USC Intellectual Property (IP) Institute Women in IP Breakfast
This mornings’ USC IP Institute began with the annual Women in IP Breakfast with co-authors, Andrea Kramer and Alton Harris as they discussed issues surrounding why women’s relationships at work can be difficult and steps to take to change the narrative. Andie and Al challenged the positions taken in the popular press and self-help books that women are inherently overtly competitive and unsupportive of fellow female colleagues. They effectively challenged these stereotypes and proposed actionable steps women, and organizations, can take to overcome and avoid workplace conflict and build on the positive aspects of women working with women.
Solutions discussed this morning included: the creation of a sisterhood networking group (much like Chicago Women in IP ChiWIP), saying “strong social connections are a powerful predictor of career success”, mentoring relationships between women and between women and men, highlighting female advancement within your law firm and organization. Equally important is to invite senior men into this discussion (as we did during the Diversity in IP Event, we co-hosted with Google last year) and creation of steps to eliminate this bias. Andie & Al’s book Women vs Women at Work: Overcoming Workplace Conflict and the Bias that Built It, offers additional insights for women and organizations to implement.