it. More »
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11-year-old Amiya Alexander puts my 6th grade self to shame with her job as a CEO and president of her own company: Amiya's Mobile Dance Academy. Click through to see a video of her traveling dance studio. [CBS] More »
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Where are all the female entrepreneurs? Vivek Wadhwa and Stacey Higginbotham both wonder why women are less likely to be in the top ranks of the business world. Is it gender bias? Baby bias? Or an infuriating combination of both? More »
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• Psychologists have found that your level of spirituality varies according to who you are looking at. When shown pictures of attractive members of the opposite sex, both men and women described themselves as more religious than the control group. More »
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Tim Gunn's familiar refrain "Make It Work!" is on its way to the Nintendo Wii - while carrying the sales hopes of two industries. Women's Wear Daily explains why the fashion industry is hoping for a new digital life. More »
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Polaroid just tapped Lady Gaga to "create a line of retail products" scheduled to debut in 2010. The eclectic star already has a fashion line, a comic-book and other ventures in the works. [Fast Company] More »
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A) Drives a pink caddy B) Is a featured player on The L Word C) Any female entrepreneur or D) None of the above: More »
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In 2008, I started attending conferences with Carmen, had a pocketful of business cards that I only distributed a few of, and felt really uncomfortable and nervous in crowds. This year, she asked me for tips on networking. What changed? More »
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Talk about strange bedfellows: two female entrepreneurs have taken over the financial end of Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady of Spring Bank, not only running the LaserMonks ink and cartridge business, but also living amongst the monks in the Wisconsin abbey's hermitage. One calls the "simple" life, "a joy." [NYT] More »
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Planning on donating your old clothes to charity this Xmas? You may be interested to learn that your old t-shirts are actually a valuable part of the $1 billion a year secondhand clothing industry. The Spectator traced the path of hand-me-down clothing and found that only about a third is resold in charity shops and the rest is sent to rag sorting houses. There, the worst clothing is shredded and used for industry and the rest goes to Africa, which imported $80 million worth of U.S. hand me downs last year. While some claim the castoffs are crippling Africa's textile industry, they are also creating millions of jobs for importers, washers, and sellers. Tailors in particular have plenty of work resewing oversized Western clothes to sell to slimmer Africans. [The Spectator] More »
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We were remiss in pointing out this interview with Mark-Kate and Ashley Olsen in Times on Friday, but here is one part that caught our eye: "Although it is nearly impossible to imagine Paris Hilton citing Dickens, what most distinguishes the Olsens from their peers in the tabloids is a resistance to certain kinds of recklessness on the one hand and a decidedly less egomaniacal approach to branding on the other. Ms. Hilton commodifies the image of a sexually untamed heiress — herself. But the Olsens sell a wide variety of products that have nothing to do with their lifestyle, a concept they have purposefully left vague." Thoughts? [NY Times] More »
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Yay, more celebrity-centered junk filling up the newsstands: Wenner Media, which publishes Us Weekly and Rolling Stone, has announced that it will be creating a celebrity fashion spinoff quarterly from Us. The spinoff is said to be inspired by People's StyleWatch a special edition that is published 10 times a year and sells more on the newsstands than Vogue. However, considering the failure of other celeb mag spinoffs, some "insiders" wonder if Us's version will exasperate an already flooded (and drooping) celebrity-focused market. Jann Wenner says that the US spinoff will appeal to a "younger and more sophisticated audience" than StyleWatch. We're assuming Sarah Palin won't be making any appearances. [WSJ] More »
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Carly Fiorina (rocking that suit, by the way) has an MBA, a stint as a CEO in her background, a 20+ year marriage to another executive type and 2 stepdaughters because children weren't "God's plan" for her. Like a lot of other women, Fiorina probably had to make a lot of choices about the trade-offs between her career and her family — trade-offs that anecdotal evidence (found in today's WSJ) and a recent study (discussed in a recent issue of Business Week) suggest are much more difficult to make in a MBA-track career than many others. More »
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Yay for women on the web: As today's NY Times reports, Meg Frost, the creator of Cute Overload, has recently released a page-a-day desk calendar with pictures from the website and the calendar rose to the upper ranks of Amazon's best-sellers list. The site is also raking in a chunk of change from ad sales, which range from $500 a week for a standard ad to $2,000 a week for a premium ad. Ultimately, the site is so successful because it's a warm antidote to all of the nastiness on the internet; who can deny the pleasures of noming on the cute ear nubs on a kitteh? [NY Times, Image via Cute Overload] More »
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Oh my god, you guys. Did you know that the ladies room is the best place to gab about the office with your girlfriends!?! Well if it's printed in the Wall Street Journal it must be a legitimate business solution! In a column called "Not Just a Ladies' Room," Carol Hymowitz tells the story of a colleague who was unsure whether or not she should take a promotion. "She was worried about taking a job that would keep her at work until seven or eight every night, too late to get home in time to read her kids their bedtime stories. Besides, she blurted, she wasn't getting a raise or even a new title," Hymowitz writes. Well, the ladies' circle at the sinks set that little filly straight! More »
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Hello Kitty's success could be explained because consumers viewed her as a "blank canvas" of possibility and could mean different things to different people. One thing: she is always adorbs!• In less than a decade, STDs among Americans 45-years-old and older has doubled. Maybe 'tis time to practice what you preach about safe sex, parents? • There are no "dangerous dogs," only irresponsible and dangerous dog-owners. • China prepares 600 cheerleaders, who mix "elements from traditional Peking opera into more typical hip-hop routines" for the Olympics. So kinda like Carmen: A Hip-Hopera in Beijing? • Debrett's Etiquette Guide For Girls will be republished in a new edition this fall, with updated rules such as no grunting or screaming at the gym. More »
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Ricki Lake, everyone's favorite (formerly) zaftig talk show host from the early/mid 90s, produced and is starring in a graphic new documentary about natural childbirth and midwifery called The Business of Being Born. It's opening in limited release this week, but back in May when Being Born debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival, Salon interviewed Ricki about her experience giving birth on film, in which she called her cooch awesome, and the interviewer called the film "a magical mystery tour of bodily fluids, sliced uteri, gloppy infants and gaping vaginas." Ok then! Gory bits notwithstanding, most of the reviewers enjoyed the extremely informational and well-paced film, though some feared that director Abby Epstein was overly biased against medical intervention vis-a-vis childbirth. After the jump, the critics have some postpartum thoughts on Being Born. More »
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All this week, NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams has been running a series called "African- American Women: Where They Stand." So far, on blogs and in e-mail blasts, the series has stirred up quite a bit of controversy, according to Advertising Age's Carol Watson. "Some were enthusiastic about uncovering the struggles and issues that are often the topics of conversation by black women already and others have been skeptical about NBC motives and divisiveness," writes Ms. Watson. "The journalists covering the stories are incredibly talented black women that I am sure had to fight hard to get even these 2-minute segments running for five consecutive days. But the debate on the value and context of the information still creates a storm among black consumers." I saw one segment of the series, about women and business. According to the reporting, (which focuses on a 39-year-old single mother and Stanford grad who has her own PR/marketing business) the number of businesses owned by black women (in a five year period) is up 75%, yay! But the number of businesses owned by black men is only up 29%, sigh. More »
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• Contrary to what will undoubtedly be tomorrow's breaking health news report, pregnant women should eat fish, despite the mercury risk. [CBSNews]

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