The Boss: A Woman Among Men

WOMEN had limited opportunities when I was growing up, but I didn’t realize it. My parents made no distinction in their expectations for my brother, my sister and me.

PEARL MEYER

Senior managing director, Steven Hall & Partners

HOMETOWN Manhattan

HOBBY Golf

FAVORITE MOVIE “Something’s Gotta Give” (2003)

I was a math major at New York University and well on my way to a Ph.D. in economics and statistics when a fellow student and I decided to get married. I had met my future husband in Accounting 101 in my undergraduate program. He was about a year behind me in school because of his army service, so I needed a job nearby while he finished school.

I interviewed at what was then General Foods in White Plains and was offered a position as a statistical specialist in the executive compensation ision. We analyzed the relationship between executive responsibilities, pay and performance. We also compared executive compensation with that of competitive firms.

At one point my group brought the resulting issues to the board, which thanked us profusely and then hired a consulting firm to work on the …

Read the original article at NYTimes

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