Your native Woman Scout troop might be incubating the subsequent Fortune 500 CEO.
Eight girls leaders of Fortune 500 firms have been as soon as Daisies, Brownies, Juniors, or extra, in line with an evaluation by Fortune workers.
“It’s no shock that so many ladies in management roles have been at one time a Woman Scout,” the Woman Scouts of the USA’s CEO, Bonnie Barczykowski, instructed Fortune when requested concerning the outcomes.
Present Fortune 500 CEOs who’re Woman Scouts alumnae embody Normal Motors’ Mary Barra, Centene’s Sarah London, Oracle’s Safra Catz, Normal Dynamics’ Phebe Novakovic, Tub & Physique Works’ Gina Boswell, Edward Jones Investments’ Penny Pennington, and Graybar Electrical’s Kathleen Mazzarella.
Well-known for his or her seasonal collection of delectable desserts together with Skinny Mints, Trefoils, Tagalongs, and Caramel deLites, the Woman Scouts truly function the most important girl-led entrepreneurial program on the planet, promoting over 200 million containers yearly and producing about $1 billion, in line with Barczykowski.
“It’s a time frame by which they have interaction into the monetary schooling piece and discover ways to promote their cookie enterprise as younger entrepreneurs,” Barczykowski stated.
Many of those CEOs instructed Fortune that the expertise actually mattered for his or her careers.
“Being a Woman Scout gave me a chance to discover new concepts and step outdoors of my consolation zone, which helped me achieve confidence and a perception in my talents,” Mazzarella, who’s helmed Graybar Electrical since 2012, instructed Fortune in an emailed assertion. “The timeless life classes I discovered as a Woman Scout influenced me all through my profession and proceed to form the best way I lead immediately.”
Pennington, who joined Edward Jones in 2000 earlier than turning into managing associate in 2019, spent a number of years as a Woman Scout within the early Nineteen Seventies.
“Brownies and Ladies Scouts left an enduring impression on me—my confidence in studying new issues, the enjoyable of working as a troop, and the dedication of adults who have been guiding us,” Pennington stated in an emailed assertion. “These are values I nonetheless speak about to today and carry ahead in life, a long time later.”
The list additionally extends to former members of Fortune 500 C-suites, like former IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, former Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, and former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg. Different enterprise leaders embody former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, former JCPenny CEO Jill Soltau, and former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer.
The 2023 Fortune 500 rating marked a brand new milestone for feminine leaders, with greater than 10% of America’s largest firms ranked by income being run by girls for the primary time.
The final has shifted previously yr because of latest exits together with Roz Brewer from Walgreens Boots Alliance, Elizabeth Burr from Rite Aid, Julie Sloat from American Electric Power, and Barbara Smith from Commercial Metals. Nonetheless, newcomers within the type of MDU Assets’ Nicole Kivisto, Levi Strauss & Co.’s Michelle Gass, and Chemours’ Denise Dignam have ensured that 52 firms out of the five hundred nonetheless stay led by girls. (And sure, eight out of 52 members coming from the ranks of the Woman Scouts is a better proportion than feminine CEOs on the Fortune 500, 15.3% to 10.4%.)
The 2024 Fortune 500 rating will debut in June. Final yr, the highest 10 firms alone posted $3.7 trillion in revenue, with the whole checklist representing two-thirds of the U.S. GDP.
On my honor
One in each three girls in america was at one time a Woman Scout, in line with Barczykowski, however the chief govt herself was not one in all them.
“There’s all the time a mic drop after I share that I used to be by no means in Woman Scouting,” Barczykowski stated.
Based in 1912 with a mission of instructing younger ladies precious expertise like tenting, group service, and first help, the Woman Scouts of the USA has since grown to over a million lively members and 50 million alumnae.
“Once I meet girls from across the nation, and I ask them about their Woman Scout expertise, whether or not they have been in Woman Scouts one yr, three years, 10 years, or 13, all of them have reminiscences and experiences that they tie again to that had influenced them of their lives,” Barczykowski stated.
The group’s affect stretches throughout the nation with 111 councils, and even outer house. The primary American girl to stroll in house, Kathryn Sullivan, said she prioritized “filling up her sash” with badges as a younger troop member.
The group’s attain additionally extends to politics; the halls of Capitol Hill and the White Home are crammed with former members. In accordance with the Woman Scouts, 56% of girls within the 117th Congress (2021-2022) have been identified to be alums. Plus, each feminine secretary of state in U.S. historical past was a Woman Scout or Woman Information alum, together with Madeleine Albright, Condoleezza Rice, and Hillary Clinton.
“A majority of the ladies astronauts have been at one time Woman Scouts, a majority of our people who’re within the Senate and the Home have been at one time Woman Scouts,” Barczykowski stated.
Hollywood additionally boasts a roster of Woman Scout stars, together with Carrie Fisher, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Reese Witherspoon. Music famous person Taylor Swift served as a Woman Scout in her native Pennsylvania, and notably donated free tickets to her 2018 Fame tour to troops in New Jersey and Connecticut. Much more, the Woman Scouts can depend on precise royalty as former members:s Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, and Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco.
“Once I consider a number of the leaders that lead totally different organizations, each nonprofits and companies and foundations, they have been at one time Woman Scouts,” Barczykowski stated. “Once more, no shock if you hear concerning the expertise that they constructed from after they have been younger that they’ve carried into these superb careers.”
Badges and enterprise
Fortune 500 and International 500 firms have partnered with GSUSA to fund new applications and curriculum for younger ladies–full with themed badges to fill their sashes.
Fannie Mae CEO Priscilla Almodovar instructed Fortune she was a “large fan of badges” as a Woman Scout, and he or she nonetheless remembers her first tenting journey together with her troop.
“Badges made me curious to check out and study new issues, gave me the arrogance that I can construct new expertise and achieve information, and taught me to carry myself accountable,” Almodovar stated in an emailed assertion. “I additionally discovered about teamwork and dealing alongside different ladies.”
GM CEO Mary Barra, a former Brownie, instructed Fortune that being a Woman Scout “exposes ladies and younger girls to new experiences and alternatives they might have by no means imagined,” and helped introduce new STEM-themed badges.
In 2020, her firm announced a $1 million grant to assist the group develop STEM programming and train members concerning the designing, engineering, and manufacturing of automobiles.
“We’re happy with our work with Woman Scouts of the USA to assist launch a sequence of STEM and Automotive badges,” GM CEO Barra stated in an emailed assertion. “We want extra girls in STEM fields and Woman Scouts is an unimaginable group inspiring the innovators of the longer term.”
It’s a sentiment echoed by fellow Fortune 500 boss Gina Boswell, CEO of Tub & Physique Works, whose firm offered some seed funding for a 220-acre immersive STEM and Leadership Campus in Galloway, Ohio.
Boswell instructed Fortune she was “a proud Woman Scout from the time I used to be six years outdated straight by way of my freshman yr of highschool.”
“One of many greatest takeaways from my Woman Scouts expertise was the significance of group, service to others and creating a way of belonging,” Boswell stated in an emailed assertion. “Whenever you turn out to be a Woman Scout, you notice for the primary time that there’s extra to life than simply your particular person self – you notice that you just’re half of a bigger collective.”
But it surely additionally looks like all these cookie gross sales actually taught a enterprise lesson, alongside the best way.