The futures industry's surprisingly good record of promoting women

Kim Taylor is one of the highest-ranking women in Chicago finance, a realm so monopolized by men that a female face in the C-suite still stands out. When she fields what she calls the ultimate chick question—”How did you succeed in a male-dominated industry?”—the CME Group president points to the women who came before her. Catherine Munn headed the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's clearing operation in the mid-1980s, and Kate Meyer, a former trader, became the first president of the clearing house in the mid-1990s. 

At a time when many corners of finance have been criticized for lack of progress in recruiting and promoting women, the futures industry has been a surprising bright spot. Today, six of CME's 16senior leaders are women—a bigger share than the quarter at most Fortune 500 companies. The goal, says CME CEO Phupinder Gill, is to hire “a diverse group of people to serve our diverse group of customers.” Read the story in Crains.

VA aggressively implementing measures to prevent suicide among women Veterans

When I came home from Iraq in 2004, I struggled to control intrusive memories about awful things I’d seen in the war — and the intense emotions those memories triggered. At the same time, I felt overwhelmed by the pressure of trying to help my then-boyfriend recover from the traumatic brain injury he sustained during the deployment. One night, it seemed as if the only thing I would be able to control was how my life ended, and I sat staring a gun for what felt like an eternity. Luckily, I got help, and today I’m thriving.

The recent VA report on suicide shows that my experience with these challenges was not unique. In 2014, after adjusting for differences in age, the risk for suicide was 2.4 times higher among women Veterans when compared with their civilian counterparts. That year, the rate of suicide among civilian adult women was 7.2 per 100,000; their age-adjusted rate of suicide had increased by 39.7 percent since 2001. Meanwhile, the rate of suicide among women Veterans was 18.9 per 100,000, and our age-adjusted rate of suicide increased by 85.2 percent over the same time period. Read the rest of the story.

Female Staffers Came Up With a Genius Strategy to Make Sure Their Voices Were Heard

When President Obama first took office, the White House wasn’t exactly the friendliest place for female staffers. Most of Obama’s senior staffers — such as former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and former economic adviser Lawrence Summers — were men who’d worked on his campaign and subsequently filled his cabinet.

“If you didn’t come in from the campaign, it was a tough circle to break into,” Anita Dunn, who served as White House communications director until November 2009, told the Washington Post. “Given the makeup of the campaign, there were just more men than women.”

Susan Rice, who’s currently the national security adviser, said she (and other women) had to shoulder their way into important conversations: “It’s not pleasant to have to appeal to a man to say, ‘Include me in that meeting.’”

And even when they’d made it into the room, female staffers were sometimes overlooked. So they banded together (shine theory!) and came up with a system to make sure they were heard...Read the story in New York Magazine.

A New Project Tells the Stories of the Women of Route 66

Perhaps no single road is more significant to modern American folklore than the fabled Route 66. Once stretching almost all the way across the country, the highway that John Steinbeck called “the Mother Road” has been memorialized in songs and stories over the decades. But while many of these stories center on the experience of the travelers and road trippers who rode down the highway, Route 66 was central to the lives of many people along its path. Now, an oral history project sponsored by the National Park Service is seeking to tell the stories of the women who lived and worked along the famous highway.

Titled “The Women on the Mother Road,” the project is supported by the National Park Service and Cinefemme, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting women filmmakers and documentarians. Founded by filmmaker Katrina Parks, the oral history project seeks to gather the stories of the females who lived and worked along Route 66, just like the many male travelers whose stories have dominated the narratives set along the highway. Read more by the Smithsonian.

Read about the Illinois women of Route 66:
Hazel Funk
Loretta Marten
Sally Rand
Heleen & Kathryn Thanas

Half of NASA's Newest Astronaut Class Are Women

Photo credit: NASA

In January 1978, NASA announced that it had offically hired its very first female astronauts. Now, almost 40 years later, NASA’s latest batch of future astronauts is half women, and in a few years they could be among the first people to set foot on Mars.

Getting accepted into NASA’s astronaut training program is no small feat. NASA only accepts new astronaut trainees every four or five years after putting candidates through a year-and-a-half-long application process, including intensive physical and psychological tests, Fiona MacDonald writes for ScienceAlert. Out of around 6,100 applicants for the 2013 class, NASA only selected eight to join their astronaut training program—four of whom are women.

"We never determine how many people of each gender we're going to take, but these were the most qualified people of the ones that we interviewed," NASA’s Glenn Research Center deputy director Janet Kavandi said in 2013. Read the story in the Smithsonian.

Women's work? Nonprofit CFO

In 1889 Jane Addams co-founded Hull House In 1931
she became the first American woman to be awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize and is recognized as 
the founder of the social work profession in the U.S.

Looking for a female CFO at a major Chicago organization? Try a nonprofit.  

