The voices behind Voice & Influence
“I have access to amazing resources,” explains Rosie Roca, a student at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. The list of what she is learning at business school is long: from financial management to negotiation to forming professional communities. Roca is grateful for her GSB education. She is also quick to acknowledge that business school classes are relatively small compared to the number of people who hunger for the education.
What excites Roca about the Clayman Institute for Gender Research’s Voice & Influence program — the online curriculum featured in the recently launched Lean In.org — is the possibility of reaching professional women everywhere.
Research-driven university lectures are not new to the online medium. The Voice & Influence twist: the 20-minute videos translate academic research into accessible terms and present clear actions so viewers can implement change that very day. Interviews with women sharing their professional experiences help build a bridge between research and practice. In this Gender News article, four women share their experiences contributing to the Voice & Influence videos.
The women profiled here come from varied professional backgrounds, but what draws them together is a deep commitment to women’s leadership. In their personal lives, many go to great lengths to support other women. For Voice & Influence, they braved the camera to contribute their ideas and experiences, with the hope of inspiring a wider community of women to share experiences and support each other’s successes.
Stacy Brown-Philpot, COO of TaskRabbit
In one of Stacy Brown-Philpot’s first meetings as an investment banker, a woman colleague approached her with this advice: “Stacy, if you learn nothing else in this business, never get the coffee.”
“I had no idea what she meant,” Brown-Philpot recalls. “She never explained that there were perceptions of gender roles that getting coffee played into and that I needed to get a seat at the table and participate in the discussion. All I knew was that I should never get coffee, so from that day forward, I never did.”
As the current Chief Operating Officer of TaskRabbit, an online marketplace where people can go to outsource small jobs and tasks to people in their neighborhood, and the former Head of Online Sales and Operations for Google India, Brown-Philpot learned what it takes to be a woman leader. By sharing stories, leaders can help individuals and communities move forward. Doing so, she says, we can avoid old mistakes and debunk misconceptions.
Brown-Philpot, who appears in the Voice & Influence modules on "Harnessing the Power of Story" and "Creating a Level Playing Field," joined the Lean In.org launch team to build community and to share her story with women facing similar challenges. “I want them to learn from my mistakes,” she explains. “The things I care about are equality and the ability of women to make empowered decisions.” She hopes that participating in this initiative will help people to achieve those goals.
Rosie Roca, MBA student and marketer
After graduating from college, Rosmary "Rosie" Roca started working in sports marketing, and she noticed that very few women held leadership positions. She researched other fields. The more she learned, the clearer it became: the dearth of women in senior roles spans all disciplines and careers. The realization piqued her interest in women’s leadership, particularly as she hopes to enter the male-dominated fields of technology and software upon completing her MBA.
Through her experiences and classes at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, Roca is now ready to take the challenges of leadership head on. “So many accomplished women are involved with Lean In, and I feel like I could learn so much from them,” she says.
Roca appears in the Voice & Influence video about "Negotiation." She was initially hesitant about how useful her youthful experience would be to the project, especially when compared to that of the more seasoned women. She was quickly assured that her genuine perspective was the perfect vehicle to encourage all women, and especially the younger ones, to see that negotiation is a learnable, and even creative, process.
Thinking about the online curriculum, Roca adds, “By teaching leadership skills to more women in the workplace, they [the creators of Voice & Influence] are really trying to empower an incredibly talented demographic.I’m very excited to see where the project goes and to be a part of it.”
Maxie McCoy , Community Manager of Levo League
Maxie McCoy works with passionate young professionals every day at Levo League, a social good startup designed to elevate young women in the workforce. In her work, she is acutely aware of the value of community. She explains that she and her Generation Y peers value learning from women who have already found success. “I believe we can change things right now,” says McCoy, “The best way [to do so] is by listening to these incredible women and learning from the amazing experiences they’ve had and changes they’ve already made.”
McCoy wants to be a part of this mentorship process on both sides. Her participation in the Voice & Influence video on "Power & Influence" reflects her goal of using her success to help other women. The support that the Clayman Institute and Lean In.org provide women is setting the stage for fundamental changes in the workforce, she adds.
“At the end of the day, I want every woman to believe she can have the career she wants and stay in that career,” McCoy says. “I want her to have the resources and support to navigate the challenges that arise.” For McCoy, working with communities like Levo League, Voice & Influence, and Lean In.org is a step in the right direction.
Sally Thornton, Entrepreneur, Founder and Chief Curator of Forshay
Sally Thornton, who appears on the Voice & Influence module on "Negotiation," noticed that many talented women leaders in the Bay Area felt the need to choose between their careers and raising a family. “I wanted to see women leaders engage on their own terms, not to feel like it was an all-or-nothing path,” she says.
Thornton founded Forshay in 2011 to offer new work models designed to simultaneously meet the needs of individuals and companies. Her aim is to help women—and men—use their professional capabilities to support their full lives, and by rethinking work to increase creativity and innovation. “We need to rethink amazing work and amazing lives,” she says. “People on all sides of the equation do better when these two complement each other.”
Thornton, a Clayman Institute advisor, sees the Institute’s efforts as an important catalyst for change. “There is real, concrete benefit to gender parity—a more equal future will be more profitable, sustainable, and fulfilling for everyone involved,” she says. “However, at the current rate, it will be 2081 before we see true equality in business.”
Thornton believes that Voice & Influence, and the partnership with Lean In.org, can accelerate this process through education and community building. “We need to create business relationships that are sustainable, for our sons as much as for our daughters,” Thornton says. “Communities as a whole benefit when talented people work on terms that are fulfilling for them.”
