As 65 female executives listened sympathetically, businesswomen's advocate Sheila Wellington described one female executive's response to a survey question on how she balances work and home life.
"Accept (that) there's no real balance," the woman wrote. "Accept the choices you've made."
Wellington, president of the businesswomen's research organization Catalyst, gave the keynote speech yesterday at the School of Business and Administration's Hale Auditorium as part of the school's fifth annual Women's Forum.
Wellington presented various statistics Catalyst has compiled during the last few years about the state of women in American corporations.
Noting that the glass ceiling women face in the business world has far from vanished, Wellington said there are only 11 women who are "inside directors" at Fortune 500 companies, while men make up more than 1,200 of the remaining top executives.
"Our research documents that gender determines career experiences for women," Wellington said.
Despite the lack of women executives in high-level positions, Wellington said the reasons are more subtle than obvious. "Let me be clear," the Wellesley graduate said. "Catalyst found that most, but not all, obstacles to women's advancement are not intentional."
She said that more often, the obstacles impeding women "result from unexamined conceptions about womens' career interests."
Throughout the day yesterday, women executives converged at the Business School for a closed-door seminar. Wellington's speech, which was open to the public, drew about 100 people.
Business School Dean Joseph White said during his introduction of Wellington that one of the school's aims is to "become the leading business school in attracting and educating women in business."
During the question-and-answer session, Wellington was asked about Fortune 500 companies with no women on their board of directors.
"I just don't understand why there are companies that don't get it, but if they don't, it will change," Wellington said.
Wellington ended by emphasizing solutions that she said would improve the climate for women in the workforce. She said assigning important clients to women and matching new employees with women mentors would aid women's success in the future.
School of Public Health second-year student Deborah Kissen said that Wellington's point about women mentors was significant and wondered about the difficulty of finding women to serve in those roles.
"It's definitely very inspiring but it's also frustrating to start (in the workforce)," Kissen said.
"Where do you start meeting these professional women to guide you?"
JOHN KRAFT/Daily
Sheila Wellington, president of the Business-Women's research organization Catalyst, spoke to 65 female executives yesterday in the Hale Auditorium.