(r)Evolution

Margaret Heffernan has a good article in the August edition of Fast Company: The Female CEO ca. 2002. A taste:

The Legally Blond generation is not interested in compromise or assimilation. It wears its femininity with pride and seeks success on its own terms. If that success can't be found within traditional businesses or business schools, then these young women simply won't go there. "If I don't fit into GE or Ford or IBM," one bright young woman told me, "that's not my problem. That's their problem." Rather than fight the system, this next generation of women simply dismisses the system. Instead, these women seek places to work that value individuals -- whether as customers or as employees. They seek places that are transparent and collaborative, that respect relationships as the bedrock of all good businesses. What women want are companies that look a lot more like a network than a pyramid, companies where fairness is a given, companies that value what's ethical above what's expedient. [Para.] At the same time, this next generation of women is too practical, pragmatic, and tough-minded to be dismissed as ideologues. If they can't find these kinds of companies, then they'll simply build them.

The same issue also has a piece about how Nike seeks to connect with women through its Nike Goddess campaign: Nike's Women's Movement. (Nike, by the way, is the Greek goddess of victory.) More on Nike's "Goddess" stores, now in Newport Beach (Fashion Island) and Los Angeles (The Grove), is here [from VisualStore]. (Note: both these malls have Apple stores; coincidence?) Marginally related: I recently was clued in to the fact that Sports Illustrated has a separate women's magazine, Sports Illustrated Women, published eight times annually. Closing this loop: soccer goddess Heather Mitts, a Defender for the Philadelphia Charge, put in an appearance yesterday on NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly that resonated well with Ms. Heffernan's article.