Red Sox hiring Bianca Smith as first Black female pro baseball coach
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Bianca Smith is making baseball history.

The Red Sox are hiring Smith as a minor league coach, according to the Boston Globe.

MLB confirmed to the Globe that Smith will be the first black woman ever to coach baseball at the professional level.

Smith, who most recently was an assistant baseball coach and hitting coordinator at Carroll University (Wisc.,) will primarily work with infielders at the Red Sox’s minor league facility in Fort Meyers, Fla.

“She was a great candidate coming in,” Red Sox vice president of player development Ben Crockett told the Globe. “She’s had some really interesting experiences and has been passionate about growing her skill set and development herself.”

Smith has interned in the baseball operations departments of the Texas Rangers and Cincinnati Reds and worked in amateur administration for MLB. She played softball at Dartmouth from 2010-12 before working as director of baseball operations at Case Western Reserve University from 2013-17 and as an assistant coach with University of Dallas in 2018, according to the Globe.

Smith’s hiring is a barrier-breaker.

“It’s a meaningful, meaningful thing for the organization,” Crockett told the Globe.

The San Francisco Giants made Alyssa Nakken baseball’s first full-time female major league coach earlier this year, promoting her to assistant coach. She became the first woman to coach on-field in an MLB game in July, coaching first base during an exhibition game.

Continue on to The New York Post to read the complete article.

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How High-End Restaurants Have Failed Black Female Chefs
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By The New York Times

Training and advancement as a chef can be hard to find in American fine-dining restaurants, according to Black women who have tried.

Eight years ago, Auzerais Bellamy landed what she thought was a big break: a stint as a stagiaire, or apprentice, at the French Laundry, Thomas Keller’s world-renowned restaurant in the Napa Valley. She wasn’t paid for her two days trailing the pastry team, but she saw it as an ideal training ground where, if asked to stay, she could learn from some of the best cooks in the business, sharpening her skills.

(Image Credit – Stephanie Mei-Ling for The New York Times)

“If you want to be a great player you have to be coached well, and I felt like I could be coached well there,” she recalled.

Ms. Bellamy, who grew up in a restaurant family in the Bay Area, had graduated from the Johnson & Wales College of Culinary Arts, and was working as chef de partie at Mr. Keller’s more casual Bouchon Bakery in Yountville, Calif. But when her apprenticeship ended, she wasn’t asked to stay on at the French Laundry. “They said I lacked the technical skill to work there.”

She stayed with Bouchon Bakery, and even moved to New York City to work as a demi-sous-chef at its branch in Rockefeller Center. And when a job as pastry sous-chef opened up at Per Se, Mr. Keller’s East Coast fine-dining flagship, she applied — only to be told again that she needed more experience in the company.

The job was filled by a young Asian woman from outside the restaurant group, said Ms. Bellamy, 30. “They even had her come to our property to trail me to see how things were done companywide.”

Ms. Bellamy eventually left the restaurant business altogether, at one point cleaning apartments. In 2016, after an employer raved about a blondie she’d made, she started a Brooklyn bakery, Blondery. Looking back, she says she isn’t sure her experience could have been different.

Read the full article at The New York Times.

Women Have Lost 700,000 More Jobs Than Men Since the Pandemic Started
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The coronavirus pandemic has turned the U.S. economy and workforce upside down. Once again, gender inequality in the labor force rears its ugly head.

Over the past nine months, millions of Americans have lost their jobs or seen their income drop substantially. But according to a CNN report based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, women have taken a harder hit than men.

As of November 2020, women held 5.3 million fewer jobs than they did when the pandemic started in February. Men, by contrast, only had a 4.6 million job shortfall. All told, women are down a good 700,000 positions compared to men. And that’s a hit they might struggle to recover from.

Why women have lost more work than men have

Certain industries took a particularly strong beating in the pandemic — notably, restaurants, hotels, and retailers. Women tend to make up the majority of employees in these industries. By virtue of that alone, it’s easy to see why women have lost more jobs than men have.

But let’s not forget that childcare — or a glaring lack thereof — has been a nightmare. And that has also disproportionately affected women. Historically, women have been more likely to give up their jobs to address childcare needs. Women are also known to earn less money than men thanks to the ever-present gender pay gap. As such, it stands to reason that women would be more likely to give up a job in the absence of childcare.

How women can recover

If you’ve lost your job in the course of the pandemic or had to leave the workforce temporarily to care for a child, do your best to maintain your job skills and knowledge base. That means keeping up with industry updates and staying in touch with former colleagues and contacts.

