Session: Tipping Point: Why women are well positioned to thrive in the Future of Work
It has become passé to refer to house hold chores as "women's work" but these chores still disproportionately fall to women. Similarly, in the workplace women do a far greater share of tasks deemed "non-promotable."
These "non-promotable" tasks, such as training, team communication, and providing cultural 'glue' are strongly correlated to the skills cited by the World Bank as among the top skills needed to thrive in the Future of Work. Women disproportionately earn advanced degrees in the 'soft sciences' that prepare them to excel in these skills.
So why do gender disparities and pay gaps persist? And why to people who excel at these skills (most frequently women) feel the need to avoid these tasks to succeed?
This talk will reveal why this work is so frequently undervalued, and will demonstrate how to directly correlate these soft skills to increasing the value of traditional 'hard skills.' You will be given tools to shine a light on the value these skills bring to the workplace, and to elevate the visibility and "promotability" of the work often deemed "non-promotable". Business as usual needs to change, and you will learn key things you can do to change it.
Bio
Ellen Di Resta is Managing Director of Pearl Partners, a consulting firm that works with clients to better connect with their markets and develop new ideas that will survive disruption.
She has helped leaders in large global corporations as well as startups to recognize that technology alone cannot solve problems; they need to learn to develop the human skills to form valuable connections with customers. With degrees in engineering, design, and business, Ellen has learned the right balance of value the different disciplines bring at different times, and helps clients to do the same within their organizations. While new ventures fail at a rate of over 70%, Ellen's clients succeed over 70%.
Ellen has written several peer reviewed articles and book chapters of the value of bringing a different perspective to innovation, and frequently lectures in universities on strategy and innovation.