women higher education enrollments – The Leadership Professor

A powerful article in this morning’s New York Times by Catherine Rampell (“Instead of Work, Young Women Head to School”) identifies in interesting shift: for the first time in three decades, there are now more young women in school than in the work force.

The women’s choice is deliberate: a good job can be tough to find in this economy, so take time now to upgrade skills and prepare for a better one down the line. It also stands in sharp contrast to their male counterparts who seem more likely to take the job they can find.

To quote Rampell: “The longer-term consequences, economists say, are that the next generation of women may have a significant advantage over their male counterparts, whose career options are already becoming constrained.”

I salute the young women for their commitment to professional development and their proactive stance toward career self-management.

The knowledge economy requires it – and the world is changing so fast, the only way to prepare for the jobs of the future is with advanced education that cultivates critical skills that will last the test of time like how to learn, how to work well with diverse others, how to manage change, how to be creative and embrace innovation, how to think more deeply and more flexibly, and how to lead from the head or the foot of the table.

Young women, continue your studies! I like what I see.

Young men, reconsider the wisdom of your choice. How can you better prepare for the work world that lies ahead?

In my last post, I suggested we can all become more creative and flexible leaders by anticipating and planning for an increasingly complex future.

I took my own advice and looked ahead five years, identifying major changes that will impact leaders across sectors and industries. My top ten (in no particular order):

1. The mainstreaming of green globally. We’re all getting smarter about what we are doing to ourselves and the planet.

2. Unprecedented consumer empowerment. Everyone is a potential global critic who can generate a groundswell with a few strategic clicks and posts.

3. Increases in mobile technology development and use. Apps and more apps. E-book readers. Smart phones. I-pads. Notebooks. We’ve only just begun.

4. A rise in social media outlets and use. Young people are constant users. Professionals are Linked In. Baby boomers (and everyone from my old hometown, it seems) adores Facebook. Wait until the boomers retire. There’ll be no stopping their capacities to befriend – and they’ll join their children and grandchildren in wanting more.

5. The decentralization of power. The Middle East and Northern Africa offer important national illustrations – and they are not the first nor the last. Ordinary citizens armed with a desire for freedom and justice, cell phones, and access to the internet generated twitter revolutions that dethroned entrenched power (Egypt, Tunisia), put nervous leaders on alert (Jordan, Saudi Arabia), and made scared despots sink to the lowest levels (Libya). Organizational hierarchies, look out.

6. A rise in entrepreneurship. Kauffman Foundation research found new business startups at record levels in 2009 and remaining there today with an average of 565,000 new businesses formed every month in the U.S. The trend involves men and women, older and young, urban and rural, domestic and global, large and small enterprises. New competition is right around the corner.

7. The empowerment of women. Women are the majority in U.S. colleges, universities, graduate, and professional programs – and that trend grows worldwide. They are securing a voice and a vote in places where that has not always been the case. They are creative entrepreneurs with a responsible heart, as micro-financing stats demonstrate. They live – and shop – their values.

8. A new career ethic. Gen X and Y want advancement, learning, and challenge – and will jump ship to get it. Second career folks seek opportunities for contribution and significance. Women look for balance. We’d all better be looking at new ways to retain and train a productive workforce.

9. Shared knowledge and collaborative markets. Open sourcing is no longer only for hipsters and geeks, and crowdsourcing is a viable business model taught at Harvard and MIT. Younger generations like to connect and share all with the world: they’ll want to do business that way, too.

10. The growth in online retail. The stats are rising. Options are multiplying. Even the fearful are dipping a toe in the water. I just bought a travel blazer for my China trip while writing this post!