TrailBlazers: How Top Business Leaders are Accelerating Results through Inclusion and Diversity

Foreword

I entered the workforce after graduating from Harvard Business School in 1980. It was a time when there were not many women in business and almost none in line operating roles or roles with responsibility for managing a bottom line, particularly in my industry, the energy industry.

I remember routinely being asked by colleagues to answer the phone and take messages after normal business hours when the administrative assistants had left for the day, or to make copies, or to take notes in the meetings. I don't recall my male colleagues who were also new hires being asked to do these things. I learned to either pitch in and do it or turn down these "opportunities" with grace, lest I be labeled forever with the dreaded "B" word. Getting the balance right between acquiescence (to fit in and be a team player) and defiance (to establish appropriate boundaries and prevent being discounted) was a carefully honed skill that could mean the difference between derailment and progression.

Workplaces all over the United States have changed dramatically for the better in the last 30 years as it pertains to respect and opportunities for women. Women have risen to the top of companies, sitting in the C suite and on boards. This is even occurring in previously male dominated fields such as energy, mining, and chemicals.

While the progress has been significant for Caucasian women, there is still a long way to go and even a longer way to go for men and women of color. According to the White House ...