In Chicago, women in top finance posts at nonprofits are almost as common as male CEOs at for-profit firms. Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Museum of Science and Industry, John G. Shedd Aquarium, Joffrey Ballet, Chicago History Museum and Museum of Contemporary Art are just a few of the major institutions with female chief financial officers. Nationwide, 42 percent of nonprofit CFOs are women, according to GuideStar's 2015 Nonprofit Compensation Report, published in September. Among Fortune 500 companies, it's 13.8 percent. Read the rest of the story by Lisa Bertagnoli in Crain's.

Teens as Young as 13 Rescued From Super Bowl Sex Trafficking

Sixteen teenagers ranging in age from 13 to 17 were recovered by law enforcement in a crackdown on child trafficking surrounding the Super Bowl last weekend. The FBI said the teens included high school students and young people reported missing by their families.

"It is the most significant operation we've had around a big event," Michael Osborne of the FBI's Violent Crimes Against Children Unit told ABC News. "This is the most recoveries we've had at one time."

Officials said the vast majority of the rescued teens were girls.

Osborne said he calls taking the young people off the street "recoveries," because the children are not charged. In child exploitation cases like this, law enforcement officials said operations are designed to remove the young victims from a life of exploitation and abuse. ABCNews has the story.

Are women who play sports more successful?

According to research by Michigan State University’s Institute for the Study of Youth Sports, approximately 70% of children in the U.S. are dropping out of organized sports before the age of 13. This is particularly alarming for women because studies have shown that girls who play sports are more likely to graduate from college, find a job, and be employed in male-dominated industries.

EY research shows that among senior business women in the C-suite today, 94% played sports and over half played at a university level — suggesting a strong correlation between their success in sports and their success in business. In fact, of the 400 women EY surveyed, 75% said that a candidate’s background in sports positively influenced their decision to hire them. These women put a particular premium on female athletes because they know — very personally — how participating in sports can impact work ethic. So to have young women drop out of sport at an early age is not only an alarming statistic, it is a wake-up call for parents. Their girls could prematurely be walking away from something that could have a bigger long-term effect. Read the rest of the commentary on Fortune.com by Beth Brooke-Marciniak, Global Vice Chair of Public Policy at Ernst & Young.

Helping women finish their education. Creating leaders.

The Conference of Women Legislators (COWL) has established a scholarship fund to assist mature women (age 25 and older) who wish to continue their undergraduate education. The goal of the scholarship is to focus on deserving, qualified women whose educations were interrupted due to family concerns and economic problems. Particular consideration will emphasize women who have shown leadership promise through community service.

The one year undergraduate scholarship will cover tuition, books and fees up to $2500 per year, including summer school. Applicants for the scholarship must meet certain requirements to be eligible. In addition to being a woman 25 years of age or older, she must be an Illinois resident and plan to attend an accredited on-campus school in Illinois for at least six semester hours (online college are not eligible).

The scholarship application instructions, application & Waiver of Confidentiality can be downloaded from the COWL website.

Application materials must be postmarked no later than April 15, 2016 to be considered and all applicants will be notified by May 31, 2016. COWL Scholarship Program is for the 2016-2017 Academic Year.

Women left their mark on early Illinois history

Many people recognize the name of Jane Addams from high school history textbooks, but few know much else about this incomparable woman of 19th-century Illinois history. And she was hardly the only one.

Few opportunities awaited Illinois women in that era. In 1900, only 16.3 percent of all Illinois women were employed, with the exception of housekeepers. They were clustered in a handful of occupations, including teaching; 74 percent of all teachers were female.

Still, women made a noticeable impact. Social clubs to promote reading, art and education were common, while the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, headquartered in Evanston, called for limits on alcohol. Monmouth is believed to have been home to the earliest women's political club in the nation. The Illinois Federation of Women’s Clubs, established in 1894, called for free access to reading for all citizens, and created small traveling libraries in storage trunks that were shipped to communities without public library service. Read the entire story on qconline.

Post-blizzard, Sen. Murkowski notes that only women turned up to run the Senate

Something was a little different in the Senate on Tuesday morning. And Sen. Lisa Murkowski noticed it.

The Alaska Republican was one of only a few lawmakers in the Capitol building following the weekend blizzard, and it was her job to handle the formalities of delaying Senate business until her colleagues could get back to work. After finishing a bit of parliamentary business, she described what she saw in the ornate chamber.

“As we convene this morning, you look around the chamber, the presiding officer is female. All of our parliamentarians are female. Our floor managers are female. All of our pages are female.” Read the entire story in the Washington Post.

It’s a first – women elected to Illinois Farm Bureau Board

For the first time, two women have been elected to the Illinois Farm Bureau Board of Directors.
District 1 – which includes Kane, DeKalb, Lake and McHenry counties – will be represented by Michele Aavang of McHenry County.

Meanwhile, District 5 – which includes Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Kendall and Will counties – will be represented by Tamara Halterman of rural Mazon.

“I think it’s important for a woman to be on the board because women are just as involved in farming operations as men are,” Halterman said. “It’s time we have a woman on the board.” Read the entire story in the Kane County Chronicle.