History
Our Founding at the Beginning of the Modern U.S. Women’s Movement
1962
Felice N. Schwartz founds Catalyst to help women enter the workforce. Five college presidents (from Lawrence, Mills, Sarah Lawrence, Smith, and Wellesley) endorse the idea of an organization that works to expand options for women and meet as Catalyst’s first board of directors. The following year Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique, legitimizing the frustration of women who are confined to homemaking and want an opportunity to do something more with their lives.
1964
As women gain equal employment opportunity through the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which “prohibits discrimination by employers, employment agencies, and labor organizations on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin,” Catalyst on Campus convenes 62 educators to explore ways in which undergraduate women can "plan more effectively for the successive phases of their lives."
1969
Three years after the founding of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in the United States, Catalyst’s first national survey probes the attitudes of employers at the nation’s top 1,000 companies toward hiring women for part-time management positions. The survey reveals that more than one-half of the 1,000 respondents are willing to do so.
1971
One year after 50,000 people marched on New York City’s Fifth Avenue for the first annual Women’s Strike for Equality and to mark the 50th anniversary of women’s suffrage, Catalyst establishes the National Network of Career Resource Centers. Catalyst refers women to the 83 autonomous career centers for career counseling and job placement. In addition, Catalyst creates the National Job Roster, a monthly, computerized directory linking individuals from 40 career fields to potential employers.
1974
Recognizing a need for data, Catalyst begins to build its library, an unparalleled collection of publications on women and work. In 1986, the library will become the Catalyst Information Center, serving as a resource for corporate policy makers, scholars, and journalists.
Time to Fix the Companies, Not the Women
1975
Catalyst shifts its focus and begins working with corporations and professional firms to advance women. Catalyst realizes that, while women have broken into the corporate world and attained the education and skills necessary to advance, most still hold jobs on the lowest rungs of the corporate ladder.
1977
Catalyst starts the Corporate Board Placement service to help companies identify qualified women for boards of directors. Today, Catalyst’s database of more than 2,500 women enables the organization to identify candidates who can make a substantial business contribution to a company’s board. Catalyst has worked with more than 250 companies since the service began.
1980
Catalyst establishes the Career and Family Center with the goal of helping companies develop new policies to meet women’s family needs.
1984
Catalyst identifies 50 corporate women’s groups across the country in order to learn how successful groups operate and, subsequently, to help them become more effective resources to management. Catalyst continues to do significant work with women’s networks in corporations.
Our Goals Reflected in the Catalyst Award
1987
Catalyst begins honoring innovative approaches with proven results taken by organizations to address the recruitment, development, and advancement of all managerial women, including women of color. Since 1987, 66 initiatives have been honored at the annual Catalyst Awards Dinner.
Catalyst establishes the Center for Career and Leadership Development to explore and address the dynamics of women’s leadership development. Highlights include roundtable discussions exploring the dynamics of career advancement, publications profiling women business leaders, gender awareness training for male managers, and leadership training for women.
1993
Sheila W. Wellington becomes President of Catalyst.
1995
Catalyst establishes the first of its national benchmarks of women’s progress to the highest levels of corporate leadership with the Catalyst Census of Women Board Directors and the Catalyst Census of Women Corporate Officers and Top Earners.
1996
Catalyst conducts Women in Corporate Leadership: Progress and Prospects, a survey of women and CEOs in Fortune 1000 companies that examined success factors employed by women and the perceived barriers to their advancement. The study is later replicated in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Europe.
1999
Catalyst releases Women of Color in Corporate Management: Opportunities and Barriers, a groundbreaking study that looked at the perceptions and experiences of African-American, Asian-American, and Latina women managers in corporate America.
Global Reach, Regional Relevance
2000
Catalyst responds to the interest in its work in Canada by launching an office based in Toronto.
2001
Reaching new industries and new geographies, Catalyst launches the Western Region office in San Jose, California.
2002
Catalyst partners with The Conference Board of Europe to research women in European business. The research is released at a successful conference in Berlin. Subsequent conferences are held in Barcelona and Dublin.
2003
Ilene H. Lang assumes the Catalyst presidency.
2004
At the beginning of the year, Catalyst releases The Bottom Line: Connecting Corporate Performance and Gender Diversity, a study that found that companies with the highest representation of women in their top management teams financially outperformed companies with the lowest representation of women. Shortly after, Catalyst launches Women and Men in U.S. Corporate Leadership: Same Workplace, Different Realities? revealing that 55 percent of women and 57 percent of men aspire to the CEO job.
2005
In October, Catalyst releases Women “Take Care,” Men “Take Charge:” Stereotyping of U.S. Business Leaders Exposed, a study that found that both women and men senior executives perceive sharp gender differences in women’s and men’s leadership skills. In November, Catalyst hosts its first CEO Summit to eradicate barriers to women’s advancement and create concrete action plans to accomplish that goal. More than 80 executives from Fortune 1000 companies attended, including 29 CEOs.
2006
Catalyst opens its first European office, in Zug, Switzerland, coinciding with the release of Different Cultures, Similar Perceptions: Stereotyping of Western European Business Leaders, a report that found striking cross-cultural similarities in the ways senior managers stereotype women's and men's leadership capabilities.
2007
Catalyst publishes the Catalyst 20th Anniversary Awards Compendium, which details the 64 cutting-edge strategic initiatives for advancing women that have been honored with the Catalyst Award since 1987.
2008
Catalyst redesigns and launches a restructured www.catalyst.org to address the needs of women and business in the 21st century.