Can women lead America's businesses?

Six corporate consultants and one Princeton student say "Yes!" ?

A new leadership development program for women in business was announced today. Six former corporate managers and consultants to Fortune 500 companies and one student from Princeton came together to form one of the most dynamic new development programs for women in business available on the market today.

Womencorp, an international women's leadership training company, was developed as a solution to the problem many companies are experiencing in attracting and retaining top talent.

"Considering that 50% of the talent pool is made up of women and women are leaving at twice the rate of men, something has to be done to help companies keep their women leaders." ? Says Roxanne Batson, founder of Womencorp.

The concept of an experiential training program for women was developed after these consultants and entrepreneurs noted how many large corporations were suffering continual outflow of their women managers.

"Our goal was to develop a way to help companies retain talented individuals by addressing the specific training needs that would develop women in management to their highest potential" ? said Batson.

The venture began with a survey (see it at http://www.womencorp.org) conducted by Womencorp, that asked both men and women managers why they felt that less than 20% of top management in companies are women. While the answers and comments varied, the consensus was "lack of flexibility" ?.

It has long been debated that women, often the primary caregivers in their family, have the ability and desire to work 50-60 hours per week and give their complete attention to the company. Therefore, it's been said that it is difficult for such women to compete with men who focus more time and energy on their job.

Yet, in society today, many women are not only the primary caregivers, but also the sole provider within their family. In addition, many possess talents that are highly valuable to the company. For successful companies to stay on top and retain their talent, it will continue to be important to open the doors for women to achieve top management positions.

There is another issue that surfaced in the survey. It seems that while many women (52.4%) believe that women in management are not as confident as male peers, men felt differently (only 17.9% chose "lack of confidence" ? as an issue).

"Confidence usually comes from knowledge, but can be undermined when there is a lack of support for the way women view things," ? said Ms. Batson. "A woman who have achieved a high position in her company is often a lone female voice among many male voices so there isn't much support. At the same time, few women are in line management jobs where they are able to gain experience necessary to manage to the bottom line. Yet, this is exactly the type experience that most companies look for in its top tier managers. This is where we believe we can make a difference." ?

Womencorp offers development workshops for mindset and confidence building combined with experiential training to teach women in management all aspects of running highly profitable businesses including P&L, revenue generation and leadership.