of the studies will affect how firms hired? abby, we know that there were a lot of people who were supposedly very smart across the board on wall street who did not see a lot of the disaster coming. do women have an innate ability? what about this question from the to from yale? . .

what's that moveless according to market volatility and they tend to make a market point of view. we now see that there is a disproportionate number of women in categories like management of university and charitable endowments, pension funds, and so on. one of the things that i think is quite important is some of the firms that have emerged from this terrible credit crisis are the ones that had very strong internal processes. the ones that basically said to not sell me a story.

i want to see the hard accounting. i want to see what the balance sheet really has on that. i am very proud to say that at my firm, the comptroller is a woman as is the treasurer. >> some interesting statistics i have not seen. >> one of the things that we do at the american council on education is we have had an office for women with the goal of providing of mentoring and early identification of women who are emerging as future potential leaders. we offered leadership development programs and we have made a tremendous increase in the number of women who are serving at ecology -- as a college and university

president. it has now leveled off. it is flat. when you focus on the fact that there are five of the ivy league schools that are headed by women, you think maybe we have gotten there. we have not. 23% of presidents and america are women -- in america are women. the average median age is 61. we are going to have a very significant turnover and there will be great opportunity for women. >> opportunities, yet we have to get back to the gender-wage issue. it is a gap that is yawning and we all know about that. and here is a question from a jersey. what is your opinion on the main

causes of gender-wage gap in what is being done to address these? you could say i am doing the exact same thing as the guy next to me or even to get better but why is he making more money than me? i have found this on the copy machine. that is where you find the salary information. how did you fight for yourself in a way that you can, and focus and fight for your position? >> you do not often know if you are being paid differently because generally, that is confidential. the one thing i will caution about, be very careful before you start to accuse or say something to your boss or employer because you might not have the real data. with respect to how do you deal with the gap you hear about,

across all industries, you need to understand what your seat is worth. if you are doing an extraordinary job, you should make it clear that that is part of your expectation with respect to what you get out of that experience. if you are going to work hard and you are going to be a contributor, it is important that you get paid. be sure that you articulate that is a part of your compensation and make sure your cognizant of the marketplace. you should know what your value is internally and externally and make sure that you articulate that. >> do you think at some point when you are banging your head against that ceiling and to have a manager that is not going to make that change, sometimes you have to leave? >> it is funny. i talked about this idea about sponsorship. that is really what a sponsor is supposed to do for you. they are somebody who carries

your paper into the world. behind closed doors, they will argue passionately on your behalf as to what you should get the promotion, the bonus, the next do opportunity that will give you the chance to fail. what you really need to do is if your boss is not doing that for you, you need to make sure you cultivate other relationships if so that you can make that happen for yourself. >> she has been at morgan stanley most of her career. >> i think that what she is saying is 100% true. you cannot be -- you must be focused on your career and the value. you have to understand that different jobs have different values. different values in this fiscal year compared to down the road. somebody might be getting a bigger bonus but you might be getting more stock.

compensation is very complex these days. at the end of the day, there are organizations that become very slack. -- very flat. there are opportunities. do sometimes get behind a blocker where you are working for somebody. do not be afraid to take that opportunity to go to another company that will give you a road ahead and a different and fresh chance to negotiate. i hate to say this, but sometimes companies are not as good at rewarding people who have been there a long time. take care of yourself. at the end of the day, you are responsible for you. my grandmother taught me that you write your own epitaph. if you live every hour of every day say why am i doing this job, what do i want out of it?

am i being a good partner? you have to balance those. of the financial rewards are there and the psychic rewards. >> i just want to say because it came up, and negotiation. there are a lot of good studies about male and female differences on things like risk- taking. we have heard about that. there are good studies on male and female differences in negotiation styles and willingness to negotiate. there was a wonderful book written called "women do not ask" which said that starting salaries are different because one woman might say great, another man looks to praise it before the start. there is a differential. there is the issue of

negotiation. that is your responsibility. on the other hand, it seems that now that we know that, organizations have to be sensitive to it. you have to say my female workers will behave differently. they are not going to be on average as aggressive as -- for negotiating salary. and this is a talented woman. i will go to her and say you should take this opportunity. i see there is this differential which makes no sense. it is on the organization and the individual. there is good evidence that organizations that want to retain roughly good women have them leave.

