Although women represent 50.8 percent of the U.S. population, earning almost 60 percent of both undergraduate and Master’s degrees, and holding almost 52 percent of all professional-level jobs, American women lag substantially behind men when it comes to their representation in leadership positions (CAP, Catalyst, Center for Economic Development).

In this episode of The C.A.P. Podcast, I talk with Michelle Patterson, President of the California Women’s Conference, about how women can improve this statistic and step into the leadership roles they were born to fulfill.

Stereotypes and skewed perceptions remain powerful and still impede the advancement of women. The dearth of women in leadership roles — and in whole fields — creates the perception that women do not belong in those positions or professions. (CAP) But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

In 2012, the Center for Economic Development published a report called Fulfilling the Promise: How More Women on Corporate Boards Would Make America and American Companies more Competitive. The recommendation of the report was “Businesses – business leaders – must make it a priority to develop the talents and advance the careers of female staff who have been identified as potential leaders. This means providing such women with the experiences and backgrounds needed to rise to the top, and advocating their promotion to higher levels of responsibility. The development of talent within an organization is critical to long-term competitiveness. Businesses that can provide talented women with developmental opportunities and integrate them into their workforce are much more likely to succeed in competition with those that fail to do so.”

Patterson wholeheartedly upholds this recommendation and is doing her part to make this a reality through her work with her Global Women Foundation, the California Women’s Conference and her recently launched online platform and organization, Women Network.

Also, keep an eye out for video excerpts, which will be posted below, as well on this blog, for “from the cutting room” content that could not fit into the 15 minutes allotted the podcast!

Video Excerpts
This podcast was recorded on video. Excerpts from the podcast video will be posted below as they become available. Some will include parts of the conversation that were edited out due to time constraints.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four