🔒Boosting Women’s Careers: Post University launches new institute to help women succeed in business

Women continue to face obstacles to success in the business world — from not being paid as much as men to struggling to re-enter the workforce following childbirth.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2020, full-time female workers’ pay was 82 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts.

To help them navigate these and other challenges, Waterbury-based Post University is launching The Institute for Women in Business this summer.

Alisa Hunt, assistant dean of graduate studies at Post’s Malcolm Baldrige School of Business, has been advocating for the creation of the new institute.

Hunt, who has been teaching at the university level since 2007, has a background in business.

Earlier in her career, she worked as a certified public accountant and owned her own practice. She has also owned a restaurant and worked as a chef. She has done public speaking for years, including corporate leadership training, before landing her current role in higher education. She also provides consulting and training for businesses on topics such as accounting, finance and diversity.

Hunt saw the need for the institute and pushed for it, but she is quick to point out that many have been involved.

According to Post University, globally, 60% of business schools in 2020 reported they were receiving more applications from women than in previous years, due to factors such as improved recruiting, expanded programs and class options, and scholarships. According to Hunt, she is seeing more women enrolling in business classes at Post too.

The new institute will work to help women in general with their careers, not just those focused on business studies.

New Haven Biz recently spoke to Hunt about the new institute, what organizers have planned, and how they hope to help women navigate their careers.

How did the idea for the new institute come about?

Women in business — they need advocates. I was reading about a year ago that women are still being paid less than men. I just thought, ‘Really? We haven’t gotten past that yet?’

I looked around and thought, ‘OK, this isn’t right. We need to do something about this. How can we best help?’

The idea was to put together an institute for women in business. We really want to help people go as far as they want to go.

Other than pay, what else will it work to address?

It will help with a number of things. Not the least of which is being an advocate to help women break down barriers. We can lobby for laws and rules that help women in business.

We can help them with the skills gap they might have, so they’ll be successful.

Networking and negotiation tend to be areas that we struggle with, sometimes just because of the way women were raised.

Providing opportunities for women entrepreneurs to pitch ideas — that’s another thing we want to pay attention to.

There is also harassment in the workforce, some women may not be equipped to handle it when it happens — so how do you handle that?

What will the institute involve?

We are putting together a timeline and a schedule of activities. One of the things we will start early on is we are going to be doing monthly luncheons with our students.

We will be bringing in female professionals who can come and share their experiences and network with the ladies, because I think one of the things we are noticing at least at the university level is how many people struggle with face-to-face (interactions).

We want to help people with networking. I am going to call it ‘small talk.’ That is necessary when you are out trying to meet people and learn.

We are also putting in mentorships so we can work with the young ladies to help them achieve their goals and what it is they want to do.

We are looking at doing some events that focus on issues that women have and bringing in speakers who can help raise awareness, advocate for change, and help to figure out how to remove barriers.

What will be the institute’s advocacy role?

One of the other activities is what I am calling the executive work groups.

We want to be able to have — on (the topic of) equal pay, for example — a work group that looks at that and looks at solutions, and talks to legislators and to business owners.

We want a work group that talks about women coming back into the workforce after a break, perhaps after having children. There is a bias against their skills sometimes. I have to admit, I am very ignorant of this — I thought this was all done and people didn’t think like this anymore, but apparently they still do.

How do we help women position themselves, and how do we help get rid of the stigma?

Will the institute offer role-playing? Such as for salary negotiations?

Absolutely. Part of our thing is looking at professional development.

Pay should be based upon your skills and talents. How do you negotiate in these difficult situations? What do you say? And how do you do it in such a way that you are coming across in a positive light?

You have been in meetings and situations where the men will just talk over everything. Women tend to be more polite and take their turn. And so, sometimes the women are perceived as not being smart enough, or not having the knowledge, or whatever.

And when they try to push their way in, they are just ‘bitchy.’ So, how do you project yourself as being assertive, without being aggressive, so you can get things done, and you are looked at as somebody who has something to bring to the table?

Women often apologize for having an opinion. You’ll be in a meeting, someone will say something, and a female will say, ‘I’m sorry, but I think this ….’ Well, why are you sorry? Don’t ask permission to have an opinion, and don’t apologize for having an opinion. But that is something that women very often do. And in a business setting, that will make a perception of you not being as knowledgeable or as strong.

Those are some of the professional development and the role playing things we will work on.

Who will this be open to?

We hope to open this up not only to students on our main campus, but to our larger community of online students as well. And our alumni, and we don’t know where it goes from there. That’s where we are starting.

What is the timeline for starting it?

There is a launch in August we are going to be doing — a launch of a scholarship and the institute.

Post University has a partnership with Mohegan Sun, and the Connecticut Sun (basketball team), and we’re looking to do a scholarship named after (Connecticut Sun President) Jen Rizzotti coming through the Institute for Women in Business.

We will really be kicking off the big part of it once the school year starts up again. That’s when we will be pushing it with our students and pulling together and making that happen.

How many faculty are devoted to it?

At this point, the business school’s female faculty are the ones starting it. There are four of us altogether.

We put together an advisory board that includes people from all over the world. We have tried to make it more global. We have somebody from Switzerland, somebody from Germany, a whole slew of people. We picked alumni, business women, to get their input on what we should do and how we should do it.

We had our first meeting with them a month or so ago, and it was amazing the ideas and feedback they gave us. We are putting this timeline together based on their feedback. This is an absolutely amazing group to kick it off with.

What is the ultimate goal?

We want to encourage and inspire women and young girls to be able to come and make a difference and to claim their space.

I am looking forward to the day when I’m not reading in the paper that women are still only being paid a certain number of cents to the dollar compared to men.