National Women’s Day was this past Sunday, March 8. On this day, actors, musicians, politicians, executives and even everyday people shared their appreciation for the women they admire.
In celebration of this holiday, we thought it was only right to reflect on the growing role of women in the retail industry. More importantly, the RTP editorial team wanted to spotlight and show appreciation for the female executives they admire. Their feedback is below:
Debbie Hauss, Editor-in-Chief: One of our Retail Innovator Award winners from last year, Leena Munjal from Sears, displays the kind of innovative thinking and leadership that all companies (not just retailers) should be looking for. A few other inspiring female retail leaders are Debbie Sterling from Goldiblox and Rebecca Minkoff, among many others. I’d like to think that companies could be gender-neutral when choosing leaders, and focus on their leadership attributes primarily, but I’m not naive enough to think that’s how things are done, for the most part. I will say, though, that the female leaders who are most successful have likely had to work harder to get where they are compared to their male counterparts.
Alicia Fiorletta, Senior Editor: I’m so pleased to say it’s difficult to spotlight just one female executive I believe is pushing the retail industry forward. Over the past year, I’ve had the opportunity to connect with and learn from a variety of female leaders and appreciate their work ethic, knowledge and how they inspire their business peers and even younger women. I admire Jane Park of Julep for her humor, humility and focus on connecting with her fellow women; Rebecca Minkoff for building up her namesake brand and unveiling the first example of “the store of the future”; and Sophia Amoruso of Nasty Gal for building a business from the ground-up (with limited business knowledge) and sharing her inspirational story with young women to boot. All of these women have an air of accessibility. They encourage people to connect and communicate with them, and give people an in-depth look into their lives every day while sharing inspirational stories that made them the leaders they are today.
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Rob Fee, Managing Editor: Helena Foulkes, EVP of CVS Health and President of CVS/Pharmacy, is responsible for more than 7,700 retail locations, 18 distribution centers and the retailer’s e-Commerce sites. Foulkes, who also serves on the board for The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, played a key role in CVS’ decision to rebrand itself by promoting healthier lifestyles and, famously, remove tobacco sales from its stores. While this move may have led to lost sales for the pharmacy chain, it showed the brand cares about its customers.In a perfect world, gender wouldn’t play any role in who gets a seat in the C-suite. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case. While I do think there are more executive roles for women than there were 20 years ago, I believe that gender bias creates a tougher road for the women who grab these opportunities.
Glenn Taylor, Associate Editor: Wanda Gierhart of Neiman Marcus comes to mind here. Under her supervision, the retailer has gone out of its way to create an excellent customer experience and always looks to push the envelope on store initiatives to improve brand perception and digitize the shopping experience. Michael Lewis actually kind of went into this topic during his presentation at Adobe, noting that he only invests in companies where the CEO is not a stereotypical 6 feet tall, good looking male. His argument was that he knows that company/CEO is doing well on pure merit and had overcome the general prejudice that might not occur for the stereotypical CEO. I believe the climate is certainly improving from 10 years ago and prior, but needs to develop even further, especially in the composition of executive teams.
Brian Anderson, Associate Editor: I definitely agree that successful c-level female retail executives have had to work much harder in order to get where they are now. Laura J. Sen, President & CEO of BJ’s Wholesale Club, comes to mind when you think of female executives that fought hard to earn their position. I do believe that positive changes are happening in order to offer more leadership opportunities for women in retail; however, the industry definitely has a long way to go before the industry can confidently call itself “gender-neutral.”
How did you celebrate National Women’s Day? Are there any female leaders that inspire you? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
