UPDATE: I’ve been asked to offer some ideas on who I would put on this list. I’ll do that but also make suggestions about who IB should be sure they’re asking, especially since the NEO business community is one with which I’ve probably had the least interaction over time. Who would you suggest?? Please email me or leave names in the comment section.
Original post:
It’s just another list, I know, but still. I haven’t seen the print version yet of Inside Business with the Power 100 (Cuyahoga County Executive Ed Fitzgerald leads), but that top 10 under 40, with just one woman – we should all find that truly alarming if it’s at all representative of 1) who we are supposed to think are leaders and 2) if we agree with the definition of “leader” as defined by this segment, why just 10% of the top 10 under 40 are women. Tri-C and Case Western Reserve University are headed by women (and both listed in the top 10 women list), we have many judges who are women, doctors, philanthropists, clergy, public service, and yes, business.
I’m going to tickle Erick Trickey and see what light he can shed on this (thanks in advance, Erick).
Here’s the description of how it was done for the list published in 2011:
We started our search for the region’s most powerful by turning to those who know power best. We surveyed the leaders on our previous Power 100 list, asking them who wields the most clout in Northeast Ohio today, who gained power in 2010, who lost it and which up-and-comers are already proving themselves. We also invited the business enthusiasts on Inside Business’ e-mail list to offer suggestions and tips, which led us to trends and shifts that our sources in Northeast Ohio’s corridors of power confirmed. Finally, we applied our news judgment about the events and forces that affected our region in 2010 and our sense of which men and women most influenced the region’s economy and which are poised to do the same in the new year.
Now, Ohioans, remember that whole thing about Governor Kasich and his failure to field a diverse cabinet and how in part it had to do with who he talks to about such things (hint: his circle, ahem)? I would say that a bit of that could happen in the way the methodology is described from 2011.
Let’s learn more – and see if we can’t improve the surveying of this important topic, or, if it’s just that accurate, respond to the alarm regarding so few women coming up into power.