It’s also a good idea to secure some type of part-time work to avoid a dreaded resume gap. If you’re a marketing professional, for example, reach out to local businesses to see if you can do some consulting work. And if you can’t do that work on a paid basis, volunteer — it’ll still be something you can put on your resume.

Financially speaking, you may have a hard time getting by. If you have an emergency fund, now’s the time to tap that savings account — it’s better than racking up debt. If you have equity in your home, you can also look into borrowing against it to generate extra cash. And of course, you shouldn’t hesitate to ask for relief if your income is down. You might be able to lower your monthly credit card payments or get more time to cover your utilities.

Hopefully, the current economic crisis will start to resolve as coronavirus vaccines are rolled out to the general public. Restrictions will ease, schools will reopen, and businesses will begin to rehire workers. Until then, it’s imperative that women do whatever they can to make themselves viable job candidates and avoid getting buried in debt. Men are also struggling during the pandemic, but women seem to be bearing the brunt of it. There is finally a light at the end of the tunnel. However, female members of the labor force will have to work extra hard to emerge unscathed.

Continue to the full article at The Ascent.

Do Professional Women Over 50 Have An Expiration Date? How Gendered Ageism Sabotages Women’s Careers
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“Men age on TV with a sense of gravitas, and we as women have an expiration date,” Roma Torre, 61, stated after her departure as anchor on NY1.

Torre, along with four of her female colleagues, recently settled an age and gender discrimination law suit against the New York cable network, Charter Communications. In the suit, Torre and her co-plaintiffs, Amanda Farinacci, Vivian Lee, Jeanine Ramirez and Kristen Shaughnessy, claimed that their anchor airtime had been reduced and they were excluded from promotional campaigns due to their gender and age.

(Image Credit – Forbes)

Why is this not surprising? History has repeatedly demonstrated that women, especially those in the public eye, face the consequences of aging. As a result, actors like Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton, Cher, and scores of others, have felt compelled to alter or enhance their appearance. You may dismiss this as vanity, but that dismissal negates a much more important point. They need to look young and pretty to compete and stay marketable. Their career success and financial security depends on their appearance.

The impact of gendered ageism is not limited to celebrities. In our youth-tilted culture, professional women over 50 face gendered ageism every day. According to a 2018 AARP report, 64 percent of women say they’ve been the target of or witnessed age discrimination. It’s important to note that’s just a tip of the iceberg. It’s estimated that only 3 percent of older workers have ever made an official complaint. Many professional women are afraid to complain about ageist behavior for fear they’ll lose their jobs. And then what? It’s almost impossible to get rehired as a woman over 50.

Read the full article at Forbes.

Yes, Investors Care About Gender Diversity
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Tech companies used to be tight-lipped about the gender breakdowns of their employees. Some even argued that such information was a trade secret.

But in recent years, that trend has reversed. Google, Facebook, Apple, and many other tech firms have released diversity reports, which show that the fraction of women ranges from about one-sixth of workers to nearly half.

These reports got Thomas Lys, a professor emeritus of accounting information and management at Kellogg, and collaborators wondering: Do the investors who read these

(Image credit – Lisa Röper/Kellogg Insight)

reports value gender diversity? “Our focus was: Can you make a business case for diversity?” says Lys. If so, then reports revealing relatively high diversity should boost stock prices more than those revealing low diversity.

That’s exactly the pattern that emerged in a study of technology and finance companies, conducted by Lys and his colleagues. When companies reported a higher percentage of women, investors appeared to reward them with larger increases in stock value.

The magnitude of the effect is “surprisingly large,” Lys says. For example, the researchers estimate that if the share of women at Google had been one percentage point higher when the firm released its diversity report in 2014, the company’s market capitalization would have been about $375 million higher at the end of the day of the announcement.

For Lys, the message is clear. “Investors value gender diversity, that’s for sure,” he says. “They value it very strongly.”

Read the full article at Kellogg Insight.

There Aren’t Enough Women CEOs in the Beauty Industry—These Colleges Are Changing That
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For an industry that caters almost exclusively to women, the number of female decision-makers at the C-suite level is alarming. But thanks to recent pushes for equal representation, business schools are hearing the cries and adjusting their courses accordingly.

