Attendance at the 2024 Women in Business Conference quadrupled from its intimate inaugural gathering in 2023, drawing students, alumnae, and faculty for a celebration of women in business. The all-day conference, hosted by the MBA program at the BYU Marriott School of Business, honored women’s unique contributions to the workplace, discussed some of the challenges they face, offered professional growth strategies, and ended with a keynote address about focusing on what matters most.
Woven throughout the conference was an emphasis on the distinctive skill set that women bring to the workforce. McKenzie Rees, assistant professor of organizational behavior and human resources at BYU Marriott, researches organizational ethics and women’s experiences in the workforce. She believes that women have professional “superpowers,” which include fostering humility and communality in the workplace. Rees cited recent research that found that women become far more effective negotiators when they negotiate for others, rather than themselves. This increase in performance, Rees said, is evidence of women’s communal nature. “We [as women] bring people into the fold,” she explained. “We want them to join us, and we want to use our success to celebrate the success of others.”
Liz Dixon, associate professor at the Romney Institute of Public Service and Ethics, emphasized that it is precisely because of women’s unique contributions that they must speak up in the workplace. Dixon urged women to be courageous and share their insights, trusting that God will magnify their efforts to be vocal, well-spoken contributors in their spheres of influence. “Be universal advocates for the people on your team,” she encouraged.
Presenters also touched on barriers that women face in their professional development—such as the tendency to underestimate or underrepresent their abilities—and strategies to overcome them. Heather Nemelka, founder and CEO of Elavare, a company that helps mothers reenter the workforce, said that women must learn to be confident enough to proactively seek advancement opportunities. “Self advocacy is a journey,” she stressed. “It’s not something that you do once and you’re awesome at it. You build those muscles.” Nemelka recommended that attendees get started by creating a career development plan, gathering and saving data to demonstrate their accomplishments (both to themselves and employers), and using more assertive language.
Imposter syndrome was addressed by Jeff Bednar, associate professor of organizational behavior and human resources. “Recent results of a meta-analysis about the impostor phenomenon show that on average, women are more likely than men to experience the impostor phenomenon” he explained. Bednar shared both triggers and solutions to imposter syndrome, including correctly labeling and acknowledging imposter syndrome as a common experience as well as finding mentorship from someone outside of any sensitive situation.
Laura Cook, a BYU Marriott EMBA graduate who attended the conference for the first time, said of her experience, “I really liked the opportunity to connect with other professional women,” noting that she was able to reach out and receive mentorship from other attendees during the event.
The conference concluded with a keynote message from Sarah Davis, president and chief commercial officer of re-commerce company Fashionphile. Davis shared her journey of creating the business, which she started as a young law school student listing secondhand items online for resale. Fashionphile grew into a hundred-million-dollar company after Davis found a niche in the used handbag market.
Sharing some of the lessons she learned along the way, Davis encouraged attendees to leverage their interests to create opportunities, to get started instead of waiting for things to be perfect, and to focus on long-term priorities like faith and family to find true satisfaction in life. “We know what the purpose and the meaning of life is,” she shared. “As we keep God as part of our plan and put first things first, we can have all of those [meaningful relationships and a strong career] when the timing is right.”
While the conference had three goals (foster community, inspire professional growth, and connect business women), Val Fulton, an MBA student serving on the event’s planning committee, particularly valued the event’s efforts to build a community. Seeing other women navigate similar decisions about balancing family, faith, and a career has encouraged her. “We need to hear these stories of women, and I wanted to help create as much of that connection as possible,” Fulton said.
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Written by Katie Brimhall