To mark International Women’s Day on March 8, we are highlighting three women leaders who are steering financial, economic and business organizations through unprecedented change.
Disruption once seemed remarkable and required a special response. Data released during the first week of March revealed that disruption has become a constant. A new ISM report caused market jitters over inflation when it showed US manufacturing activity at its highest level since 2018. A strong surprise upside beat in Non Farm Payrolls[1] added to expectations of higher growth and inflation concerns, with the 10yr Treasury yield rising to a new pandemic high. Meanwhile, last week, the European-based International Monetary Fund warned that governments must help companies or deal with a gush of bankruptcies and unemployment that could eliminate 15 million jobs.
With a world focused on finding or protecting jobs for millions, bringing an epidemic under control and market jitters over the possibility of inflation, organizations need leaders who can guide people and markets through volatility[2]. Janet Yellen, Mary Barra and Christine Lagarde are three such women leaders who have been tapped to navigate critical institutions through these remarkable times. They set goals, inspire people and move organizations through disruption. They are innovators—in economics, business and finance—that hold three of the most powerful jobs in the world of money.
Janet Yellen Champions Jobs
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen [3]established her priorities before being named to what could be the most important job in the Biden administration. She pledged to help workers and to battle unemployment. “Without further action, we risk a longer, more painful recession now and long-term scarring of the economy later,” she said at congressional hearings, which led to her confirmation as President Joe Biden’s Treasury Secretary.
Yellen’s confirmation marks two
