Happy ‘Gender Bilingual’ Day
Time to rename the day? Avivah Wittenberg-Cox’s new blog at Diversity Executive magazine questions our frames.
Globalization has led companies to grow managers who are multicultural and multilingual. They have invested millions in learning the culture and language of the Chinese, Indians and Brazilians. An increasing share of most corporate revenues now stem from these countries.But how much have companies spent learning the language and culture of women? Women?s global income is rising fast and is set to hit some $14 trillion by 2014. That is more than the total GDP of India and China combined. There is a huge business benefit for companies to equip their managers to become fully ?gender bilingual? (i.e., fluently understanding both men and women and the differences between them.)
More..
The Surprising Natural Resources Sector
Natural resources is not a sector that people automatically associate with gender balance. In fact, most people assume that oil, mining and mineral companies would be ‘naturally’ male dominated. And so it is. Half of the 24 companies in our 2012 Gender Balance Scorecard, Focus on Natural Resources survey have not a single woman on their Executive Committees. But is that really the sector, have women really simply written it off in disinterest? A few companies have proven that it is far from an absolute truth. Three companies stand out: Marathon Oil (33%), Rio Tinto and Repsol with 25% of their ExCom members being women. While Anglo-American is led by Cynthia Carroll (and her all male ExCom). So it isn’t the sector that defines the outcome. More…
Harvard Business Review Blog
Industry Knows No gender
People are always asking us which sectors are more gender balanced than others. The reality is that it isn’t the sector, or the country, or the size of company that counts. It just boils down to leadership. If leaders care, it happens, if they aren’t committed, it doesn’t. And the oil and mining industry prove it. More…
Corporate Leadership Is Still About The Boys
Avivah Wittenberg-Cox’s blog at HBR this week sums up where both sides stand in the gender debate: “It’s a question of meritocracy”. We couldn’t (dis)agree more. More…
20-first Press Review
UK: The Business Case is “Overwhelming” says PM
UK Prime Minister David Cameron spoke about the need for more female executives and entrepreneurs to boost the U.K.?s economy.He said “The case is overwhelming that companies are run better if we have men and women alongside each other.? More…
QUOTAS: Revisited 1 Year After Lord Davies’ Report
A year has passed since Lord Davies?s report shook up UK companies by setting gender targets for them, so talk of quotas is in the air once again. In a Financial Times article, Andrew Hill explains that the focus on quotas distracts from the problem of there being so few women at the executive level. Hill suggests that executives need to understand that more women in higher places means better business. More…
… QUOTAS: Ireland Also Considering Them
Speculation that a better male-female mix among the powerful of Ireland might have helped save the country from its economic implosion has led to the introduction of new legislation that will require all political parties to have 30% female candidates in the next general election, raising the quota to 40% seven years later. More…
… And more QUOTAS: now its the European Union As Well
Commissioner Reding has long threatened quotas on corporate boards if companies did not improve their own gender balance.Given the paltry progress being made in Europe, sounds like the EU will be swinging into action. This may take some time, but it will continue to heat up the pressure… smart companies have already been balancing, and more than just their boards. More…
In the US, the 50 most Gender Balanced Companies …
The National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) has released its 2012 list of Top 50 Companies for Executive Women. Each year NAFE accepts applications from for-profit companies that have at least two women serving on their boards of directors and at least 500 United States employees. More…
Balance is Healthy for Companies, even Facebook…
In a Reuters blog, Marcus Venture Consulting CEO Lucy P. Marcus discusses how companies like Facebook (which has a small board with no women) need to consider more gender balance if they want to remain healthy. Although Marcus feels that women in particular are significantly underrepresented, she points out that the lack of gender balance reflects a larger diversity problem. Too many boards are populated with people similar to each other. More…
…And Women’s Education Leads to More Marriages, Not Less (Phew!)…
In a New York Times opinion piece, author Stephanie Coontz challenges the notion that today?s educated women have to choose between education and marriage. Even though women hold 60% of all bachelor?s degrees (and half of master?s and PhDs), Coontz argues that new studies are showing that educated women no longer have difficulty attracting and keeping mates. Furthermore, many of them are finding more satisfaction in marriage than their less-educated counterparts, even when they ?marry down?. More…
20-first on the Move
GERMANY: March 1 & 29 in Düsseldorf
UK: March 15, 21 & 27 in London
SWITZERLAND: March 28 in Geneva
FRANCE: April 2 in Paris
NETHERLANDS: April 3, 25 & 26 in Maastricht
ITALY: April 17 in Milan
UK: April 18, 24 & 27 in London
http://www.20-first.com/ Email: queries@20-first.com – Phone: + 33 1 39 75 42 24