BofA Female Friendly

Bank of America continues to look for ways to empower women and advance leadership roles.

If you have been in the work force for years at the present time are you prospering or struggling financially? It may come as a surprise but much of your happiness or satisfaction with your present economic station depends upon whether you had good mentors to guide you in the early stages of your financial development.

A mentor is a wise, trusted and experienced teacher that provides effective guidance. For a mentor to truly be effective, they must possess all three of those key characteristics.

In terms of social responsibility, one of the goals of Bank of America is a continued commitment to advancing women leaders and for those of you women reading this article in our competitive wrestling community, that could mean you.

So that Female Competition International (FCI) communicates their ideas as accurately as possible, we have visited their websites at newsroom.bankofamerica.co and about.bankofamerica.com.

One of their goals is explained very simply and clearly. “Through strategic partnerships, investments, and programs, we’re connecting women to the human, social, and financial capital resources they need to maximize their potential. Our efforts are empowering women to enrich their lives, as well as those of their families and communities, and helping create stronger economies worldwide.”

By investing in and empowering women inside and outside the company, Bank of America is creating strong leaders who are contributing to the growth of local economies.

“Our signature initiative, the Global Ambassadors Program, developed in conjunction with Vital Voices Global Partnership and launched in 2012, connects women leaders from emerging countries with senior executives from a range of business sectors, including Bank of America, for one-on-one mentoring,” says Candace Browning, head of Global Research at BofA Merrill Lynch. The program helps women overcome personal, business, civic and other barriers to economic empowerment. “Through mentoring forums held in Haiti, South Africa, India, Singapore, and Brazil, we’ve convened hundreds of women to discuss how women’s leadership can help address economic issues facing their countries,” Browning adds.

“These efforts expand upon our numerous programs aimed at connecting women — both our women clients and women within Bank of America to the tools needed for economic success,” Browning notes.

These include:

Philanthropic investments and leadership development programs.

Socially Innovative Investing, which includes the recently launched (proprietary) investment strategies for clients focused on women’s and girls’ equality.

The Women and Wealth program, which is focused on delivering solutions that meet the unique wealth management needs of women.

Socially responsible private equity investments for clients, focused on women business owners.

The bank’s Supplier Diversity and Development Program, which ensures that the bank seeks products and services from diverse businesses across the organization, including women-owned businesses.

Line of business councils, engagement forums, and an enterprise group focused on women’s professional development: Leadership, Education, Advocacy and Development (LEAD) for Women, provide women at the company with leadership opportunities and skills development.

For more information, go to Bank of America’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) website or U.S. Trust’s women’s website.

An example to follow can be gleaned from the December 10, 2012 article by Julie Fasone Holder written for the Huffington Post.

According to Ms. Holder at her linkedin.com site, she is the CEO and Founder of JFH Insights, Management Advising and a Board Member of Directors at Eastman Chemical Co.

In the article she explains, “In my position as founder and principle of my consulting firm, JFH Insights, and previously as Senior Vice President of Marketing, Sales and Corporate Reputation at the Dow Chemical Company, I understand firsthand the sacrifices women must often make to accomplish what we set out to do.

However, what stands at the center of ensuring that more women reach the highest echelons of leadership in the workplace is one simple act: mentorship. Having strong leaders who helped guide and shape my career has been integral in getting me to where I am today, and it made me realize early on that women can and should strive for the top. While at Dow, I was a founder of the Women’s Innovation Network (WIN), a group of men and women focused on maximizing the professional contributions women make at the company. As a successful business leader, I consider it a top priority and responsibility to mentor the next generation of female leaders.”

Bank of America’s Global Ambassadors Program is founded on the importance and effectiveness of mentorship for businesswomen in the developing world. Approximately one billion women have the potential to enter the global workforce in the next decade, but only if given the opportunity to do so.

Bank of America is committed to mentoring emerging women business leaders because mentoring has been proven to produce significant results for both the mentor and the mentee. Businesswomen often face exclusion from networks and conversations that can open the door to career development and promotions. By connecting regularly with women in leadership positions, emerging women leaders can further their careers and contribute to their local communities and economies.

Finally a perfect example of this plan in motion can be seen here. According to The World Bank, more than 70 million women have joined the workforce in Latin America and the Caribbean region in the last 20 years, and female income has helped alleviate extreme poverty in the region by 30 percent, demonstrating that gender equality is crucial to economic growth. However, there is still substantial room for improvement.

At FCI our hope is to continue to provide our readers in the international female wrestling community with ideas from corporations and female leaders around the globe on avenues that can improve their economic development.

The great benefit of becoming involved in mentor programs is that you don’t have to re-invent the wheel and it allows you to have an ear to helpful conversations and broad ideas that can improve your economic life that previously may have been closed to women.

If FCI is successful, the fully competitive women’s wrestling industry, primarily the freestyle and submission wrestling world is undergoing a cultural shift where all dignified women’s wrestling will co-operate and partner with one another to create an ideal market for corporations to advertise to.

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