A 2023 women’s leadership study from LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Co. found that American women held 40% of corporate management positions, and women continue to fight underrepresentation when it comes to board positions and CEO roles. They also face gender bias, harassment, and opposition to their management styles.
Here’s how one MIT Sloan alumna has pushed back on those statistics and used what she’s learned along the way to help those behind her.
Ellen Lederman, MS ’91. Lederman currently sits on the boards of Octopus Investments and responsAbility Investments. She chairs the audit and risk committee of both boards. Lederman’s previous roles include CFO at Akina, director of impact investment at ShoreBank International, and country head and vice president of investment banking at JPMorgan.
Given what you know now, what would you tell your younger self about being a woman in your industry?
Don’t listen to the naysayers — the ones who say, “It’s not possible.” Focus on learning how markets, products, and sectors work. Observe and analyze how people in those sectors interact and what motivates them to accomplish tasks. Your path won’t always be linear. Leverage each of your experiences and draw on the experiences of those who have come before you.
Can you give an example of a time you’ve experienced or witnessed gender bias? How did it affect you professionally? What impact did it have on your job?
One of my earliest memories of gender bias is from working on a trading floor, and my sheer frustration when a call came into the desk from a West Coast branch manager who dismissed me and said that he wanted to “speak to one of the guys.” I knew I was more than up to the task. I was determined, persistent, and quickly ascertained from observing others what I needed to scale up my skills and knowledge. I remember being so proud and vindicated when that same branch manager would later call and request to speak to me because I was the one most able to deliver.
What is the most difficult lesson you’ve learned in your professional life? In what unexpected ways did you grow from it?
After moving to Zurich in 2008, I accepted a job as chief financial officer for a private equity manager. The previous CFO had been fired, and I had never been a CFO or a CPA with previous Big Four audit experience, and I faced a very challenging remit: transforming back-office operations while still delivering quarterly reports to clients on funds in four different jurisdictions. Accounting and reporting were on massive and complicated Excel sheets, and the team was worn down and feeling beat up. I wanted the role, and I succeeded on many levels: managing through the financial crisis, transitioning the back office to new systems, setting up an external fund administration, delivering clean audits and quality reporting.
Transformations like that are hard, intense, and nonstop. I learned that I am able to master new skills, accomplish a lot under tremendous stress, and still maintain a positive, can-do culture while working toward goals. But I also learned that after you’ve met the big challenge, it is also OK to redirect and not be constantly on a full-speed trajectory professionally.
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What’s one specific way you tend to your well-being, and how do you encourage well-being among your staff?
Exercising regularly. I used to exercise before going into the office and always felt that I had started the day by accomplishing something for myself. I find that exercise is a good stress release, and it permits me to gain perspective on burning issues. I always encouraged my staff to go to the gym or to regularly participate in a sport. Sports have also been a way to tear down barriers between people and to develop team-building and leadership skills.
What’s one skill or behavior women can adopt to make their career path more successful and more manageable?
Seek role models and network, network, network. Not one of my jobs came from replying to an advertisement or through an executive search firm but from networking and asking for informational meetings with companies or people I thought were interesting, even posting on LinkedIn. My most recent board role came after I posted after the MIT Sloan Women’s Conference and I followed up with someone who looked at my post.
I subscribe to the “If you can see it, you can imagine it” approach. Look at those who have come before you, join alumni and sector networks, create your own support group, and absorb the lessons that the individuals in those groups demonstrate. My mom got her PhD when I was young and had a vibrant career much later in life. That gave me the confidence to know that while my path may not be linear, I can have impact and get exciting opportunities at different points in my career and life.
If you could snap your fingers and change one thing about workplaces, societal norms, or public policies that would most benefit women in the workforce, what would it be?
Being able to take the on- or off-ramp at different times should be easier, such as when you have children or follow your spouse’s career move. I have worked in different cultures, some where women have been expected to be home for lunch with kids every day. I was in a position where I could employ a nanny and have a supportive spouse, and I built a community to help when I had a weekly 7 a.m. meeting and my husband was traveling. I could drop off my daughter to have breakfast with another family, and she could then catch the school bus. Not everyone is in that position, and child care is a real challenge for families, even more so post-pandemic.