four girls. my poor father. my little brother eventually came in may called him jesus. but i learned from my father back in the 1950's is that you really need to understand that there are no barriers as long as you just refuse to see them. all these women on the stage just can't -- just kept pushing and never said die. the probably kicked down several times. you have a sense of what the landscape is out there for you as you pursue a career in finance. one of the things my father always said as he quoted robert browning is, "a man toxic reach should exceed his grasp or what is headed for?" a woman's reach should exceed

her grasp. i think the women here always reached further than they might be able to grasp. that is why they have reached the heights today. i want to introduce you to these women. you can get a quick sense of whom we are speaking to. to my right, the president of the american council on education. she is a voice for higher education in federal policy debates. she, like all of our politics -- analysts, is a trailblazer. she is the first woman to run pace. she ran the university of north carolina and a graduate from ohio state. to her right -- for an event called women in finance, if she is not here it should not because women in finance. she is a partner and chief investment strategist at goldman sachs. she is an economist. she is a member of the wall street week hall of fame. she went to cornell.

she has three honorary doctorates in engineering and humane letters. they give back. she is on the board of the pine street helping others with management and development. next to her, carl harris as -- carla from morgan stanley. carla is the code to girl for i.p.o.'s -- karl is the go-to- girl for ipo's. she knows finance, wall street, and has lived it. "fortune" enter one of the 50 most powerful black executives in america. she is amazing and brilliant. she gives back. she established a scholarship at

harvard and also at bishop high- school. she gave back to her high school. good for her. deborah is with citigroup. she just trying them in 2009 as a personal wealth management organizer. before that, she was a finance machine. she is a perfect person to be up here. she ran the schwab institution and was the executive vice president. for 17 years before that she was a big wig at bank of america. she was appointed by president george the the bush to the board of directors to the sec. she graduated from the university of montana. i am a journalist and we do our research. finally, dr. laura tyson from uc-berkeley. i have a particular affinity with laura.

she is the only woman running a major business schools in this nation. she has distinguished herself in the public sector for years. choose the national economic adviser to president clinton, the highest ranking woman. she also graduated from smith college and has a ph.d. in economics from mit. we have brilliance on this stage and we are thrilled that they are here to talk to rest today. what we are going to do, and i want some participation, we are going to talk about the landscape and challenges in a particularly differ -- difficult time in our nation's history. what is it like out there if you want a job? what does it feel like? how hard do you have to fight? i have the feeling these women fought similar battles throughout their career.

>> it is an extraordinary time to come into the market. the rule books are being written. despite what you hear, good companies and good organizations are always looking for great people. in any kind of environment, if you are a great person, smart, focused, have an agenda, he will be able to get an opportunity. while you may now be able to get the dream job today, you can get a building block in terms of finding opportunities to give you the skills, experience, the exposure to the right man works that will then the the to that dream job in a better environment. i actually think this is the right kind of environment to really extinguished -- distinguish yourself and not be fooled by what you hear. >> the reality, as you sit there and look at piles of resin as i can imagine. what is it like?

-- as you look at the piles of resumes. >> we look at high-profile individuals. i think where we are right now in the industry is that there has never been a higher need for people who can think and who can rely on experience. honestly, the job be had in high school can count as experience. turn that knowledge into helping us figure out the future. we have economists and i do not know if there has ever been a time in my career that the future is as unpredictable as it is right now because of all the changes we have going on. the young employees i am looking for in middle management and senior management -- management are the people who get it.

the people who want to work and aren't really, truly working hard to help us make the tough calls in turning this company around. it is amazing and unprecedented how much of leadership this will take. >> below get your fair share of resumes. forget college entrance. there are a lot of extraordinarily experienced people on wall street who are looking for jobs. you are looking at a kid from berkeley and someone who worked a couple of years at ubs. >> we look for the person who we think has significant potential. i would like to reiterate comments made already on this panel and those previous and that is the time of difficulty is often an excellent time to

enter into an industry. if we take a look at the senior people who have done well in leadership roles, there are some who have not done so well, but those who have done well are by and large those who have lived through previous periods of crisis and dress -- duress. we look for people who have a real intellectual interest in what we do. the reality is when many young people who are clamoring to get into our industry were not drawn in by the contents of what it is we do. rather they were much -- they were attracted by other elements. what we find now is the people who want to come to work are the ones who love the finance, the investment research, and they like to dealing with clients

helping them sort out their financial interests. we are very this yes about the pool of candidates that we have right now. let's -- >> let's take a step back. do you think the crisis has changed the driver of students going into business school? the driver used to be that they're going to make some much money, had a beach house, had a private jet. is it back to having a passion about finance and economics? christina romer said she woke up and just loved economics. >> for me, it's critically important thing that we have heard in different ways is really trying to find something that you really do enjoy her, that you really do love and have a passion for. when i discovered this as a sophomore in college, that was it. many decades later, i still like

to read a first thing in the morning. having said that, i do want to say that we have heard a lot about the strong demand and the job opportunities here. from a supplier point of view, business schools sending out people, let's be serious. right now, there is a decline in the number of opportunities. it is the case that these great firms are out there looking for really talented people, but i also think we should not have ever when listening think that there is a plethora of opportunities and think they are a failure. come on. we are in a major economic correctional. . -- economic correctional period . there are plenty of talented people who lost their jobs. yes, they're looking resumes and looking for great talent.

