Good morning, Broadsheet readers! There is lots of news today, so let’s jump right in.
EVERYONE'S TALKING
• Marissa Mayer on earnings: "We're not satisfied." Yahoo posted its fourth drop in revenue in the past five quarters as digital advertising came up short. The Yahoo CEO also offered some good news, in that the company will keep a larger-than-expected chunk of its stake in post-IPO Alibaba. Holding on to the shares could give Mayer more time to convince investors that she is turning Yahoo around. Fortune
• Janet Yellen and Elizabeth Warren brawl over 'too big to fail.' In testimony before Congress on Tuesday, the Fed Chair said the central bank should use authorities granted by Dodd-Frank to force big banks to become smaller. Yet Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren wants Yellen to exert even more force to combat TBTF. The largest banks are much bigger today than they were before the financial crisis, she said, and Dodd-Frank isn't strong enough to ward off a pending collapse. Fortune
IN THE HEADLINES
• Imperial Tobacco snags up U.S. brands for $7.1 billion. The British multinational led by CEO Alison Cooper is now the third-largest cigarette player in the U.S., after acquiring several brands sold as part of Reynolds American's $27.4 billion deal to buy Lorillard (which was the largest-ever M&A deal led by a female CEO) Reuters
•Apple and IBM "fit nicely together as puzzle." The two companies announced a major partnership to help companies work on wireless devices and create business-specific applications to run on them. Although Apple and IBM have competed fiercely in the past, Apple CEO Tim Cook described the collaboration as a puzzle with "no overlap." IBM CEO Ginni Rometty called Cook's company the “gold standard for consumers." Re/code
• Top GM attorney under fire for silence. Congress isn't buying the story that GM's top lawyer Michael Millikin was kept in the dark about several wrongful-death payouts that pointed to GM's fatal ignition-switch flaw. Millikin claims that settlements didn't need his approval until they reached a level of $5 million. On Thursday, senators will grill him for more details on this claim. CEO Mary Barra will submit testimony as well. WSJ
BROADVIEW
The glass ceiling just got more complicated
Female managers are reluctant to hire or promote other women, according to a growing body of evidence. Experts tend to blame the phenomenon on women seeing their female coworkers as competitive threats, but a new study from the Academy of Management uncovers a different theory.
Female business leaders who advocate for other women are penalized with worse performance ratings, according to the research. Why? Women who take on employee diversity as a focus are viewed as "selfishly advancing the social standing of their own demographic groups," says the paper. Moreover, male colleagues are rewarded for taking on the same cause.
While males in leadership are perceived as warm and inclusive for spearheading diversity initiatives, women are simply viewed as cold and self-serving. The researchers, who collected data on 362 executives earning an average salary of $174,000 a year, believe their findings contribute, at least in part, to corporate America's glass ceiling.
"Ironically, our results suggest that on balance the glass ceiling may actually become stronger, rather than weaker, with a woman leader," according to the report.
There is no silver-bullet solution, but a good place to begin is with self-awareness of biases. Think about the last time you heard a female manager advocate for a female employee lower down the pipeline. Did you say to yourself, "I'll bet she is saying that because she is a woman"? Whether the answer is yes or no, if the dialogue were more open about some of these prejudices, more women likely would end up in management roles.
What has been your experience? Email me at caroline.fairchild@fortune.com with your thoughts.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
• Education is the real way to get more women into tech. At Fortune Brainstorm Tech, a panel including Harvey Mudd’s Maria Klawe, Hearsay Social CEO Clara Shih, and Cisco CEO John Chambers discussed the reality that STEM careers have long been dominated by men. While Klawe discussed the importance of recruiting women into the field at a college levels, Chambers brought up the nation's "broken" early education system as a key factor driving the problem. Fortune
• GOP rep says men need to bring it "down to a woman's level." At a meeting last week for conservative women, Renee Ellmers (R-NC) said, “Men do tend to talk about things on a much higher level." She added, “we need our male colleagues to understand that if you can bring it down to a woman’s level... that’s the way to go." The New York Times titled the post reciting her comments "No Comment Necessary." I couldn't have said it better myself. NYTimes
WHAT I'M READING
IBM exec: Watson has plenty of IQ, not enough EQ
Fortune
Marvel's next superhero will be a woman
The Wire
Kara Swisher is Silicon Valley's most powerful snoop
NYMag
Wales campaign sets goal of 50/50 representation on boards by 2020
Wales Online
When work becomes a haven for stress at home
NPR
Quote
The reason I wanted to do this interview is that I think it is important to try to speak very candidly to young women. The most important advice I would still give — and it may seem crazy because I did lose this job I really loved — you have to be an authentic person. I did cry. That is my authentic first reaction. I don't regret sharing that.
Former Executive Editor of <em>The New York Times </em>Jill Abramson tells <em>Cosmopolitan</em> why she decided to do her first magazine interview since she was ousted.
