Women and the New Economy: (see articles about this survey) Survey results: receive a copy of this report resources for you
Summary: Highlights And Implications Demographics of our respondents What are the upsides of working in the new economy? What are the downsides ? How are women treated?	What is the effect on our Personal Lives? What are we anxious about? What Are the Strategies Women USE? How do women wish their companies operated? What Keeps women in their Companies?

How women wish the company operated differently

51% of the women wished for more experienced management, better infrastructure, internal communications, and more developed HR policies. (This was also mentioned as one of the downsides.)

On leadership:

“I wish the CRO had more management experience and did not hide things from the management team, thinking that if she does not discuss them, they wont become an issue. Communication is the key to a successful relationship especially in a start-up.”

(Wish for) “more women in leadership roles and women with children. Having children and being the primary caretaker (even with a husband/father the primary role falls on the women for taking care of kids and home) gives you a different view of life. You learn to put things in perspective and hopefully you take that into the office with you.”

· On infrastructure:

“I wish we had more support infrastructure, much of my stress is related to spending time on mundane detail tasks vs. the strategy I need to be working on.

“I wish more attention was paid to the internal infrastructure-technologically and humanistically. If technology works within a company then it becomes real easy to translate that success to your own customers. The notion of “the shoemakers” children (go without shoes)” just doesn’t make sense in this day and age and those companies that continue to operate this way will fail. They have to learn to serve both masters (customers and employees) better.”

15% of women mentioned they wished there were HR benefits like compensation/benefits, career and training development, available in big companies.

“The company could include some brick n mortar policies that work well and kept people at jobs for 20 years like training and development, flex/comp time/compressed work week/telecommuting options for non-technical roles.”

“I would like to have more explicit guidelines for expectations of me, and how my compensation will be affected by achieving these expectations.”

9% of women reported being satisfied.

“I’m happy with the way it operates right now.”

Summary of how women wish their companies operated:

Women complemented what they said about poor leadership and lack of infrastructure in response to the downsides question, with the wish that their company operated differently.

Companies can take note that leadership development, and creating new organizational structures that are scalable in the new economy are worth pursuing. We hypothesize that infrastructure often takes a back seat to the adrenalin rush of creating new technology applications or new business development. Another reason is that no one wants to recreate the unproductive old bureaucracy. Instead, we suggest that companies develop a collaborative integration networks to sustain the exciting, dynamic aspect of start-ups.

»NEXT: WHAT KEEPS WOMEN IN THEIR COMPANIES?