Rosina L. Racioppi, Ed.D., President and CEO of WOMEN Unlimited, Inc., Gives Advice on Achieving Gender Parity in an Organization

New York, NY, June 30, 2017 – Dr. Rosina Racioppi, Ed.D., President and CEO of WOMEN Unlimited, Inc., the leading provider of organizational solutions and initiatives to empower women as leaders, advises organizations that want to achieve gender parity to take an all-in-one approach.

“No one initiative is going to achieve gender parity,” explains Dr. Racioppi, “Organizations must take a long-term, multi-pronged approach to diversity and inclusion. Programs should engage top management, as well as line managers, and include the opportunity for women to be mentored.”

Dr. Racioppi suggests that:

• Top management makes their commitment to gender parity clear and specific.
• Leadership practices “conscious inclusion” and demand that others do the same.
• Measurement and accountability parameters are established to achieve gender parity.
• Line management closely aligns a woman’s talent with the needs of the organization.
• Specific, honest and open feedback is provided to women.
• Women have mentors both within and outside of the organization to guide them.

“It is imperative the company’s culture fully supports diversity and inclusion,” says Dr. Racioppi, “The change has to start with senior management for gender parity to be achieved. If leadership doesn’t look beyond status quo and change the way they perceive the contributions women bring to an organization, no one will. It has to be absolutely clear to everyone in an organization that gender parity is a priority.”

Dr. Racioppi shared this insight in her keynote speech at the Human Capital Institute’s (HCI) 2017 Inclusive Diversity Conference on April 3-4, 2017 in San Francisco, CA. More than 300 professionals, committed to advancing gender parity, attended HCI’s inaugural conference on the subject: Dive Innovation and Growth with Cognitive Diversity. Leading experts on diversity and inclusion reiterated in their own speeches that change must start at the top, the responsibility is shared throughout the organization, and that everyone must be held accountable.

“Throughout the conference, speakers expressed that management has set the stage for gender parity,” adds Dr. Racioppi. “Frank Dobin, Professor of Society at Harvard University, stressed that management has to step out of their comfort zone and do something different, in his presentation entitled Why Diversity Programs Fail. Top executives from Target demonstrated how success is driven from a company-wide shared commitment and responsibility to the guest experience, workforce and work environment in their presentation Getting D&I Unstuck. Other speakers spoke about how to remove bias from an organization by practicing inclusive behavior and holding people accountable. With trillions of dollars in lost productivity at stake worldwide, gender parity, diversity and inclusion are becoming increasingly more important to an organization’s success.”

Dr. Racioppi also continued the conversation when presenting at several other conferences recently. On May 18, Dr. Racioppi shared insights at the Women’s Insights on the Art of Negotiation (WIN) Global Summit in New York City, on how and why women need to assess and, as needed, evolve their view of themselves. She highlighted the way to build effective networks, defined by success, not numbers, as well as how women can develop honest mentoring relationships that provide them with needed feedback, often missing in their interactions with their managers. Participants left the session with actionable approaches for achieving their career goals, for increasing their contributions to their companies, and for improving their ability to negotiate for themselves and for their organizations. On May 23, Dr. Racioppi was invited to speak at Lead Beyond, the IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference (WIE ILC) in San Jose, CA. The conference attracts more than 1300 professional women in technology, with tracks focused on Innovation, Empowerment, Executive Leadership, Disruptive Technology, and Entrepreneurship.

About WOMEN Unlimited, Inc.
WOMEN Unlimited, Inc. has been partnering with Fortune 1000 companies since 1994 to develop and retain a diverse pool of talented women leaders who can confidently usher their organizations to new levels of growth and profitability. The organization uses a three-pronged approach of mentoring, education and networking to benefit organizations by enabling the transformation of talented, high-potential women from doers to leaders.

About Dr. Rosina Racioppi
Dr. Rosina Racioppi, president and chief executive officer of WOMEN Unlimited, Inc. spearheads initiatives to help Fortune 1000 companies cultivate the talent needed for ongoing growth and profitability. Under her leadership, WOMEN Unlimited, Inc. partners with organizations across a wide range of industries to develop high-potential women and to build a pipeline of diverse and talented leaders.

Dr. Racioppi also continued the conversation when presenting at several other conferences recently. On May 18, Dr. Racioppi shared insights at the Women’s Insights on the Art of Negotiation (WIN) Global Summit in New York City, on how and why women need to assess and, as needed, evolve their view of themselves. She highlighted the way to build effective networks, defined by success, not numbers, as well as how women can develop honest mentoring relationships that provide them with needed feedback, often missing in their interactions with their managers. Participants left the session with actionable approaches for achieving their career goals, for increasing their contributions to their companies, and for improving their ability to negotiate for themselves and for their organizations. On May 23, Dr. Racioppi was invited to speak at Lead Beyond, the IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Conference (WIE ILC) in San Jose, CA. The conference attracts more than 1300 professional women in technology, with tracks focused on Innovation, Empowerment, Executive Leadership, Disruptive Technology, and Entrepreneurship.

About WOMEN Unlimited, Inc.
WOMEN Unlimited, Inc. has been partnering with Fortune 1000 companies since 1994 to develop and retain a diverse pool of talented women leaders who can confidently usher their organizations to new levels of growth and profitability. The organization uses a three-pronged approach of mentoring, education and networking to benefit organizations by enabling the transformation of talented, high-potential women from doers to leaders.

About Dr. Rosina Racioppi
Dr. Rosina Racioppi, president and chief executive officer of WOMEN Unlimited, Inc. spearheads initiatives to help Fortune 1000 companies cultivate the talent needed for ongoing growth and profitability. Under her leadership, WOMEN Unlimited, Inc. partners with organizations across a wide range of industries to develop high-potential women and to build a pipeline of diverse and talented leaders.