the drop -- the numbers are down and i do not think people should say. my son is in law school. the second year students and the first year students are having many fewer opportunities offered it to them. the quality of students go up every year, but the jobs market is just -- i think we should start with that. i think as far as going into business education, we have observed in the past that students use a slow economy as an opportunity, as they should come to gain additional skills and to build networks. business schools tend to be countercyclical. we have great canon's cumming and are working really hard. this is the creative part. there are looking much more broadly in terms of opportunities because the world is changing. the financial-services industry in terms of the share of the

economy and growth rate is not how was in 2002. really, for the last decade, students have been very interested in entrepreneurship and developing community outreach from the very beginning, even if they are going to go into the financial industry, they are also going to be associated with micro- enterprise activities for the promotion of schools to improve financial education, like elizabeth warren was interested in. this is a wonderful intellectual force developing all kinds of opportunities going forward. >> molly, you have the numbers. when timothy geithner said 7% of all fortune 500 c.e.o.'s are women, what are you seeing as

far as job opportunities out there and the challenges? >> well, i see a great opportunity for women in the economics. represents about region we represent about one-third of the majors of economics and finance. it is different than the business school where it is about 50%. right now, there are tremendous and opportunities to be a part of an increasing talent pool in the economics. i need to add myself to the list of those who fell in love with economics. i started university in tending to major in math. it took a course in economics and it was all over and has continued to be a passion. you know, we have 57% of all college students today are women. most of us did not think we

would live to see that majority. as you mentioned, as president of the university of north carolina, the oldest public university in america, for more than 150 of its 200 years it was men's only in chapel hill. today, something like two-thirds of the entering freshman class are women. the alums go crazy over this. it is a reflection of the growing talons in women graduating from high school going into college. -- it is a reflection of the growing talents in women. science, engineering, and computer science still the case that as many young women as men graduate high school well- prepared to study.

they just do not choose physics or engineering for computer science. the most hopeful find it is in the biological fields where about 50% of the ph.d.'s that are awarded go to women. if you cannot find the job without which you are passionate, this is a terrific time to go back to college, to get an advanced degree. when you look at the numbers, the correlation between lifetime earnings and level of education is very impressive. the converse is true for levels of unemployment. the level is much lower the amount of education have. >> they have a higher rate of homeownership and a lower rate of default, which everyone is talking about. let's just say we have more women, more graduates who are female. now, i think we need to give

people news you can use an opportunity to hear from your experiences about what it was like when you were out there. while there are heads of divisions and amazing in making a lot of money, it was not always like that. carla? >> the st. has changed a lot, i am happy to say. while we still do not have a plethora of women, there are far more than when i first came to the street. my first job was in mergers and acquisitions at morgan stanley. 23 years later, i am proud to say i am still here. i think that is what is important for young women to understand. obviously, you feel more comfortable about the journey ahead of you if you see more people in front of you that look like you. we still have a lot of work to do, make mistakes. >> the do get passed over for

jobs? did you feel that it was just because you were a woman? >> the most important thing for everyone, and this is advice i would give a 22-year-old today, make sure when you are coming out of college that you had your own agenda, that you understand why you are taking the seat and you were taking. what skills do you want to get out of it? what experiences do you want? what people do you want to me? what relationships and networks do you want to have over the course of two years, five years, and 10 years? i am not sure we were coming out, especially being one of the few, that we were as focused on that. if you have your agenda, it makes it easier to deal with challenges. anyone, male or female, will have challenges particularly in these highly competitive and intense positions. if you have an agenda, it makes

it easier to navigate. understanding cannot do it alone. it is not about how smart you are or how hard you work. is about understanding that you need important relationships like an adviser, a mentor, spencer -- a sponsor. at 24-years old, i was not aware of that. i thought it was all about this all about the smarts and hard work. is key to ascending in any organization. the last thing i would tell that 22-year-old is it to understand that your perception is very important in the environment. perception is the co-pilot to reality. how people perceive you will directly impact how they deal with you while you your smarts are important, what your experience is important, the perception that exists about yet in the marketplace is equally, if not more so, important.

