{"id":1349,"date":"2025-12-07T10:21:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T10:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=1349"},"modified":"2025-12-07T10:21:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T10:21:24","slug":"kimberly-clark-exec-says-old-bosses-would-compare-her-to-their-daughters-when-she-got-promoted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=1349","title":{"rendered":"Kimberly-Clark exec says old bosses would compare her to their daughters when she got promoted"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Women have their own unique set of challenges in the workforce; the \u201cmotherhood penalty\u201d can set them back $500,000, their C-suite representation is waning, and the gender pay gap has widened again. One senior executive from $36 billion manufacturing giant Kimberly-Clark knows the tribulations all too well\u2014after all, she\u2019s one of few women in the Fortune <\/em>500 who holds the coveted role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

Tamera Fenske is the chief supply chain officer (CSCO) for Kimberly-Clark, who oversees a massive global team of 22,665 employees\u2014around 58% of the global CPG manufacturer\u2019s workforce. She\u2019s in charge of optimizing the company\u2019s entire supply chain, from sourcing raw materials for Kimberly-Clark products including Kleenex and Huggies, to delivering the final product into customers\u2019 shopping carts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a job that\u2019s essential to most top businesses operating at such a massive scale; around 422 of the Fortune <\/em>500 have chief supply chain officers, according to a 2025 Spencer Stuart analysis. However, most of these slots are awarded to white men; only about 18% of executives in this position are women, and 12% come from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds. It\u2019s one of the C-suite roles with the least female representation, right next to chief financial officers, chief operating officers, and CEOs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, Fenske is one of just 76 Fortune 500 female executives who have \u201cchief supply chain officer\u201d on their resumes. However, the executive tells Fortune<\/em> it\u2019s an unfortunate fact she \u201cdoesn\u2019t think about\u201d too often\u2014if anything, it motivates her further.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime someone tells me I can\u2019t do something, it makes me want to work that much harder to prove them wrong,\u201d Fenske says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The first time Fenske noticed she was one of few women in the room<\/h2>\n

Fenske has spent her entire life navigating subjects dominated by men\u2014something she didn\u2019t even consider until college.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her father, aunts, uncles, and grandfather all worked for Dow Chemical, so she grew up in a STEM-heavy household. Naturally, she leaned into math and science as well, eventually pursuing a bachelor\u2019s in environmental chemical engineering at Michigan Technological University. It was there that her eyes first opened to the reality that she was one of few women in the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt definitely was going to Michigan Tech, where I first realized the disparity,\u201d Fenske said, adding that there was around an eight-to-one male-to-female ratio. \u201cAs you continue through the higher levels and the grades, it becomes even more tighter, especially as you get into your specialized engineering.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once joining the world of work, it wasn\u2019t only Fenske who noticed the lack of women in senior roles\u2014some bosses would even point it out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Fortune 500 boss is paying it forward\u2014for both men and women<\/h2>\n

After Fenske graduated from Michigan Tech, she got her start at $91 billion manufacturer 3M: a multinational conglomerate producing everything from pads of Post-It notes to rolls of Scotch tape. Fenske was first hired as an environmental engineer in 2000. Promotion after promotion came, but all people could seem to focus on was her gender.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would come to light when I moved relatively quickly through the ranks. Some of my bosses would say, \u2018You\u2019re the age of my daughter,\u2019 and different things like that. \u2018You\u2019re the first woman that\u2019s had this role at this plant or in this division,\u2019\u201d Fenske recalls. Over the course of 2 decades, she rose through the company\u2019s ranks to the SVP of 3M\u2019s U.S. and Canada manufacturing and supply chain.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And anytime she was asked about her gender? She\u2019d flip the questions back at them while standing her ground. \u201cI would always try to spin it a little bit and ask them questions like, \u2018Okay, so what is your daughter doing?\u2019\u2026I always try to seek to understand where they are coming from, but then also reinforce what brought me to where I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, three years into her current stint as Kimberly-Clark\u2019s CSCO, the 47-year-old is paying it back\u2014but not just to the women following in her footsteps.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never saw myself as necessarily a big, ground-breaker pioneer, even though the statistics would tell you I was,\u201d Fenske says. \u201cI tried to give back to women and men, to be honest. Because I think men [are] one of the strongest advocates for women as well. So I think we have to teach both how to have that equal lens and diverse perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#KimberlyClark #exec #bosses #compare #daughters #promoted<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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