Executive Women in the Media | TotalPicture Radio - The Voice of Career Leadership Development

Executive Women in the Media

Wednesday, 11 May 2005

Carol Hymowitz, Senior Editor, The Wall Street Journal. Women, the media, and... China!

The Catalyst Awards luncheon program we've reported on this week, included a thought-provoking dialogue in which Valerie Morris, Keith Hammonds, and Carol Hymowitz discussed how the media has and will continue to shape public opinion about women in the workforce. In our third feature installment, Landed.fm caught up with Carol, senior editor with The Wall Street Journal, soon after her return from a business trip to China.

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About Carol Hymowitz

Carol Hymowitz is a Senior Editor at The Wall Street Journal. Based in New York, she oversees the WSJÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s coverage of management issues and the workplace. She also writes a column, In the Lead, on management and leadership issues, which runs on Tuesdays. Ms. Hymowitz joined the WSJ in 1979 as a staff reporter in Pittsburgh. She has reported and written on such issues as manufacturing, energy, the retail industry, and corporate governance. She was named Deputy Bureau Chief in Pittsburgh in 1985, Bureau Chief in 1990 and a senior editor in 1996. She returned to New York in 1999 and began writing her own column. In addition to her work at The Wall Street Journal, she is also co-author of Ã¢â‚¬Å“A History of Women in AmericaÃ¢â‚¬? (Bantam Books).

Ms. Hymowitz received a B.A. with honors in English from Brandeis University, and an M.S. in Journalism from Columbia UniversityÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s School of Journalism.

Show Notes

1. Carol, we have about a million questions we'd like to ask you - but we'll concentrate on two topics today, and hope that you'll join us again in the future. First up: the recent Catalyst Awards, where you and your colleagues discussed how the media has and will continue to shape public opinion about women in the workforce -- what's your impression of the way mainstream media portrays professional women in 2005?
2. Regarding Carly Fiorina and her much publicized ouster from HP, you wrote; "Certainly, it's hard enough getting to the top without having to function amid the kind of scrutiny Ms. Fiorina faced. Like other women executives, it wasn't only her job performance that was constantly evaluated, it also was her suits and makeup, her hairdo, and how commanding she appeared." Can you expand on that?

3. In the Fortune 500, there are only 7 women CEOs - do you see that changing anytime soon?

4. Speaking about a paucity of representation, Maureen Dowd, in The New York Times recently wrote: "There's an intense debate going on now about why newspapers have so few female columnists. Out of what will soon be eight Times Op-Ed columnists - nine, counting the public editor - I'm the only woman. While a man writing a column taking on the powerful may be seen as authoritative, a woman doing the same thing may be seen as castrating. If a man writes a scathing piece about men in power, it's seen as his job; a woman can be cast as an emasculating man-hater. I'm often asked how I can be so "mean" - a question that Tom Friedman, who writes plenty of tough columns, doesn't get. This job has not come easily to me." Do you agree with Maureen's assessment, and do you get a lot of heat when you write a critical article for "In the Lead?"

5. One interesting observation you made at the Catalyst event was how different young women coming into the workforce are from our generation - the baby boomers - where women tend to form "support groups" - the new generation is far more independent...

6. Would like to switch gears to the second topic we'd like to discuss today -- China. You just returned from traveling around China -- what surprised you most, regarding perceptions you might of had that didn't match with reality?

7. Your new column titled "Hiring Top Talent in China Takes a Boss Who Likes to Coach" -- you wrote "Any company that wants to succeed in China -- and the list grows longer every day -- needs to understand what matters even more than an understanding of distribution networks and good relationships with government officials: executives on the ground who truly enjoy coaching their employees." That's really fascinating -- can you tell us more?

8. Given the fact that you've been with the Journal for 25 years - we'd like to know what's changed the most during your tenure - and what's stayed the same - regarding women working in the media.

Wrap-up.