it is important that you understand the lands that the organization is looking for when they are looking at you -- it is important that you understand the lens. it is important to understand the perception associated with success in the cb sit in for the when you aspire to sit in. i think those are important tools to maximizing your success the matter what seat you sit in . >> abbey, did you feel like as a woman that it was that much harder? did you tune it out? sometimes we need to reflect back and say, let's not always use that as a crutch, that sort of a gender victim behavior. did you tune it out? how did you overcome the issues? >> there are many different aspects. let's recognize the sex -- the success of a woman or a young man is related not only to their

behavior but the behavior's around them, their co-workers, supervisors, and the senior management. one of the things i think has changed dramatically over the last many years has been that when i entered this industry, then i thought of themselves as being fair minded and did not understand their own natural diocese -- natural biases. most importantly, once women were brought into the organization, not referring to my current employer, but places where i have began, there was not the same sense of making sure those women had an opportunity. we believe one of the biggest obstacles for women, people of color, people of different backgrounds, and so on, is that they are not sufficiently challenged.

let me explain what i mean. very often what will distinguish what -- whether you are: a significant upward path is with the has been given a very challenging assignment and have succeeded. there are still, i think, not just in our industry but in many others will intended managers who will try to protect their women or try to protect their diverse community from the challenging assignments because they do not want them to fail. but by not giving them the opportunity to really have these assignments, there are also preventing them from truly succeeding. one of the things i have seen change over my years in the industry has been this recognition that everyone needs the opportunity to fall flat on their face in a fair way because once you have done that, you learn it, you pick yourself up, and you move forward.

if you did not succeed, you are viewed in a very different way. >> dave ramsey says success is nothing more than standing on top of a pile of failure. u.s. and i were talking before the events -- you and i were talking. talk about what you can up against and, more importantly, how you vaulted over that. >> when i look back at my career, honestly, i would say that i did not start out thinking -- honestly? the idea of even being here today is quite overwhelming to me. i have to say that. as i went along in my career, i kept looking at the people above me in the organization thinking, should, i can do that better -- shoots, i can do that better. it was a very easy progression.

i got to a point with one employer that my boss literally said to me that i was not going to be promoted because my husband was a successful individual that the company knew. therefore, my job was secondary and there were other people, i eat men i.e. men, he needed -- who needed the job. that is not how dick rosenberg thought. i sat there and i listened to him. i went back to my note office visit i went back to my office. i said i wanted to get on his calendar. i went in there the next day and said, could we look at my results?

could we set some objectives here that you can measure me against to see how i'd do the job and how i will do the job? basically, i took the whole issue of who i was married to off of the table and said, you have to turn this into performance. i literally change the rules of the games in that process. that was really important to me. it is all about results. i will say that when you are looking at this -- and these 22- year-old children today, it is amazing how much more information is out there about you than was ever out there and how people can network when you are interviewing for a job whether it is facebook or link edin, they can get more

information about you. he needed to be aware that no matter what you do coming in this borough communications environment, people are going to know if you are not a good person and you can create detractors in your career very easily by not being a good teammate, the good manager, a good person. i think the key piece of advice i would have for young people today is be fully aware that all of these little social networking things can be your friend or it can really were against you. everyone is using it. >> he looked anxious to make a comment. >> i, of course, had my share of tough circumstances. i have a lot of experience

saying things look like failure when it is only half done. i would have to say that i have been -- i have benefited from individuals who sought in mean something that i did not see myself to open the door and invited me to take on an opportunity or a new set of responsibilities. i have overwhelmingly in the last by those kinds of individuals. and they were all men. >> i want to tie that comment and to, i think, something abby said and something elizabeth warren said earlier. i understand this by looking back. if we take the notion that you need to know who you are, what you love, and what your agenda is.

the next issue is getting into that seat. the next issue is moving to the next seat and so on. in my life, it has been individual, but i have also noted, and this is a wonderful thing to see, that organizations now are taking this much more seriously. elizabeth warren used the term "affirmatively thoughtful." basically, the best organizations now, and i think someone in the audience has worked on this is that the best organizations search very broadly. they look for talents they would not have looked for before. they would not have found it. then, they think about how to adjust their performance and evaluation. we heard you had to go in and say you needed an evaluation. the best organizations are saying they need to have a very clear, transparent, non-biased

metrics so we do not inadvertently choose a person in the network who looks like us. the whole thing from attracting, retaining, to promoting talent on behalf to have come as an art project as an organization, affirmative policies in place to challenge. i am very happy to say that many of the best organizations are doing that. there are a lot of best practices and a lot to be learned from that. business schools are learning from that and helping to create that knowledge. i will say for the individuals listening out there to pay attention to the organizations and pay attention to how the recruits and how they promote. personally, in my own life, you complemented all of us on our smarts and toughness. i want to say in my life, from

my going to graduate school 1019, to my first professorial job, coming to washington for the council of economic advisers, being on the board of morgan stanley, and being a dean at all been because individuals have said we're going to look broadly for talent. given my age, there was no reason why that would happen. those were not in place. those were individuals who lead that effort. i want to make that statement because all of us going forward, as we move up that ladder, can do that for others. >> we have some questions that have come in vai -- via the universities. women, contrary to popular belief, are more in control of their emotions and men and can create consistent successes in wall street. what are your viewsn