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.

At the Catalyst Awards conference, I had the pleasure of meeting Xerox Chairman Anne Mulcahy and listened as she was interviewed by Catalyst President Ilene Lang. Anne’s rise at Xerox is now legendary. She has been with the company for more than 30 years and was chosen to be CEO after a shakeup that left the business shaken.  Xerox, while a household name, was an old car with the engine gasping for air and the wheels were in danger of falling off. Not only was Anne thrown into the driver’s seat, she was expected to become the pit crew chief, get the company running, rev the engines and head for the future.  She did it all, as a working mother and a leader.

Anne said when she first assumed the chief’s role, she felt like her title was “Woman CEO,” not just CEO. After all she had assumed a first – the first woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company. In the early days of that, she admitted to a full ballroom luncheon audience at the Waldorf-Astoria, it began to grate. Why couldn’t anyone ask her about her role as Chief Executive of Xerox without tagging on the “woman” thing?  So she tried to step back.  But then, a friend and colleague asked her, in essence, “if not you, than who?”

Anne said, she thought that through. And they were absolutely right.  If she could not use this wonderful opportunity as a bully pulpit, as a chance to talk about a woman’s role in the workplace and in the C-suite, who could?  So she did an about face.

When asked whether women have an obligation to mentor other women, to stand up for women in the workplace and to help create opportunities for other women, she said we do. When asked about reports that women can be harder on women, she replied with characteristic candor,  “Let’s face it. Women have their fair share of A__holes as well as men!”  So those who can, she stresses, need to get passed the bad bosses and move on.

Early in her career, Ann admits to trying to make the “woman” part of her “invisible” – not bringing attention to herself, returning too quickly after having a baby – trying to make it seem easy (having a baby!).  Now she says, it’s a relief that that is no longer the case, but it takes women in the top spots to say to others, “Don’t hide.”

As well as being the first woman CEO, Ann has been the lead or partner in several important firsts.  Ten years ago, when she took over the top spot, she began the discussion of succession planning – who would be next to lead Xerox?  The moves to come would set up a double header of historical firsts.  Xerox would become the first major public company to hand off from one woman CEO to another. And the second CEO would be the first African American woman to lead a company at that level.  The current CEO is Ursula Burns. The two had been at Xerox for 25 overlapping years. They were colleagues with great respect for one another. It proved all the backstabbing rumors about women in business false. 

In opening the luncheon, Ilene Lang started by asking why we make a big deal of women’s firsts still?  She said it’s simple.  Knowing the first gives us “inspiration, guidance and validation.”  But we have not won until we see the second, the tenth and many more women leaders in every category and industry.

I also had a few minutes to speak with Sharon Allen, Chairman of Deloitte.  She pointed out that awards are wonderful, but benchmarking companies against their peers creates an opportunity for learning and striving when it comes to best practices in the workplace.  She pointed out the Working Mother 100 Best list which has at times pushed Deloitte to the next level, creates a workplace that is good for the company and good for its employees.

Also this week, the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) celebrated the 2010 Top 50  Companies for Executive Women. The companies apply for the honor but they must have at least two women on the board and count women in profit and loss positions.

NAFE President Dr. Betty Spence pointed out that women are not holding enough P&L (profit and loss) positions in public companies.  At the NAFE Top 50, women hold 26% of P&L responsibilities where Catalyst estimates only 11.4% of those same kinds of jobs are in the hands of women at other companies.  At seven of the NAFE Top 50, women are running half of the major business units.  The rest are far behind.

Members of the Top 50 List explained making a concerted effort to spot talent early, give them to opportunity to gain the right experience is a company wide initiative that will create a stronger bench for managerial and business unit roles. Katy Dickson, VP at General Mills, Pillsbury Business Unit Director, says she is a case in point. Most of her career was in IT but she was able to talk with managers about what her next move would be.  They offered her a position with P&L responsibilities, then she moved into the business unit she is currently in a different role and was then offered the opportunity to move up to her current slot as VP.

An excuse at many companies is, they don’t track gender in P&L roles so there is no way of publically measuring them. But if we go back to some of the things Anne Mulcahy said, that is not a valid practice. Whether it’s for succession planning or just good management, diversity must be followed and tracked with intent.  Without goals and measurable results, nothing gets accomplished.

As we move into the second decade of the 21st Century, companies, government, men and women still need to validate the important work that women do, the strides they have taken, the firsts they have reached, and trumpet that to the world – the world of business, especially – so we can assume our leadership roles and bring those added voices to the boardroom table to add harmony and variation, like a good choir.  One other thought that permeated the conversation this week:  Men and women succeed when men “get it.”