Your native Woman Scout troop could possibly be incubating the subsequent Fortune 500 CEO.
Eight ladies leaders of Fortune 500 corporations have been as soon as Daisies, Brownies, Juniors, or extra, in line with an evaluation by Fortune workers.
“It’s no shock that so many ladies in management roles have been at one time a Woman Scout,” the Woman Scouts of the USA’s CEO, Bonnie Barczykowski, advised Fortune when requested concerning the outcomes.
Present Fortune 500 CEOs who’re Woman Scouts alumnae embody Common Motors’ Mary Barra, Centene’s Sarah London, Oracle’s Safra Catz, Common Dynamics’ Phebe Novakovic, Tub & Physique Works’ Gina Boswell, Edward Jones Investments’ Penny Pennington, and Graybar Electrical’s Kathleen Mazzarella.
Well-known for his or her seasonal number of delectable desserts together with Skinny Mints, Trefoils, Tagalongs, and Caramel deLites, the Woman Scouts truly function the most important girl-led entrepreneurial program on this planet, promoting over 200 million packing containers yearly and producing about $1 billion, in line with Barczykowski.
“It’s a time frame through which they have interaction into the monetary training piece and discover ways to promote their cookie enterprise as younger entrepreneurs,” Barczykowski mentioned.
Many of those CEOs advised Fortune that the expertise actually mattered for his or her careers.
“Being a Woman Scout gave me a chance to discover new concepts and step outdoors of my consolation zone, which helped me acquire confidence and a perception in my talents,” Mazzarella, who’s helmed Graybar Electrical since 2012, advised Fortune in an emailed assertion. “The timeless life classes I realized as a Woman Scout influenced me all through my profession and proceed to form the way in which I lead as we speak.”
Pennington, who joined Edward Jones in 2000 earlier than changing into managing companion in 2019, spent a number of years as a Woman Scout within the early Seventies.
“Brownies and Ladies Scouts left a long-lasting impression on me—my confidence in studying new issues, the enjoyable of working as a troop, and the dedication of adults who have been guiding us,” Pennington mentioned in an emailed assertion. “These are values I nonetheless speak about to this present day and carry ahead in life, a long time later.”
The record additionally extends to former members of Fortune 500 C-suites, like former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, former Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, and former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg. Different enterprise leaders embody former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, former JCPenny CEO Jill Soltau, and former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.
The 2023 Fortune 500 rating marked a brand new milestone for feminine leaders, with greater than 10% of America’s largest corporations ranked by income being run by ladies for the primary time.
The final has shifted previously 12 months as a consequence of current exits together with Roz Brewer from Walgreens Boots Alliance, Elizabeth Burr from Ceremony Assist, Julie Sloat from American Electrical Energy, and Barbara Smith from Business Metals. Nonetheless, newcomers within the type of MDU Sources’ Nicole Kivisto, Levi Strauss & Co.’s Michelle Gass, and Chemours’ Denise Dignam have ensured that 52 corporations out of the five hundred nonetheless stay led by ladies. (And sure, eight out of 52 members coming from the ranks of the Woman Scouts is a better share than feminine CEOs on the Fortune 500, 15.3% to 10.4%.)
The 2024 Fortune 500 rating will debut in June. Final 12 months, the highest 10 corporations alone posted $3.7 trillion in income, with the entire record representing two-thirds of the U.S. GDP.
On my honor
One in each three ladies in the US was at one time a Woman Scout, in line with Barczykowski, however the chief govt herself was not one in all them.
“There’s at all times a mic drop once I share that I used to be by no means in Woman Scouting,” Barczykowski mentioned.
Based in 1912 with a mission of educating younger women useful abilities like tenting, neighborhood service, and first help, the Woman Scouts of the USA has since grown to over a million lively members and 50 million alumnae.
“Once I meet ladies from across the nation, and I ask them about their Woman Scout expertise, whether or not they have been in Woman Scouts one 12 months, three years, 10 years, or 13, all of them have recollections and experiences that they tie again to that had influenced them of their lives,” Barczykowski mentioned.
The group’s affect stretches throughout the nation with 111 councils, and even outer house. The primary American girl to stroll in house, Kathryn Sullivan, mentioned she prioritized “filling up her sash” with badges as a younger troop member.
The group’s attain additionally extends to politics; the halls of Capitol Hill and the White Home are crammed with former members. Based on the Woman Scouts, 56% of ladies within the 117th Congress (2021-2022) have been identified to be alums. Plus, each feminine secretary of state in U.S. historical past was a Woman Scout or Woman Information alum, together with Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, and Hillary Clinton.
“A majority of the ladies astronauts have been at one time Woman Scouts, a majority of our of us who’re within the Senate and the Home have been at one time Woman Scouts,” Barczykowski mentioned.
Hollywood additionally boasts a roster of Woman Scout stars, together with Carrie Fisher, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Reese Witherspoon. Music celebrity Taylor Swift served as a Woman Scout in her native Pennsylvania, and notably donated free tickets to her 2018 Repute tour to troops in New Jersey and Connecticut. Much more, the Woman Scouts can rely on precise royalty as former members:s Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, and Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco.
“Once I consider among the leaders that lead totally different organizations, each nonprofits and companies and foundations, they have been at one time Woman Scouts,” Barczykowski mentioned. “Once more, no shock if you hear concerning the abilities that they constructed from once they have been younger that they’ve carried into these wonderful careers.”
Badges and enterprise
Fortune 500 and International 500 corporations have partnered with GSUSA to fund new packages and curriculum for younger women–full with themed badges to fill their sashes.
Fannie Mae CEO Priscilla Almodovar advised Fortune she was a “massive fan of badges” as a Woman Scout, and she or he nonetheless remembers her first tenting journey together with her troop.
“Badges made me curious to check out and be taught new issues, gave me the boldness that I can construct new abilities and acquire data, and taught me to carry myself accountable,” Almodovar mentioned in an emailed assertion. “I additionally realized about teamwork and dealing alongside different women.”
Priscilla Almodovar
GM CEO Mary Barra, a former Brownie, advised Fortune that being a Woman Scout “exposes women and younger ladies to new experiences and alternatives they could have by no means imagined,” and helped introduce new STEM-themed badges.
In 2020, her firm introduced a $1 million grant to assist the group develop STEM programming and educate members concerning the designing, engineering, and manufacturing of automobiles.
“We’re pleased with our work with Woman Scouts of the USA to assist launch a sequence of STEM and Automotive badges,” GM CEO Barra mentioned in an emailed assertion. “We want extra ladies in STEM fields and Woman Scouts is an unimaginable group inspiring the innovators of the longer term.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by fellow Fortune 500 boss Gina Boswell, CEO of Tub & Physique Works, whose firm offered some seed funding for a 220-acre immersive STEM and Management Campus in Galloway, Ohio.
Boswell advised Fortune she was “a proud Woman Scout from the time I used to be six years previous straight by my freshman 12 months of highschool.”
“One of many greatest takeaways from my Woman Scouts expertise was the significance of neighborhood, service to others and creating a way of belonging,” Boswell mentioned in an emailed assertion. “If you turn out to be a Woman Scout, you understand for the primary time that there’s extra to life than simply your particular person self – you understand that you simply’re half of a bigger collective.”
But it surely additionally looks as if all these cookie gross sales actually taught a enterprise lesson, alongside the way in which.
