Catalyst taps Silicon Valley vet as new CEO in #Metoo era

A former Silicon Valley CEO is taking the helm of a prominent organization dedicated to the promotion of women in the workplace, saying the #Metoo era is a “fantastic time” to champion gender equality.

Lorraine Hariton becomes CEO of the group Catalyst at time when sexual misconduct scandals are ensnaring corporate executives, and the departure of Pepsico’s CEO highlighted the tiny number of women leading Fortune 500 companies.

But Hariton, whose appointment was announced last Monday, said the #Metoo movement has pushed the spotlight on gender equality like nothing she has seen since she began her career in the late 1970s.

“I felt the timing was really fantastic,” Hariton said. “Not only are women in the workplace on the front page, there is a major shift in attitude that allows us to chart the future of the next generation.”

Hariton previously served as the CEO of two tech startups, Beatnik and Apptera. She served in the State Department under former U.S. president Barack Obama, and most recently as a senior vice-president at the New York Academy of Sciences.

Catalyst, a research and advocacy institution based in New York City, was founded in 1962 by the late Felice Schwartz, who became known for a controversial 1989 Harvard Business Review article that proposed flexible career paths for working mothers. Other feminists criticized the piece, which gave rise to the term “Mommy Track,” although Schwartz herself did not use those words.

It has since spread to much of the developed world, including in Canada in 2000.

Since it began, support has risen for policies designed to encourage both parents to remain in the workforce through policies that allow flexible hours and extended family leave.