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.