From our 2006 Census

Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is one of the greatest orchestras in the world. The CSO performs well over one hundred concerts each year in Chicago and serves as its city's ambassador with frequent sold out national and international tour performances. CSO recordings have been awarded 58 Grammy Awards, more than any other orchestra in the world.

What do you see as the biggest challenge to increasing the number of women on boards and in senior management and helping them succeed? What additional barriers exist for women of color?

Having opportunities to network and provide support and feedback to one another is really important if women are to be successful. There's an increasing need for this as more women come into the workplace and rise into top management. If you're a lone voice, it's difficult. You need to have courage and seek people who will support you when you stumble - that's true across the board for men and women - because we all stumble. It goes back to the issues of mentoring, support and leadership.

I'm fortunate because in my field, there have been many opportunities for women in senior positions. As more women sought opportunities, they were given them, with the right kind of positioning and support from their boards and their communities. When I came to the CSO, I had a board member tell me that we needed to worry about the issue of diversity because we have so many women here! Women do struggle with work life balance, different demands on our time, as well as the emotional roles in which we find ourselves. As the chief executive, I don't always have control over the pace of my life and the demands placed on me, but I have more say over certain aspects. I've been lucky enough to use that flexibility to the best advantage for myself in my personal and professional lives, but these types of problems will always exist for women.

I think that women of color need networks, as all women do, and peers who can support them. Organizations that provide professional support are becoming more commonplace but this needs to continue to grow.

What personal experience has taught you the value of having women among a senior leadership group? How about the value of diversity generally?

For me, it's about having a variety of people with their own unique perspectives and different voices around the table, and contributing with my own perspective on things. I've been fortunate that I've had the opportunity to work with board members and colleagues who've eagerly sought diversity in the workplace. I don't mean to generalize, but I do think with women there's frequently a greater willingness to listen and engage in more thoughtful decision-making. When you have a diverse group of people in the room - whether gender, age, experience or race - you likely have to work a bit harder to understand the others' backgrounds and perspectives. But once you've invested the time, you get a richness in dialogue, in project development, in imagining the future, that's invaluable. My senior management team in Seattle was eight people with one man and I have a similar and very healthy team of women and men here in Chicago. It is always the diversity of the people in the dialogue or "around the table" that makes one's work especially strong.

What single strategy have you found to be most successful in advancing women to senior roles and tapping their contribution?

I value and encourage hard work, integrity and creativity. If you can be relied on to do the job and be persistent in pursuing it, people always want somebody who can get the job done in an effective way. Programs for training and skill development to help develop individuals are great, but individuals must, in the end, earn and sustain their success. A program to develop young female athletes is wonderful, but you still have to run the race.