(upbeat music) - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

Welcome to a very special program where we feature, talk about, and focus on women business leaders.

And we kick off with our partner and friend, Michele Siekerka, President and CEO of New Jersey Business and Industry Association.

Michele, good to see you.

- Great to see you again, Steve.

- We're taping late in October, but at the end of September, there was the 10th annual NJBIA Women Business Leaders Forum.

What was it?

Why does it matter?

And frankly, why is it everyone's business?

- Well, first of all, it was amazing.

The energy in the room was exhilarating.

We had over 400, you know, women leaders from across the state sharing ideas, opportunities, challenges, lifting each other up, you know, looking how we reach back and bring the next generation forward.

There were a lot of young women in the room who were inspired by the role models that they saw.

It was a great two days.

- And right after Michele, we're gonna have two other women business leaders who were part of that important event, Shell Bobev and Ginny Hill, both important leaders that we need to learn from.

So, Michele, let me ask you this, the whole question of C-suite.

You and I have had many conversations, and BIA, their magazine is a media partner of ours, "New Jersey Business Magazine."

But you and I have had many conversations about women in the C-suite.

You have said that the numbers have dropped of women in the C-suite, A, and B, it is especially concerning for women of color.

Explain this.

- Well, it's true that while we're, you know, we continue to make strides, the strides are slow and steady.

I'd say too slow and not steady enough.

And that's why over the last year, actually, the numbers went down a little bit.

And it's not just the C-suite, it's also the boardroom.

We follow the data on both, and both are equally important.

Why is this important?

Diversity of voice and diversity of thought leadership in these critical areas in the C-suite and the boardroom.

These are where the big decisions are made and we know that the more diverse the thought leadership around those tables are, the better the outcome.

- Well, Michele, in all candor, there has been some blowback around DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion on the part of some.

To what extent do you believe that pushback has hurt, particularly women of color getting into the C-suite as well as those boardrooms?

- Well, I think there's a few factors at play.

I don't want to lose sight of the fact that even though we're four years post COVID, women coming back into the workforce were delayed because of childcare issues.

I'm gonna continue to repeat that 'cause it's still an issue, right?

The accessibility and affordability of childcare continues to be an issue and many women wind up stepping off their career path in order to fill that void.

And we saw that significantly over the past few years.

You know, is this anti DEI movement having an impact?

Might be.

Might be.

But I will say to you, Steve, this is all about having a pool of diverse candidates always at the ready.

So when you have an opportunity to advance someone, be it from a middle level to a high level, from a front level to a middle level, or to a boardroom, right?

Having that diverse pool of qualified candidates when you go swimming usually means you'll come out with a diverse candidate, you know, to be considered for that position.

So you can't take the day you're filling the position to the time to say, "I want to go find diversity," and then go out in the world, and say, "Where are all the diverse people?"

This is a process.

- Go back to childcare.

We've had this conversation with you before as well as with other leaders, our longtime programming trying to create greater public awareness around the childcare crisis.

We've often had people on talk about the economic impact.

Make it clear what the economic impact is of the childcare issue and how it disproportionately affects women.

- Again, when women can't come to work, because they don't have a safe place to put their children, that has an impact on the productivity of our companies.

And we saw that over the last few years.

It goes right to the bottom line.

And we saw the inability to bring those women back to work early in COVID.

And that had a hangover.

That had a tail effect.

Because what also happened during that time is our childcare facilities were struggling and they were challenged.

And therefore, if we don't have enough seats, we don't have enough place to put our children.

- For younger women, and you had 400 women business leaders at this event, Michele, there are video clips on there, right?

- Yes, we videoed all the different breakout sessions.

They're powerful.

Take the opportunity to take a look at them.

They're on YouTube.

- Even if you were not there, you can pick up a lot of important information there for younger women.

I mean, our production team, we have younger women, some with children, some not at this point, do you find that younger women business leaders are looking for anything, want anything different than those who are a bit older?

- Well, they want flexibility and many of them are getting it.

And again, just by nature of the difference in how we are doing work these days, the flexible hybrid work environment is definitely assistive to the next generation.

And I'll be fair, it's women and men.

I do see men stepping in.

But it still defaults to women, you know, 80% to 90% of the time.

- It's interesting how you said that for men and women.

Do you genuinely believe, Michele?

Because you've been at this for a few years, you-- - Ten.

(Michele laughing) And before that, very involved.

And let people know by way of background, your background is in the corporate and government world.

- Well, I'm an attorney by trade, so I started as a young lawyer raising a family.

And then I spent time, you know, in government, outside of government.

I spent time in the corporate world and I did all that while raising my children.

And it's not easy.

- For those who would make the devil's advocate argument, come on, are things really that much different in 2024, going into 2025 as we tape this program?

Are things that much different for women in business versus men?

"Come on, we've made great progress."

You say what to them?

- Well, the environment's changed.

The environment changes.

It's all generational also.

I mean, we're affected by a world.

We're in a totally different environment today relative to everything we do, Steve, you know, economics, political, social, social media, news, all these things drive our behaviors.

We behave as a society in a totally different way than, you know, when I was coming up as a young professional for sure.

- As a student of leadership, and we've done we many programs with Michele around leadership and my fascination with it, one of the questions I'm often fascinated by is, do you believe women in positions of leadership lead in any significantly different way than men?

I still have no idea.

You say?

- I say absolutely.

You know, women tend to be, you know, multi-taskers, right?

Case in point-- - Hold on one second.

Just so everybody knows, we were getting on the air with Michele this morning and she was texting, doing eight different things, and then switch gears.

Do you think that's more of a challenge?

I talk to my wife about this all the time, who's a woman in business, who's a mom, and juggling everything else.

Do you think women have to juggle more than us?

- Yes.

I think just by pure nature, you know, you can go back, you know, historically, the men were focused... Go back to prehistoric time, right?

The men, they were the hunters.

They went up, they went out, they had one focus, one thing to do, go get the dinner and bring it home, right?

And then the woman's home doing the 10 other things that have to get done.

So when the guy comes home with the food, she can cook it, right?

I mean, you know, in some ways that hasn't changed so much.

- Come on, Michele, seriously?

You don't think it's changed?

Okay, you think basically men have a narrower role.

- Agree.

And, you know, line up 10 women and talk to 'em about their life experiences.

This is not a knock on men.

I love men.

I work with men every day.

(Steven laughing) Okay?

Some of my best mentors, Steve, are men, okay?

I've adapted wonderful leadership behaviors from the men I've been surrounded by in my entire family, and I highly respect my husband and the role he played raising our family.

- There's a but coming, Michele.

- But at the end of the day, line up 10 women and talk to 'em about their experience, and you're going to hear that they juggled many more tasks and many more plates in the air than men do on any given day.

- PS, I was purely playing devil's advocate.

My wife was telling me this morning as she was doing 10 different things and going out to run her business, "Do you have any idea how much more challenging "my day is than yours?"

So I just want, on that note, I just want to make sure I don't get in trouble.

Michele, thank you.

And by the way, stay tuned for two more important, compelling interviews with women business leaders who are part of that 10th annual NJBIA Women Business Leaders Forum.

Thank you, my friend.

- Thank you.

You have two amazing women coming up.

Thanks so much, Steve.

- You've got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

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