they ask why are they leaving? if you are sensitized to this, you can do all the right things. the evidence completely documents that the persistence of some of these wage gaps is because women leave the work force. it is very hard to make up that wage gap a few years later. 20 years later, there is still a wage gap that reflects time off. the best organizations are trying to handle that. >> a dose of reality. i love hearing to say that. -- hearing you say that. i have never, until recently, had people extend the hand. if they did in the early part of my career, they were men. they were not women.

it is very good car but if you turn around and see a younger, smart woman and reached down and hold out your hand and help them off. -- help them up. new help develop younger people and management. how do we get that message across? >> i think it applies to men and women. the satisfaction that one gets from being the mentor or being a sponsor is extraordinary. it puts you into a different perspective, as well. when you are viewed within your organization as somebody who is looking around you and trying to develop the talent that can be developed, that reflects very

well upon you. >> absolutely. >> one of the other aspects of what we have been discussing is we are talking about what we can do differently. it is not necessarily what we can do differently but also what the others are bound us can do differently. we know what we are supposed to be asking for as women except when the organization understands that we can indicate differently and possibly do things differently and the organization makes the adjustment. that is an indication that you have a situation that is likely to work out well for everybody involved. >> i agree completely with what they said. i think it is important and valuable for you to think about how you develop the talents. .

it is beneficial to you as well as them. >> if you complement somebody who is on their way up, and could eventually be your competitor -- >> going through what we went through and i learned that capital and we spend it what -- spend that on other women. who is going to teach them? and they will get their information somewhere and i prefer they get it from us than from someplace else. it is incumbent upon us for the next generation to not have to endure the same types of experiences. we will never get anywhere if we do that. women that are in positions of authority or even just a little bit, it is important to spend that on two or three women behind you. >> absolutely. the only reason to look down on

somebody is if you are helping them up. we are going to take questions from the audience. >> [no audio] >> when an entrepreneur is. we represent 10.1 million. when you think about the economic recovery, it is every single woman doing something. in terms of the future of women 's on japan or ship, what is the role of women bridget of launch the nor -- launch the entrepane

what is the role of women? >> for me, it has grown up around the world because of students. this was not an academic discipline. there are now wonderful programs in most business schools and i am proud of the one i am associated with. i therefore say to women, many women say it is not for them. it is not 50%/50%. they say they do not want to go into big corporations.

they want something else. mba programs are wonderful, the general flexibility programs for opportunity. i am a big fan of it for women. i think business education is a superb way to build your resume. >> we have done research showing that women can have a much more dramatic impact on economic growth than men. let me use the numbers that we have for developing economies around the world. $1 spent on a woman's education generates an additional 30% in gdp when compared to the same dollar spent on a man. you need to think about this for

a moment. in many nations, when a man gets extra money in his pocket, he is more likely to spend the money on himself more as the woman is more likely to spend the money on the education of her children, better nutrition, better health care, and the overall community benefits. for those of you with economics training, this is a multiplier. one of the things that we have been very enthusiastic about is providing training in a variety of countries around the world. we are working with educational institutions who can step in and provide the training which is appropriate for those countries and those communities. this is something that we think could ultimately have a significant impact on economic development and ultimately come up on critical stability within

these communities. >> thank you to the good work at the kauffman foundation who has been supporting this across the country. it is happening well beyond business schools. some of them are absolutely fabulous and are working in the social aspect. >> i have talked to a lot of people going back to school to do that. >> i and the president of direct capital. -- i am the president of direct capital. what do you believe your role should be to partner and mentor with women and financial services so that 20 years from now, we will have a financial landscape that looks more like the face of america? >> thank you.

