gender balance

This piece by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow shows how increasing the number of women in top positions in corporate america translates into increased profits.  Yes, there are many female executives out there making their mark but very few women are on the board of directors of these companies making the real decisions and increasing stock values:

A growing number of consultants and corporate leaders swear by a new strategy to boost the bottom line, one that departs from the standard bag of tricks: put more women in charge.

Several studies have linked greater gender diversity in senior posts with financial success. European firms with the highest proportion of women in power saw their stock value climb by 64 percent over two years, compared with an average of 47 percent, according to a 2007 study by the consulting firm McKinsey and Company. Measured as a percent of revenues, profits at Fortune 500 firms that most aggressively promoted women were 34 percent higher than industry medians, a 2001 Pepperdine University study showed. And, just recently, a French business professor found that the share prices of companies with more female managers declined less than average on the French stock market in 2008.

Makes so much sense! THE difference between male and female brains may come down to something as simple as a mother's touch. Treating a baby boy like a girl and vice versa can change the way their brains work, new research suggests.

It had previously been thought that such things were decided long before birth. But US scientists found that mother rats spent many more hours licking and grooming male offspring than female ones.

By tickling a baby female rat's tummy for hours on end, the team from the University of Wisconsin managed to make the DNA clusters in its brain become more like a male's.