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Travel to the Top
For women, working abroad may be passport to success
Women still lag behind men in the corporate boardroom, often taking decades longer to reach top positions, if they get there at all. According to a recent book, Get Ahead by Going Abroad: A Woman's Guide to Fast-track Career Success, breaking the glass ceiling might be as simple as traveling overseas.
Authors Stacie N. Berdan and C. Perry Yeatman leapfrogged to top positions at major American corporations after taking assignments in Asia and Europe. After three years of representing the company in Asia, Berdan made partner at the global PR powerhouse Burson-Marstellar by the age of 34. Meanwhile Yeatman's duties in Singapore, London, and Moscow sped her along the path to her current position as senior vice president for international affairs and global management issues at Kraft Foods. As Berdan revealed in an interview with MOLI, the authors' experiences are typical of women who work abroad — and they could work for you, too.
Let's talk about the important stuff first. It seems like professional globe trotting might get in the way of a woman's personal life. Yet you and your husband managed to, shall we say, wed romance and career perfectly.
We had actually gotten engaged the year before I took the assignment. We had traveled before and enjoyed the international lifestyle. So when we decided to move to Hong Kong, we planned the wedding so it was a fabulous send-off party with about 300 people.
In the book, you claim that women may be better suited for working abroad than men. Why do you think that is?
Women have been known for having these "soft" skills. That's often criticized as the barrier to our success: "That's why you can't get to the top; you ask for everybody's opinion." That's stereotyping for sure, but the sociological studies and psychological studies show that these skills are innate feminine style.
Authors Stacie N. Berdan and C. Perry Yeatman leapfrogged to top positions at major American corporations after taking assignments in Asia and Europe. After three years of representing the company in Asia, Berdan made partner at the global PR powerhouse Burson-Marstellar by the age of 34. Meanwhile Yeatman's duties in Singapore, London, and Moscow sped her along the path to her current position as senior vice president for international affairs and global management issues at Kraft Foods. As Berdan revealed in an interview with MOLI, the authors' experiences are typical of women who work abroad — and they could work for you, too.
Let's talk about the important stuff first. It seems like professional globe trotting might get in the way of a woman's personal life. Yet you and your husband managed to, shall we say, wed romance and career perfectly.
We had actually gotten engaged the year before I took the assignment. We had traveled before and enjoyed the international lifestyle. So when we decided to move to Hong Kong, we planned the wedding so it was a fabulous send-off party with about 300 people.
In the book, you claim that women may be better suited for working abroad than men. Why do you think that is?
Women have been known for having these "soft" skills. That's often criticized as the barrier to our success: "That's why you can't get to the top; you ask for everybody's opinion." That's stereotyping for sure, but the sociological studies and psychological studies show that these skills are innate feminine style.
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15:07 EST, 05.Mar.08
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