The Gender Agenda: Posts from February 2009

Hello again. And thank you for all the emails I received whilst on my blogi-day, from countries including the US, India, South Africa and Poland – good to know that we’re receiving a global readership to go along with our global approach! I had a fantastic holiday and managed to read a grand total of 15 books whilst I was away. Many of them were standard beach fodder but I also (finally) read “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell, which was every bit as absorbing as I had thought it would be, and also “Q & A” by Vikas Swarup; the latter book may be better known to you as the BAFTA and Oscar ® winning film “Slumdog Millionaire”.

The 2009 World Economic Forum took place in Davos, Switzerland, at the end of January, and we showed an 8 minute edit of our film, “Closing the Gender Gap” to great acclaim. This shorter version of the full film is available to view here on the main website if you’re interested. What caught my eye when I got back home were the number of articles noting the lack of women at Davos, and making the connection between the absence of women in leadership functions at tables such as the WEF and their mirrored absence at the helm of companies in, for example, the banking sector. Nicholas Kristoff wrote a much circulated article called “Mistresses of the Universe” in the New York Times in which he made this very point, noting in particular that:

“Banks around the world desperately want bailouts of billions of dollars, but they also have another need they’re unaware of: women, women and women.

At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, some of the most interesting discussions revolved around whether we would be in the same mess today if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters. The consensus (and this is among the dead white men who parade annually at Davos) is that the optimal bank would have been Lehman Brothers and Sisters.”

It’s worth reading the full article on the link above just to read Mr K’s observation on the similarity between a Wall Street firm’s senior staff meeting and an urologist’s waiting room, by the way …

Next week sees the beginning of two weeks’ worth of global celebrations and events to mark International Women’s Day, which falls this year on Sunday 8th March. Here at PwC in London, we’ll be holding our event on Wednesday 4th March and we’ll be hosting a group of men and women from PwC as well as from our clients. The theme of the event is “Taking Control of Your Destiny” and we’ll be showing what I keep calling the “Davos edit” of CTGG, as well as hearing from Gita Patel, the founder of Stargate Capital Investment Group. Gita brings five years of experience in the women's business and entrepreneurial space, having launched Trapezia - the first vehicle in the UK to invest in women-focused businesses. She calls upon influential women to play their part in redefining the economy in these difficult market conditions and asks if women should be more prepared to step into leading roles. Gita will talk about:

Taking control of our destiny and in the process “making a difference"
Playing a more pivotal role in the aftermath of the current crisis to drive change
Carving a path for other women
An alternative perspective on risk and corporate governance
The business case for capitalising on the difference

I met Gita just before Christmas – she is a really charismatic and much energised woman, so I know that her speech will be fascinating.

Gita’s presentation and the showing of the film will then be followed by a panel discussion in which we’ll be joined by UK partner Pam Jackson, so it promises to be a lively evening. The Glass Hammer is sending along a journalist to cover it, so there’ll be a report up there next week. We are also planning to film the event and make it available as a webcast, so I’ll post a link to that once available, technology permitting.

Finally, please do take a few moments of your time to take this on-line survey, which we have designed in order to mark International Women’s Day. It’s a snap assessment of the first impressions of the impact of the global economic crisis on women's careers and prospects, now and in the future.

We’re asking: will the recession break the glass ceiling or reinforce it? Will it set equality back ten years, or put women on an equal footing as regards caring and pay responsibilities? Have women been more adversely affected by job cuts than men? Or is the recession's potential impact on women all just hype?

Click on this link http://www.i-grasp.com/uq/r.asp?q=12729, 452064450 to take the survey, which will be available until March 10th.

Please give us your thoughts - the survey will take no more than ten minutes to complete, and a report on the results will be made available in the coming weeks here at the Gender Agenda.

Until next time,

Cleo

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