With President Barack Obama nominating Brooklyn-born Janet Yellen for Chair of the Federal Reserve, the 67 year old is poised to become the first woman to ascend to this prestigious position in the 100 year history of the US central bank (the “Fed”). When she is confirmed by the U.S. Senate later this week, we will see a new crack in the glass ceiling.
Perhaps the most significant outcome of her historic appointment, is the new message sent to women aspiring to leadership positions everywhere. So many of the iconic women who have broken through the glass ceiling have been admired for their staunch stoicism and never-give-an-inch mentality. Hilary Clinton is lauded for her iron-clad exterior, Angela Merkel for her unflinching tenacity and ex-Mattel CEO Jill Barad for her bold and assertive leadership style.
The historic message to women aspiring to senior leadership has been that to break through the glass ceiling you need irrepressible strength, resolute single mindedness and a no holds barred approach. In other words, the a certain amount of machismo is needed for senior women to succeed.
However, in Janet Yellen, we see a very different kind of leader being elevated into a position of great power. As a 67 year old female, Yellen is refreshingly unique, confidently striding through the glass ceiling into the uncharted waters of the Fed’s head office. In a society where youth is worshipped and men still dominate positions of leadership, Yellen’s impending appointment signals another fracture in the wall of US professional inequality. Yet what is most interesting about Janet Yellen may be how she has been successful in crashing the “old boys club” with a confidently feminine style.
Janet Yellen Is Eminently Qualified
Yellen’s path to history maker is scarcely trailblazing. A long time New York City resident, Yellen graduated summa cum laude with an economics degree from powerhouse college Brown. Not content, Yellen subsequently completed her Ph.D in the company of Yale’s economic elite. Daughter of a respected Brooklyn doctor and a Boy Scout leader, Janet Yellen isn’t exactly the poster woman for the humble state school girl wondering if she can make it to the top of the economics pile.
An Ivy League pedigree remains an all-but prerequisite for economists with leadership aspirations. Yellen’s ascent is not a Thatcher-esque rags to riches story of a brazen, outspoken female bursting through the odds to a position of power. Her resume is cookie cutter Fed, with academic positions at MIT, Harvard, UC Berkeley and the London School of Economics and Political Science. In 1994, her career in the public sector blossomed, with a position on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve until 1997. She returned in 2010 to take up her current role as Vice Chair after successful stints as CEO of the San Francisco Federal Reserve and Chair of the President’s Council of Economics Advisors.
Even her family life mirrors many a male Fed Chairman’s stereotypical recruitment dream. Yellen is married to Nobel Prize winning economist George Akelof and her only son Robert is an economics professor at the University of Warwick.
Her Feminine Style Has Helped Her Through The Glass Ceiling
Despite her unassailable qualifications, if you tear through the Ivy League packaging, you find the inspirational contradictions to Yellen’s heavily starched white collar that make this woman one of the most impressive feminine role models of 21st century US leadership.
For a woman so fiercely intelligent, it is Yellen’s generosity and sense of equality that those close to her point to as her defining characteristics. Famously, (in Reserve Bank circles…) the Chair-to-be insisted on eating in the employee cafeteria, a signal which sent shock waves through the elbow-padded Ivy League elite. She even met her husband George whilst dining amongst the masses. Her down-to-earth nature is complemented by a calculated, contrarian approach that has seen her pre-emptively flag the possibility of the housing collapse and calmly oppose the talismanic Fed Chair Alan Greenspan over monetary policy.
Her composed, team-oriented approach is at odds with the firecracker flamboyance and boy’s club reputation of the other touted candidate Larry Summers. Most commentators agree that Summers’ outspoken character contributed to his demise.
Yellen’s ascent to power is not built on these classically male stylistic hallmarks. Instead, the drivers of her success have been her ability to negotiate calmly under pressure, presenting her argument to the opposition without the grandiose rhetoric that leads to a political boxing match. Her compassionate nature pervades a humanitarian view that economic decisions are about more than just the bottom line.
These characteristics that have driven her success are devoid of masculine bravado, helping all women dream big about the potential to sail through the glass ceiling without having to amplify their personality to compete with machismo. Yellen seems so delightfully normal, like she could be a geekier version of your aunt. What better role model for aspiring women than a quiet, self-professed nerd with a stamp collection?
Yellen’s Experience Is Still Too Uncommon in Economics Leadership
Yellen’s experience is not yet “normal” and in economics leadership, despite the increasingly large number of highly educated women in the field. According to a recent study by the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, women make up 34 percent of Ph.D students in economics, but less than 12 percent of full professors (the lowest percentage of any social science). In the top 100 universities, there are 2.5 male economics majors per female major. The infographic produced by Courses Direct reflects the ‘Gender Gap’ still evident in the United States and other English-speaking countries.
These statistics echo the low numbers of women in executive positions in the private sector. According to Catalyst, in 2012 just 16.6% of Fortune 500 company directors were women. A quick survey of the major online news publications covering Yellen’s nomination in October 2013 sheds some light on the gender imbalance. Articles breaking the story were flanked by advertisements for some of the nation’s biggest corporations and a quick analysis of each advertiser’s board of directors show an all too familiar disparity in the ratio of women to men:
Morgan Stanley-13% (2/15 female board members) – reported in The Wall Street Journal
Merrill Lynch -21% (7/34 female board members) – reported in CNBC
Binani – 22% (2/9 female board members) – reported in Moneycontrol.com
New York Life 18% (2/11 female board members) – reported in Wealthmanagement.com
eDreams – 0% (0/7 female board members) – reported in UK Telegraph
IBM -23% (3/13 female board members) – reported in The New Yorker
Suncorp – 22% (2/9 female board members) – reported in BBC UK
The low percentages of women on boards in the financial industry titans above is particularly perplexing when research shows that when a board is comprised of at least 30% women, financial (and other) performance indicators increases dramatically.
Perhaps the best indication of the cracks in the economic glass ceiling can be found in the discourse surrounding Yellen’s appointment. The nomination has been met with generally positive sentiment. The majority of controversy surrounding the announcement is substantive and related to her liberal, humanitarian brand of economics and an apparent historical indifference to inflation. Refreshingly, there has been little discussion of her gender in relation to her suitability for the post. There have been more questions raised about her capacity to excel in the job at the age of 67, with some claiming her age may be a limiting factor. The focus on Yellen’s ideologies, rather than her gender suggests that the world of economics may be ready to move forward from its male dominated past.
The last words are best left to Janet herself, speaking on the imbalance of women in economic positions of power:
“At the highest levels of central banking, there are very few women, but I am pleased that the representation of women is increasing a lot at other levels… I really think this is something that’s going to increase over time, and it’s time for that to happen.”
Whoever you are, you can be yourself and be a great leader. You still might need that scholarship at an Ivy League school though…
Rachel Hahn is a member of the Courses Direct Online Communications team. Courses Direct is an Australian based Education and Training company providing online courses and distance education. To connect with Courses Direct, visit, www.coursesdirect.com.au.
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