When it comes to gender equality at the highest level, the beauty industry comes out on top. In a 2016 report by LedBetter, a research group that measures the gender disparity across big-name companies, it found that beauty outranked every other profession in terms of the highest  (Image Credit – Aimee Sy Glamour)                               percentage of women seen on the board and in executive positions (apparel and retail came in second and third).

Unfortunately, that number was 29 percent—29 percent—which paints an incredibly bleak and a very real picture about how far away we are from achieving equal representation at the C-suite. For a business that caters largely to women and that’s built on the dollars women spend, it’s aggravating to see that in 2019 it’s still rare for a woman to reach the upper echelons of a major corporation.

But a handful of schools are determined to change that. New York City’s Fashion Institute of Technology boasts two beauty-centric programs: a bachelor’s in cosmetics and fragrance marketing, which packages the business, science, and marketing aspects of the industry into a two-year curriculum, and a master’s that’s loaded with management courses for future execs. As the longest-running programs of their kind in the country (30 years for the bachelor’s, 20 years for the master’s), both provide their graduates with the tools to succeed in the beauty industry.

“We’ve been around for a long time, so we can see the results and track the students’ success stories,” says Virginia Bonofiglio, associate chairperson of FIT’s cosmetics and fragrance marketing department, naming the president of Nars, one of the founders of Milk, and senior VPs at Estée Lauder, L’Oréal, and Shiseido as alumni of the program. “All of the students who graduate go into the beauty industry, and many of them have been extraordinarily successful in moving up the corporate ladder. The key is finding people who, at a very early stage, know this is what they want to do.”

Continue to GLAMOUR to read the full article.

Rashida Jones named next president of MSNBC
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Jones, who will take over at MSNBC on Feb. 1, is a senior vice president at NBC News and MSNBC, where she leads breaking news and major events coverage.

She also oversees MSNBC’s daytime and weekend programming. She will become the most prominent Black woman in the cable-news industry. “Rashida knows and understands MSNBC, in part because it’s where she started when she first joined NBCU seven years ago,” Conde wrote in an email to NBC News employees. “She knows that it is the people who work here that make it great, and she understands its culture. She also appreciates the impact and potential of the brand.”

(Photo credit: Virginia Sherwood / NBC)

Conde noted that in the past year, Jones has helped guide MSNBC’s coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic, the unrest and social justice protests that broke out over the treatment of Black Americans, and the 2020 election. She also helped with two influential series at the network, “Justice for All” and “Climate in Crisis.”

Jones was part of the team that helped NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker prepare for her role as moderator in the final presidential debate of 2020. Griffin started with NBC News 35 years ago as a producer on the “TODAY” show. “At MSNBC, Phil has built something remarkable,” Conde wrote. “He leaves the network in the best shape it has ever been.” NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News, owns MSNBC.

The announcement follows a wave of other changes within NBCUniversal. In May, Conde took over as chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, which includes NBC News, MSNBC, and CNBC, as part of a restructuring that occurred after Andrew Lack announced that he would be stepping down as president of NBC News Group. In January, Jeff Shell took over as CEO of NBCUniversal.

Read the full article at NBC NEWS.

10 Incredible Nonprofits and the Women Behind Them
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Given this avowed power female leaders have, it may be timely to celebrate some of the women making an impact in the nonprofit sector.

Today, female leaders today are perceived to be more effective at taking initiative, demonstrating integrity and honesty, and working for results than their male counterparts, according to a survey from leadership consultancy Zenger Folkman.

Certainly, issues like the lack of access to education and healthcare have existed for decades, even centuries, but

(Image credit: Amanda Truxillo, Nate Johnson and Martiza Chateau)

progress is possible through new ideas and the willingness to implement them. Those ideas and their implementation are coming from the women behind the organizations listed below.

These leaders are taking risks and innovating; they’re game-changers within their respective causes. And their entrepreneurial spirit is pushing them to not just ideate, but take action — as well as tackle historic problems using new solutions. Under their leadership, these organizations are inciting significant changes, like creating the world’s largest sports movement for people with intellectual disabilities and bringing surgical care to thousands of people in underserved communities.

Read about 10 Incredible Nonprofits at the Entrepreneur.

These Are The Most At-Risk Jobs Post-Pandemic
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While many jobs were put on hold during the pandemic, there are a few that may not come back—ever.

Glassdoor’s Workplace Trends 2021 report finds that job postings for discretionary health services—or those that are elective and can be postponed during a pandemic—are down dramatically. The most at-risk job is that of audiologist, for which job listings on Glassdoor declined 70% during the pandemic.

