If you attended this year’s NALC Conference, run by Diversity Best Practices,  you’d undoubtedly agree that Social Media is bold and daring and here to stay as evidenced by the integration of tools like Twitter and Flip Cameras to engage the 400+ attendees.  In addition, conference keynote speaker Carlos Dominguez, SVP at Cisco, drove home the message that we cannot be idle and we need to be in the space.  Further supporting the hot trend and the need for higher education in this area, the pre-conference workshop on Social Media was sold out. 

You don’t have to look far to find books and articles with advice for females looking to climb the corporate ladder. Management experts, career coaches, and leadership gurus all have techniques, advice, and popular spins on how to make it to the top! It’s no surprise. Compelling reasons exist for company leaders to hire and retain women in executive-level positions. Organizational theorists have written about leadership strengths of women, which are perceived as different from the strengths of men.

Cash flow is critical.  Always has been, always will be.  Businesses that planned ahead with open lines of credit were not only in better shape when the economic situation worsened, but they were able to take advantage of it by investing in low-cost market opportunities that other businesses could not.
 

So often as a woman in business I am asked why we should promote just that: the advancement of women and the acknowledgement that women are in roles at the top and in key roles in the middle and upper.

Working Mother Magazine is proud to recognize the 2009 Heroines in Technology.  These outstanding women will be honored at a fundraising event on November 13 hosted by Women in Technology and March of Dimes.  For more information, visit Heroines in Technology.   This week we highlight 2009 Heroines in Technology finalists Marie Johns, Shameka McCaskill, and Kerri Wilson.
 
Marie Johns
Consultant
Leftwich and Ludaway

Carol Evans is the President of Working Mother Media and an expert on work-life policy.

Commentary by Dr. Hema Krishnan, associate dean of the Williams College of Business at Xavier University in Cincinnati.

In conjunction with Women in Technology, Working Mother Magazine is excited to recognize the 2009 Heroines in Technology finalists.   These women are the thought leaders of business and technology and yet they find time to invest in organizations that thrive because of their passion.  As we continue to highlight their outstanding achievements, we recognize Elizabeth Wilmot and Katy Warren.

Women make up just over half the workforce in America and almost 70 percent of women with children work. Men in two-earner families know that women are not working for "pin" money. Many of us work because we have focused on a career all our adult lives and make our contribution to the world around us through our work and our earning power.   Many of us work because we support our families as co-breadwinners or as sole breadwinners. These are working mother stories.  We juggle and ask for or seek flexible work arrangements.

These notable women are identified for their commitment to charitable activity in their communities and because of their leadership in the world of technology.