“It took a long time for people to see that Lady Mechanic was not a flash because people saw it like a flash, that it was something that has come and is going to fade away,” Aguebor-Ekperuoh says. “But, right now, we are solid. I have been able to empower about 300 female mechanics in Nigeria.”  Article

The transformation of the traditional office from a paper-handling to an electronic-processing operation will greatly increase the productivity of businesses and eliminate millions of clerical workers by the end of the decade. The nation’s secretaries are among the first casualties of the electronic office revolution. The number of secretaries has steadily declined as personal computers, electronic mail, and fax machines replace manual typewriters, paper files and routine correspondence. Economists Wassily Leontief and Faye Duchin estimate that the conversion from paper-handling to an electronic processing office will save 45 percent of all secretarial time and between 25 percent and 75 percent of all office-related activity. Receptionists are also being reduced in number as new automated computer systems can answer calls, record messages, and even hunt down the party being phoned.  Article

Women are particularly talented as marriage brokers between wealthy wanna be collectors and the artists.  In a world where money wants to brush shoulders with the artists, a gift for entertaining helps.  Donna Charbone, our China editor, called this collection of 50 women to our attention.  Article

Big banks got bailed out and executives took a good chunk of the proceeds.  They do not service the small businesses who are the US economy’s employers.  In Washington, small measures are being taken to bolster them.

The House Financial Services Committee held a hearing with government officials on the community banking industry and what federal regulations could be holding bankers back from growing.

Ahead of the hearing, the National Association of Federal Credit Unions sent a letter to the top-ranking Democrat and Republican on the panel expressing the importance of regulatory relief to the survival of credit unions. Credit unions argue that because they didn’t cause the financial crisis, they “shouldn’t be caught in the crosshairs of regulations aimed at those entities that did,” said Fred Becker, the association’s president and CEO.  Article

Lucie Salhany, the former chairman of Fox Broadcasting Co. and a former director at Compaq Computer Corp. and subsequently Hewlett-Packard, has often been the sole woman in the room at business meetings. She said she thinks the main reason so few women have ascended to the C-suite and boardrooms is because a lot of men prefer other men they know or admire — no matter how many times they hear that diversity leads to better decision- making or that women could help them reach female customers. Article

Yahoo’s CEO has called her troops into the office.  An uproar ensued.  Studies suggest that work gets down outside the office, but if you want a promotion, you have to check in often.  Article