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She Who Leads
Our annual salute to women in leadership
Comstock’s presents our annual salute to female leaders, celebrating six extraordinary women of influence from throughout the Capital Region who are redefining leadership on their own terms.
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A Spinster’s Guide to Professional Parenthood
The intersection of parenthood, motherhood particularly, and the workplace is not a space without landmines. Next time you’re at a party, ask who has it tougher — then, run.
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Women Can’t Let A Desire to Please Inhibit Our Ability to Lead
Women’s desire to please can inhibit their ability to take charge. That is one of the many factors that contribute to women comprising more than half of the American workforce, yet only a small fraction of executives.
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Buzzwords: Empower
To make someone stronger and more confident; to give (someone) the authority or power to do something.
The word is overused, and overuse leads to misuse. (Misuse leads to annoyance, and then we’re at a place where no one even understands or cares what you mean.)
But “empower” is not just another piece of jargon to be casually tossed around:
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Dilemma of the Month: Job Title Woes
I am an inside sales representative for a medical device company. I work hard to build relationships over the phone to sell and consult on products. When I was hired, the president specifically told me this was not a telemarketing job. Recently, I caught the president introducing our team as “the telemarketers.” Is this a sign I should go back to school asap or find another job?
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Don’t Let Groupthink Rule Your Workplace
The best leaders encourage their team members to challenge questionable ideas and assumptions
Groupthink is all too common when people work together in a brainstorming or planning session. This phenomenon can veer a team or company off course, or it can result in people stereotyping others, including their colleagues — neither is good for a company.
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On the Record
Sacramento Bee Executive Editor Joyce Terhaar on how newspapers are adapting to modern times
Over the last few decades, the newspaper industry has endured some of the most challenging times in its long history. We sat down with Sacramento Bee Executive Editor Joyce Terhaar to talk about revenues, technology and reporting in the modern age.
![Teresa Psuty brews beer during the Pink Boots Society Sacramento Chapter’s brew day in March.](https://www.comstocksmag.com/sites/main/files/imagecache/tile/main-images/0517_dept_taste_lead_joancusick.jpg?1577874530)
A Sisterhood of Beer
Sacramento’s chapter of Pink Boots Society aims to give women in the brewing industry a place to call their own
Historically, the beer game has been just for men: Commercials for big brands have often shown guys clinking bottles together around a grill, or fly fishing while someone pulls a cold can out of the ice chest. The message was clear: Beer is manly, and you are made masculine by drinking it.
But, more recently, we are seeing females incorporated into this picture.
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Birth Control
Even with advanced family planning methods more readily available, working moms still struggle to have it all
While reproductive technologies have given women and families more control and additional tools, having it all still seems a far leap. Treatments are expensive (most insurance plans won’t cover much), time-consuming and not always effective. Meanwhile, workplace politics have been slow to shift and accommodate a growing number of working moms.
![Kandace Mulvaney, a Sacramento-based real estate broker, has noticed an uptick in female homebuyers in the past year.](https://www.comstocksmag.com/sites/main/files/imagecache/tile/main-images/0517_feat_rre_kenjames_lead.jpg?1577874530)
Home Makers
A woman’s place in the home is as the buyer, seller — and everything in between
With the increase in female representation across the homebuilding and homebuying spectrums, the building and real estate industries have an opportunity to target this growing market, which could shift the way homes are designed, built and sold.
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A New Role Call
How two state institutions of higher education came to lead the way in gender parity
In the last 50 years, higher education’s customer base has become decidedly more female. In 1967, 40 percent of college students were women. By 2014, it was 56 percent. The U.S. Department of Education projects that will climb to 59 percent by 2025.
But the people responsible for delivering those educations are still overwhelmingly male.
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An Open Book
The open-source movement has taken on patient health — and one local woman is in the vanguard
In the Sacramento region, at least one major medical provider is already on the same page with the benefits of OpenNotes. Across the country, an estimated 13 million patients can now access their notes. This open-source movement, proponents say, represents a shift away from a paternalistic model of medical care and toward a model of fully-engaged and informed patients. And that, they argue, is better for everyone.
![Placer SPCA Behavior Department Coordinator Meghan Oliver, left, presents a terrier named Brooks to a toddler doll, held by Animal Care Technician Aleah Valenzano, to gauge his initial reaction.](https://www.comstocksmag.com/sites/main/files/imagecache/tile/main-images/0517_dept_snap_lead_kj.jpg?1577874530)
Well-Behaved
Placer SPCA Behavior Department Coordinator Meghan Oliver conducts an assessment of every dog and cat that enters the Roseville shelter to ensure they are safe around other animals, children and the general public. Each assessment takes about 10 minutes and includes monitoring how the dog socializes, handles tolerance (Oliver holds the animal’s collar, picks up feet, opens the mouth), plays with toys and reacts to the removal of food.