Catalyst Honors 4 Initiatives with 2009 Awards

Baxter, CH2M HILL, Gibbons, and KPMG Initiatives Honored With the 2009 Catalyst Award

Award celebrates innovative initiatives that advance women and business

NEW YORK – The 2009 Catalyst Award was presented on March 31 to Baxter International Inc., CH2M HILL, Gibbons P.C., and KPMG LLP for their ground-breaking initiatives that advance women in the workplace. The award, given during the Catalyst Awards Dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria and sponsored by DuPont and Shell Oil Company, attracted approximately 100 CEOs of major corporations and firms, and nearly 1500 senior executives and industry leaders from over 200 U.S. and global companies.

“This year’s award-winning initiatives represent the business success that bringing women into leadership can deliver across industries and geographies,” said Ilene H. Lang, President and CEO of Catalyst. “No matter where we look, whether in New York or Asia Pacific, from engineering to pharmaceuticals, we find achievement through inclusion of women.”

Irene Rosenfeld, Chairman and CEO of Kraft Foods Inc., and one of the 15 Fortune 500 women CEOs, chaired the Catalyst Awards Dinner. “As a consumer business, it’s essential that our workforce – and especially our leaders – reflect the diversity of our consumer base. Kraft Foods applauds the 2009 Catalyst Award winners for demonstrating that significant gains can be made when organizations set their mind to increasing diversity."

Baxter International Inc.’s Asia Pacific initiative, Building Talent Edge reached its 2010 target of a 50/50 gender balance across management-level and critical positions two years ahead of schedule. "Gender diversity is not just a social issue but one that addresses a core challenge for all organizations: talent," said Gerald Lema, Corporate Vice President and President, Asia Pacific of Baxter International Inc. "Extensive research and our own experience demonstrate that organizations that allow the best talent to enter, develop, move up and contribute do better. Organizations that move quickly to remove the barriers and become more inclusive overall will be the winners."

CH2M HILL’s Constructing Pathways for Women Through Inclusion initiative provides a model for leveraging women employees to achieve business success and accelerate women's advancement. Lee A. McIntire, President and CEO of CH2M HILL remarked, “We are so proud that our initiative is the first in the engineering and construction industry to win the Catalyst Award – and even more proud of what this means for our industry overall, which has a genuine desire to improve diversity within its ranks.”

Gibbons P.C.’s The Women’s Initiative: Driving Success Through Diversity Investment, is critical to the firm’s branding in the marketplace and generated more than six percent of its annual revenue in 2007. Patrick C. Dunican, Jr., Chairman and Managing Director of Gibbons P.C. said, "Our Women's Initiative has proven to be a win-win-win proposition. Our women attorneys constantly develop their professional skills, leadership abilities, and business networks – all of which clearly benefit clients and positively impact the firm's bottom line."

KPMG LLP’s Great Place to Build a Career initiative uses diversity and inclusion as a driver for change resulting in a culture of career growth, mentoring, and accountability that focuses on a talented pool of diverse individuals. Timothy P. Flynn, Chairman of KPMG LLP commented, “We are honored by Catalyst’s recognition. This initiative, which ensures that all of our professionals, especially women and people of color, are provided the support and opportunities to make the most of their talents and experiences at every stage of their career, has become embedded into our culture. The talent and professionalism of our people is critical to our long term business success and this initiative has helped us expand and develop our high quality professional work force.”

For complete descriptions of past and present Catalyst Award-winning initiatives and the Catalyst Awards Conference, please visit www.catalyst.org.

Talent Management Systems Unwittingly Biased Against Women

Reinforcing Male Leadership Traits Can Limit Opportunities for Women in Business Leadership

New York (February 25, 2009) – Gender biases and stereotypes can be unconsciously embedded into talent management systems when leadership characteristics reflect traits exhibited by a company’s top, predominately male executives, according to Catalyst’s latest report, Cascading Gender Biases, Compounding Effects: An Assessment of Talent Management Systems. Even organizations with the most sophisticated talent management systems are vulnerable to gender bias which can ultimately impact long-term corporate success, the report says.

This latest study offers a rare assessment of talent management systems and highlights the influence of roadblocks to advancement at 110 leading companies across 19 industries. The report shows that executives set the tone and employees mirror those traits that have made senior leaders successful. When perceptions of leadership are described by masculine stereotypes, employees are viewed as less competent if they demonstrate qualities, characteristics, and skills that are considered atypical. According to the research, this results in a perpetual cycle that can overlook and under-utilize women high performers.

Since consistent evidence shows that teams with diverse leadership outperform those with less diversity, this potential talent loss may have a profound impact on an organization’s performance and sustainability. “Businesses restrict their own growth potential when women are unintentionally excluded from key training and advancement opportunities,” said Ilene H. Lang, President & CEO of Catalyst. “Whether the economy is up or down, who gets promoted – and who gets left behind – has substantial consequences for business success. Everyone is a stakeholder in developing and retaining top talent. Smart companies will seize the opportunity to ensure that their own talent management systems deliver on the promise of tapping into all talent.”

The report builds on two of Catalyst’s research series, Leaders in a Global Economy and Gender Stereotyping. This new study provides unique insights on how organizations can mitigate gender biases rooted in their systems. These insights include:
▪ Develop programs that target the needs of each business unit while examining the various forms of gender stereotyping.
▪ Educate leaders about how stereotypes can negatively influence job assignments and performance appraisals.
▪ Train employees at all levels to recognize effective gender-neutral leadership characteristics.
▪ Review practices from other companies and create strategies that increase development and advancement opportunities for women.
▪ Create opportunities for senior leaders and employees to engage in talent management dialogues.
▪ Evaluate the presence of gender-stereotypic language in talent management systems.

Recognizing the ways in which leadership traits might influence company culture can assist executives in developing talent management systems that address gender biases and stereotypes. This knowledge will help break down barriers that inhibit organizations from achieving gender diversity in leadership and in business itself.


Dickstein Shapiro LLP and Ernst & Young LLP are co-sponsors of Cascading Gender Biases, Compounding Effects: An Assessment of Talent Management Systems. To learn more about this report, as well as other research on gender stereotyping, visit www.catalyst.org. For media inquiries, please contact Serena Fong at 646-388-7757, sfong@catalyst.org, or Jeff Barth at 646-388-7725, jbarth@catalyst.org.

About this study
Research questions were developed based on a comprehensive literature review focused on gender stereotyping, performance management, career advancement, and talent development. To determine potential vulnerabilities in talent management systems, Catalyst collected data from 110 corporations and firms representing 19 different industries. We interviewed 30 talent management experts and architects from 24 organizations, we examined documents from many organizations that completed the interviews, and we then fielded an online survey that was completed by 86 corporations and firms.

About Catalyst
Founded in 1962, Catalyst is the leading nonprofit membership organization working globally with businesses and the professions to build inclusive workplaces and expand opportunities for women and business. With offices in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and more than 400 preeminent corporations as members, Catalyst is the trusted resource for research, information, and advice about women at work. Catalyst annually honors exemplary organizational initiatives that promote women’s advancement with the Catalyst Award.