Angela Shoup, president of the American Academy of Audiology, says she’s heard reports of audiologists being placed on long furloughs, as well as some who’ve closed their private practices and retired early this year. Many recent graduates looking for jobs in audiology have been told that larger practices are not hiring, she says.

Job postings for opticians and physical therapists saw a similar fate, down 61% and 40%, respectively. There’s also been a shortage of administrative and lower-skilled office roles. Jobs for event coordinators are down 69%, making it the second most at-risk job post-pandemic. Similarly, openings for executive assistants are down 55%, human resources generalists are down 37% and receptionists are down 35%, as most offices have been closed.

Unsurprisingly, positions for personal services workers have also plummeted. Beauty consultants took the hardest hit, with jobs down 53%. Jobs for valets were down 51%.

“[These are jobs] where Covid-19 is in the driver’s seat,” says Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor’s chief economist. “People are not going to return to their nail salons or get discretionary LASIK eye surgeries or go to in-person events until the virus is under control.”

Discretionary healthcare, event and personal-service jobs won’t disappear altogether after the pandemic, but they will certainly be slow to come back, he says. However, he thinks it’s possible some jobs may be lost forever.

Continue on to Forbes to read the complete article.

Lawyer Heidy Vaquerano’s Tips for Success
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By Samar Khoury

Heidy Vaquerano is a partner in the nationwide Entertainment & Sports Law Department at Fox Rothschild LLP.

She has more than 16 years of experience handling entertainment law and intellectual property matters for actors, Grammy-nominated musicians, global merchandise companies, film and television producers, writers, production companies, independent record labels, tech startups, and consultants. In 2020, she was selected for inclusion in Billboard‘s “Top Music Lawyers” list. 

Outside of her legal practice, Vaquerano is a professor at local Los Angeles universities, where she creates a curriculum that incorporates her passion for all aspects of entertainment, tech and new media and its associated legal components. She has lectured at various prestigious entertainment and tech industry events, including MIDEM in Cannes, France, on behalf of the International Association of Entertainment Lawyers, Silicon Beach Fest for Digital LA, Techweek LA, and Innovate LA. Vaquerano is the managing director of the Los Angeles chapter of Girls in Tech, a nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating the gender gap in tech, and serves on the advisory board of SXSW Pitch and Mayor Garcetti’s WiSTEM LA initiative.

Vaquerano spoke about her career journey.

Why did you pursue a career in law? 

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a lawyer. As the child of immigrant parents, I envisioned lawyers with the power to right wrongs. I often saw my parents work the early shift, and sometimes two jobs, so that they could send me to the best schools. This inspired me to make the most of my education and become an attorney to one day help others. I found my passion as a sophomore in college when I first learned about music law at an LSAT prep event. That day changed my life and led to my first job at an entertainment law firm where I worked for 11 years. 

What are your advice and tips to others who are interested in pursuing a career in law? 

The best piece of advice I can give to potential law students is to study hard and have fun. We have the rest of our lives to work, so enjoy the time you have to learn about the different areas of law as they are fundamental to our everyday life. One of my favorite classes in law school was constitutional law. 

For those of you who know what area of law you want to practice, use it to your advantage and choose classes around that field. Since I knew I wanted to become an entertainment attorney, I chose entertainment and intellectual property law classes like copyright and music publishing in law school. This gave me a leg up when I was working at my first job, as I was able to understand the legal concepts better. If you want to become a transactional attorney, use this time to take classes that teach you how to draft contracts. This will help you become accustomed to the language used in legal agreements. Whatever internship or externship you have, make the most of it. Do everything with care and intention. To this day, I still come across attorneys that remember me from when I was in law school and who are happy to see me and help with anything I may need. These relationships have proven to be invaluable. 

How did having a mentor help you?

I’ve had a lot of great mentors in my life, including attorneys or colleagues who I have worked with throughout the years. These mentors helped keep me motivated and taught me a lot about what is not learned in law school, like industry politics. Relationships are important in all areas of life, but particularly in the entertainment industry. As I progressed in my career, I found mentors for different aspects of my life.

Did you have any challenges while pursuing a career in law? How did you overcome them? 

The greatest challenge I had in law school was balancing school and work. I made the decision to go to school at night, so I could work at an entertainment law firm. Since I had broken into the entertainment industry, I knew I did not want to take three years off for school and lose the relationships I had worked so hard to build. It was stressful, but ultimately it was the best decision. I was able to get invaluable experience drafting and negotiating agreements under the supervision of attorneys before I officially passed the bar. 

