Magnus’ Women Power

In the almost 30 years that David and I have co-owned Magnus Research Consultants, we have employed many people of both sexes. We have had several long term employees, 2 of whom are men and 2 of whom are women. In addition, there have been 3 women who are former Magnus employees who have gone on to achieve considerable success in their lives. This post is about the “women power” from which we have benefitted at Magnus. As a woman who is the primary shareholder of a corporation, I am especially proud of the women of Magnus. It is difficult for women to thrive in many employment settings. (Yes, we have “come a long way, baby,” but not as far as we can go.) The 3 women who have achieved career success are, in order of their employment at Magnus, Jessica, Kristin, and Suzanne. Jessica left Magnus to become a teacher. Interestingly, she taught at the high school from which she graduated until recently, when she was promoted to an executive position at the Broward County School Board. Kristin resigned her position at Magnus to attend law school and she has been employed as an attorney for many years. She is the only client we have ever had who is a former employee. Pretty cool! Suzanne, like Kristin, left Magnus to attend law school. She is now a JAG lawyer with the United States Army. She holds the rank of Captain, but she has the potential of becoming a General, as far as I can tell! The 2 women who have long tenures at Magnus are Chelsea and Megan. Chelsea has the distinction of being the person with the longest tenure at Magnus. If everything works out as I hope, she will stay with us for over 25 years, until I eventually decide to retire. Last, but certainly not least, is Megan, who is, without a doubt, the best employee Magnus has ever had. David and I have written past posts about all of these women, but I thought it would be fun to write a tribute to all of them, collectively. Women power!

On the day I started writing this post, Melissa was wearing a pink t-shirt that said “Pretty Good for a Girl.”  I bought it for her at a Mindi Abair jazz concert.  Mindi has a song by that title because it is a phrase she’s heard many times over her career.  She decided to embrace it and turn the phrase into one of woman power.  Many years ago, I had a woman boss who thought I disagreed with her ideas because she is a woman.  She angrily said “You must not have ever worked for a woman.”  She was wrong in two ways.  I disagreed with (some) of her ideas because they were crazy for anyone of any gender to suggest.  But, the “funny” part for me was that I’ve mostly worked for or with women.  Melissa and I have worked together in an environment where she is clearly in charge.  She’s the boss because the clients call to hire her.  She’s the lead consultant.  Before Melissa though, I mostly had women for bosses going back to when I worked for my university’s president, who was one of the first women university presidents in the country, a trendsetter for women in numerous ways, and a member of the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame, with her photograph on the wall in the State Capitol.  As a photographer, many of my clients were women; they were the public relations directors of corporations.  My clients were a mix of men and women, but I met many dominant women in that world.  In our world of lawyers and litigation, there has been an increase in the number of women leading litigation teams.  Women are still a relatively small proportion of our clients, but the increase of woman power in the legal world has been notable over the past 30 or so years.  So, here’s to women power! 

 

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