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Women's advancement: One engineering firm's pathway to leadership
Author(s) -
Ibison Meg,
Bailey Bob
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal ‐ american water works association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.466
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1551-8833
pISSN - 0003-150X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8833.2009.tb09942.x
Subject(s) - workforce , diversity (politics) , public relations , outreach , management , gender diversity , leadership development , political science , business , engineering , economics , corporate governance , law
In the traditionally male‐dominated industry of engineering and construction, CH2M HILL provides a model for advancing female employees to achieve business success. The Women's Leadership Initiative uses the company's long‐standing inclusive workplace to accelerate women's advancement and includes internal and external components, including Women's Network Chapters, Women's Leadership Summits, and outreach to philanthropic and community organizations. Since the initiative was launched in 2003, women's representation in CH2M HILL senior leadership positions such as business unit heads, geographic region leaders, and top managers has increased from 2.9 to 18%. The Women's Leadership Initiative illustrates the strong business case for supporting women's advancement to leadership and demonstrates that businesses can benefit from fresh thinking and commitment to making women in the workplace a top priority. The initiative has been so successful that it now provides a model for other workforce diversity efforts, both in the engineering and construction sectors as well as other industries.