that fits right into a project i am working on at morgan stanley. i am heading the emerging manager platform where we will partner with the emerging asset managers targeting minorities and women. we view our role to be a partner to accelerate the growth of those managers and bring to the table all the things that the struggle with like the access to the right infrastructure platform, back office, the access to capital, access to the institutional relationships, and others. we will partner with them to introduce our relationships to get the right infrastructure platform they could not get on their own and to introduce them to the right retell platform. -- retail platform. more importantly, provide the

strategic guidance. compensating your team appropriately. people and asset management to not like change. -- people in asset management do not like change. to bring that talent to bear in that community is going to be quite in packed full not just in the next 20 years, but the next five years if we get it right. >> the small business area, this is something i would like to rephrase and sate even if they cannot be in one of these jobs, i think one of the most noble things i see is women

entrepreneurs. if you feel like you cannot be at a large company, i say you go girl. we are rebuilding our entire small business area and we are thinking about how to create online communities for people because at the end of the day, i helped the adviser business takeoff. the way we did it was a lot of communities and best practice sharing and where people to not have to reinvent the wheel and are confident to ask and nonthreatening ways -- in nonthreatening waste everything from the balance to how the why ask for money to who do i have

on my board and who is in my community? those are important because we do not want to people to learn the bad mistakes twice. good for you for helping small business. with average college students graduating with a debt load of $23,000 and a graduate students -- and graduate students about $100,000. is there a point at which that the debt is so overwhelming and are we seeing a point at which we are questioning faugh if a 4 year college is no longer -- questioning of a four year college is no longer a good investment for some people? if it is the highest return on investment you could possibly faith. -- >> it is the highest return

on investment you could possibly make. this is administration has made a priority repayment for student loans and has set limits. president obama is from to sign a piece of legislation tomorrow morning that will include adjustments on income-based repayment. this is especially important for students who choose to work in the social sector or in other places were salary expectations are more modest. >> i teach about emerging markets and venture-capital. following up on the question and interest in on japan or -- in on to the dinto the nor -- entrepn

eurship. the large institutions that most of you are associated with but if anybody had insights into venture capital either here or abroad and how women can increase and enhance their profiles and that the vital sector? >> let me clarify. >> the venture capital community is one that has a different pattern than some other portions of the industry. for those who did not know, it is a very long-term investment. -- for those who do not know, it is a very long-term investment. the investor has to trust the

venture-capital list to trust the company and they have to work with young companies. this is a process that can take many years. one of the things that we are quite concerned about right now is that one of the after effects of the credit crisis is the unwillingness on the part of sponsors, that is the institution to the individuals whose money it is, to lock that money up. they are looking for liquidity. even though you might be able to make the argument that the long- term return on venture-capital will be good, many sponsors say i do not want to lock up my money for seven years or 10 years. this represents an obstacle not just for women and venture- capital but also for men. we also see that some of the sponsors which include university endowments, pension

plans and so on, who are your typical long-term investors who had been providing much of this capital previously are among those who are now saying not now. i need my liquidity. they cannot because of their cash flow requirements. on the other hand, we are seeing enormous opportunity on the part of these younger companies that are just now discarded. there is incredible enthusiasm in many parts of this country in terms of new technology whether it is green technology, i.t., biomedical, and so on. what we are seeing is that intermediary process having a problem. we are looking at ways to try to get the capital from here to

there. among those things are developing networking opportunities and capital introduction opportunities so that we are hopeful that the current dollars of capital flow will loosen up. >> i want to add a little bit to that. it goes to the issue of a particular problem for women in this area. two things occur to me. one way women are disadvantaged is in the high-technology venture capital is the background of those people are engineering and science. we are needing to focus on the need to have women move up in business but we could have a much bigger conversation about the problem in engineering. the venture capital industry is filled with people with

engineering backgrounds combining those backgrounds with business. there are those who have management experience put up to the extent that we do not have the pipeline of women moving through organizations to upper and middle management and went off to join a venture capital firm, we do not have a big talent base. what i worry about having heard those three points are these longer-term issues for women and venture-capital and we are not going to have progress because the industry is compressed and women have not gotten through those problems. >> they need to stay more liquid because what happened is they had too much in investment that were illiquid.

they did not want to sell off the more liquid parts in order to meet the capital part. there is an old girls' network starting to emerge. there are a number of organizations of women who have capital are actively seeking women-owned businesses to invest in. that was not the case 10 years ago. you should look into some of those. >> seek and ye shall find. get ready for a fight. it is a hard climb. i did not care if you are a man or a woman. nothing worth having comes easily. you have to stick wi