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COPYRIGHT 2002 Lutheran World Federation
Virtually every woman who has ever set a sturdy brown oxford or a navy blue pump on a workplace floor can easily rattle off an indignity endured--from seeing senior staff referred to as "that little girl" or having been asked to fetch the coffee to finding herself queried about if and when she planned to have children.
As time passed, laws have been enacted to make such personal questions illegal. And there are now more "little girls" serving as senior staff, earning titles such as president, CEO and managing partner--quite a promotion from "honey" or "sweetheart." In these leadership positions, women are increasingly responsible for establishing policies on child care, compensation, sexual harassment, hiring and retaining efforts--all things that combine to form that company's corporate culture. It is these policies that determine whether employees feel competent and confident in the workplace, or whether they skitter about the office, full of resentment or full of fear.
Leadership styles
When Kathryn Wolford, president of Lutheran World Relief (LWR), the international relief and development arm of the U.S. Lutheran Churches, took the reins, one of the first things she did was put into place a statement on gender, which reflected the Christian understanding that men and women are created equally in the image of God.
"Gender is considered a cross-cutting issue in our delivery of services overseas. We look at the participation of women and how to encourage that, as well the impact of our programs on women," she says.
In Wolford's case, she adds that the inclusion of women is tied to LWR's mission, but notes, as do others, that doing so is just a smart management policy. "1 do ask myself, `Would...
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