Starting this week, UCLA’s Anderson School of Management
will host a series of conferences aimed at helping female and
minority executives get ahead in the corporate world.
The Women’s Leadership Institute, which runs today through
Friday, is the first such conference of this academic year. It is
open to female executives nationwide who want to learn skills to
succeed professionally. While students cannot attend, UCLA faculty
may.
Similar workshops for black, Latino and LGBT executives will be
held later in the year as part of the Anderson School’s
Leadership Suite.
While Anderson officials said the advice offered in these
workshops will help minority executives advance in a historically
white male corporate culture, some students questioned the need to
separate these executives from others.
Alissa Matterman, director of sales and customer relationship
management at Anderson’s Office of Executive Education, which
organizes the event, said it is important that minority executives
have resources like the Leadership Suite available to them.
“The typical majority executive population is white
male,” she said. “When (minority executives) look up
the corporate ladder, they don’t see anyone who looks like
them. These workshops put everyone in the same room.”
But Allison So, a second-year business-economics student, said
she does not believe it is necessary to single out these groups of
executives.
“I don’t think a conference is necessary. Minorities
and women have already left footprints within the white
male-dominated community,” she said, adding that she did
think the advice offered in the conference would probably be
helpful nonetheless.
Matterman said the Women’s Leadership Institute will give
attendees tips on management, leadership, mentoring, networking and
forming alliances.
The conference will be led by Connie Gersick and Martha Miller,
both former faculty members at the Anderson School.
According to the Leadership Suite’s informational
brochure, the conference will address how businesswomen can balance
a career, family and social demands.
Attendees will also “learn how to harness feminine
attributes such as insight, intuition and strong interpersonal
skills to affect organizational change and implement new
ideas” in their firms, according to the brochure.
Matterman said attendees had to apply to attend the
conference.
“They have to have the right amount of business and
management experience, especially experience managing
people,” she said.
She added that she expects between 30 and 35 women from around
the nation to attend the conference.
So said she thought similar leadership opportunities should be
open to students hoping to enter the business world.
“I think it should be made available to students to at
least have the option to attend,” she said.