Good morning, Broadsheet readers. Two big tech companies are now giving female employees more family-planning options, and Hillary Clinton speaks out on the value of making friends with the enemy. Read on to hear how The Donald’s daughter — Ivanka Trump — is rethinking traditional workplace culture.
EVERYONE'S TALKING
•Facebook, Apple to pay for women to freeze their eggs. The tech giants will now cover up to $20,000 in costs for female employees to freeze their eggs and extend their fertility. The move will allow women to be more flexible in choosing when they want to have children, and also could help the employers compete for top talent. My gut says this is a good move, but with every round of egg harvesting costing roughly $10,000, the initial coverage may not always be enough. Fortune
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
•Mary Erdoes's record quarter. The CEO of JP Morgan Asset Management announced her 22nd consecutive quarter of long-term inflows, record net income and strong margins. At Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit last week, Erdoes shared her view that you must think to the future when it comes to investing in conflict areas. “We have to be the ones who stop the short-term noise,” she said. “Should I be in Latin America 10 years from now? Absolutely.” Fortune
•Hillary Clinton: Build relationships with political opponents. “Our society is far less racist, sexist and homophobic,” said Clinton at Salesforce.com’s Dreamforce conference on Tuesday. “We are far more tolerant than we used to be. But what we will not do is communicate and build relationships with people who disagree with us politically.” Speaking of political battles, the former Secretary of State remained mum on her plans for 2016: “I don’t want to make any news today.” Fortune
•The 'heiress effect' in finance. A persistent gender gap still exists on many levels within the finance industry, even though both Fidelity Investments and Banco Santander recently elevated women to the top spot. Maybe that's because both of them -- Abby Johnson at Fidelity and Ana Botín at Santander -- were in position to succeed their fathers. “There’s little evidence that we have reached a turning point just yet,” a source told Bloomberg. Bloomberg
•Power politics in Putin's Russia. Are Vladimir Putin's actions rooted in a past humiliation? That was one theory put forth by a pair of top Russia experts during this week’s episode of the iTunes podcast Smart Women/Smart Power hosted by Fortune's Nina Easton. Click over to listen. Smart Women/Smart Power
•Nancy Snyderman is 'deeply sorry.' NBC News's top doc was spotted outside a New Jersey restaurant while under a quarantine stemming from one of her team members contracting Ebola in Liberia. "We remain healthy and our temperatures are normal. As a health professional I know that we have no symptoms and pose no risk to the public, but I am deeply sorry for the concerns this episode caused," she said. NY Daily News
•MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Dao Nguyen, the former head of data and growth at Buzzfeed, is now the viral news site's publisher.
BROADVIEW
Ivanka Trump's workplace revolution
Ivanka Trump, a 32-year-old real estate exec turned fashion entrepreneur, is trying to reset the expectations employers have of female leaders – and she is starting with her own company.
“Life isn’t nine-to-five anymore,” says Trump, who is No. 33 on Fortune’s new 40 Under 40 list. “It is important to cultivate and create an environment that is conducive to multidimensional women who have families and lives outside of the office and who are working 24 hours a day because they are bringing their work home with them."
In 2010, Trump launched her own company, Ivanka Trump Apparel and Accessories, with a footwear line. Since then, it has expanded into 11 different product lines sold in such chains as Nordstrom, Macy’s and Bloomindale’s. As Trump has built out the company -- and hired a small group of employees -- she has kept an eye on how the corporate culture supports women like herself who are juggling young kids at home. On top of running her own clothing company, Trump also is executive vice president of development and acquisitions for her father's real estate empire.
To start, Trump does not have a formal vacation or paid sick day policy for her apparel company's employees. She focuses on hiring people who would never dream of abusing this policy and use their time off so they can perform at their best for the firm. Trump, the mother of three-year-old Arabella and one-year-old Joseph, set up a “kid corner” in her office for employees who need to bring their children to work from time to time.
Trump also empowers her employees to set their own schedules so they can train for a marathon in the morning, walk their kids to school or pick them up after. Rather than build a “butts in seats” culture, Trump believes that face-time in the office is hardly applicable anymore in our highly connected work. Everything can be measured, says Trump, so as long as you are performing, you can excel at her firm, she says.
“I don’t penalize highly-efficient people because they got what they need to get done and leave to go on a date with their husbands,” says Trump.
Click over to Fortune.com to read my full story.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
•Women prefer male bosses. Americans still like having a male boss more than a female one, and women are more likely than are men to prefer the other gender as a manager, according to a Gallup poll. In case you thought things couldn't get worse: The percentage of women who would prefer a female boss has never surpassed 30%. Fortune
•The mythical pay equity crisis?Gerald Skoning, a labor and employment lawyer in Chicago, writes that there already is a law mandating equal pay for women, so Democrats should stop using it as a campaign issue. My response is simple: Just because there is a law on the books doesn't mean it is followed. WSJ
•Norway takes gender gap one step further. A new law will require female Norwegians between the ages of 19 to 44 to join men in 19 months of mandatory military duty. Women make up less than 13% of the Norwegian Armed Forces. Bloomberg
•What employers should do about domestic violence. Domestic violence costs the U.S. more than $8 billion a year in lost productivity and social services as well as an endless amount of emotional damage. By implementing clear policies and procedures, training employees and giving them access to counselors, employers can go a long way toward preventing future cases within their firms. Fortune
ON MY RADAR
Pattie Sellers: I never asked for a raise, and it paid off. Fortune
Sallie Krawcheck: "I knew I would get fired" Fast Company
HBR: The world's 100 best-performing CEOs HBR
Hey CEOs: Hire women if you want to boost revenueCNBC
How one casting director made television more diverse Fast Company
Do women really like 'female empowerment' ads? Time
QUOTE
I believe in doing what scares you, and I believe that the greatest gift you are given is curiosity. And I started my career — before the professional part of my career — on the creative side, and that has been something that drove me into television. It was really my love of theater that drove me into television... And I had had a few conversations with people over the years about directing, and it is something that I have always felt very drawn to, but what I am going to do as of January 31st next year is take the plunge, apply to some directing workshops, and pursue the creative side. If not now, when?”
Anne Sweeney, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney/ABC television group, on stepping down next year.
