Our first Women in Leadership edition
In February and March 2018, Worcester Business Journal ran a six-part, award-winning series called The Boardroom Gap, where we examined the gender breakdown in the executive suites and boards of directors at 75 prominent Central Massachusetts business organizations, finding the region lagged behind in having women in leadership positions.
This year, we wanted to do a follow-up to that investigation, to see what progress – or the lack thereof – had been made in a year. But rather than focus solely on this one report, WBJ decided to look more wholly at trends surrounding women in positions of power and launched our first ever Women in Leadership edition. This focus is a complement to our Outstanding Women in Business awards edition, which has come out in the autumn for the last 10 years, but rather than looking at the successes of six individuals who win those honors each year, this Women in Leadership edition takes a much larger scope.
First off is News Editor Grant Welker's excellent follow-up to last year's The Boardroom Gap coverage. By again examining nearly 1,600 executives at 75 prominent Central Massachusetts organizations, he found the region now is slightly more inclusive of having women in positions of power. Women now make up 35 percent of executive suites and boards of directors – an increase of 2 percentage points from last year – although the gender pay gap among executives widened.
Staff Writer Zachary Comeau dives into his one of his two favorite topics, beermaking (the other is marijuana), to find while men still own the majority of the region's breweries, women are represented in almost equal numbers in the employee base and the state's female industry association is the largest in the country.
I also dusted off my old reporter's notebook to write a story about five Worcester entrepreneurs who have created a business and emotional support network entirely through an exclusive group text, which has helped them grow their high-profile companies.
Writing about women in leadership certainly is never limited to one WBJ edition per year. It is part of our year-round coverage of the Central Massachusetts economy, but with each biweekly issue, we like to focus on one topic of special importance to the region. And Women in Leadership is one important topic.
- Brad Kane, editor
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