What do you like most about your job and why?

One of my favorite things about my job is representing artists. You get to build a friendship and bond with your clients while helping to protect them. I love educating clients about their deals and helping them build strong careers. It has been an incredible experience to watch the entertainment industry change since I first got my start in 2002. I am excited to see where it goes as technology transforms how we discover and listen to new music or watch television and films.

The New Interview: How to Hire the Best Candidate in Our New Normal
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By Vicki Chabot & Abbey Szentes, netlogx

The COVID-19 pandemic has turned business operations upside down, but as businesses work toward a new normal and hire new staff, virtual interviews have become standard.

Gauging how an interviewee will fit into an organization’s workplace culture without sitting across from one another in-person can be challenging, but it’s not impossible.

When we’re not meeting people in-person, we miss cues that are necessary to fully comprehend communication. Research consistently shows candidates who align with an organization’s culture and values are critical for successful, strategic hiring.

Here are some of the best ways to foster a connection with candidates and how to weigh a candidate’s potential — both in work experience and their ability to align with organizational culture:

Create a Plan for Virtual Interviews

As policies and procedures change throughout the pandemic, make sure everyone is on the same page about how interviews will be conducted and what software will be used. There are many free options available like Google Meet or UberConference that are easy to use and don’t require added investments.

To minimize technical difficulties, choose a preferred software and practice using it. Perform test runs 10–15 minutes before a scheduled interview to make sure the microphone is operable, screen share options are easily accessible, and there is a strong web connection available. Ensure all candidates know what the interview process looks like and what they can expect throughout the interview. Create an agenda that can be shared with candidates and other team members and be clear about the organization’s expectations for the role. If candidates are showcasing some of their work, ask for the work ahead of time in case there are poor connections. Not everyone will have the same internet bandwidth, and it’s crucial to plan for that ahead of time.

Start with a Preliminary Phone Interview

Hiring managers and recruiters receive hundreds of applications when hiring for a new position. Conducting preliminary phone interviews with candidates who have the desired set of skills and work experience can help organize the pool of candidates and prevent lost time for those who aren’t a fit at all. It is common during in-person interviews to develop rapport with candidates, but in a completely virtual world those connections are more important than ever before. While a phone call is great for screening candidates, video conferencing should be used for any other interviews. Hiring managers should ask more questions so they can get to know candidates on a personal level.

Ask Personal and Professional Questions

A virtual interview should be treated the same as those that take place in-person, but there are benefits to meeting candidates virtually. Remind hiring managers and team members to be a bit more compassionate than they would normally be when sitting across the table from a candidate. Life frequently gets in the way with barking dogs, a phone ringing, or spouses, partners and children all working and playing under the same roof. These are perfect opportunities to learn more about candidates and their day-to-day lives as opposed to only pointed questions about work skills. Yes, those questions are important, too, but in a virtual environment, there is much that can be learned about a candidate’s lifestyle and ability to handle distractions. Take notes and ask questions about the person’s hobbies, interests, and volunteer work.

Create a Process to Gather Feedback From Candidates

It’s commonplace for potential candidates to send thank you notes after an interview, but it is helpful for interviewers to do the same as they adapt to remote-only interviews. Thank the candidate for being flexible and adaptable, and ask for feedback about the process. How did candidates feel it went? Are there things that could be improved or adjusted? These questions help hiring managers and teams to refine the interview process for future candidates and provide a glimpse of how a new hire would handle communicating information internally.

Use Work Style and Personality Assessments

If hiring managers want to know how candidates will perform and communicate, a business management assessment tool, such as the Taylor Protocols Core Values Index™ (CVI) or Myers Briggs Personality Assessment, are fantastic ways to understand an interviewee on a deeper level. Too often, employees are tasked with roles and responsibilities that can make them feel like a round peg forced into a square hole. This is something a hiring manager wants to identify before training and onboarding a new hire. As a last step, these kinds of assessments can help one candidate stand out more than another and help solidify your choice to hire them.

Business leaders should anticipate changes for interviewing practices and as the pandemic continues, remote interviewing remains the best and most viable way to understand a candidate’s potential as a new hire for the organization. Having a standardized process in place for virtual interviews and establishing a cadence of questions that demonstrate candidates’ ability to react in the moment gives hiring managers and recruiters better insight. The final step should always be a short work and personality assessment, so leaders can determine the most productive place for candidates or if different candidates may be better suited for the position at hand.

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