You are browsing the Blog for gender equality.

← Previous Entries

CNN – Why women are world’s best climate change defense

January 9, 2012 in Articles, Media, Spotlight

*Photo from ku.dk

December 12, 2011 | By Mary Robinson , Special to CNN

Editor’s note: Mary Robinson is President of the Mary Robinson Foundation — Climate Justice. She served as President of Ireland from 1990-1997 and U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights from 1997-2002. She is a member of the Elders and the Club of Madrid and serves as Honorary President of Oxfam International.

(CNN) – Women must make their voices heard in climate negotiations. The role of women as agents of change in their homes, places of work and communities is often underplayed. Yet their role is critical: Women understand the inter-generational aspects of climate change and sustainable development. We women think in time horizons that span the lives of our children and grandchildren. We need to use this understanding to influence the political process and to inject a much needed sense of urgency into the climate change negotiations.

Time is not on our side; report after report has shown this. This is not a trade discussion and we cannot wait until the next meeting or the meeting after that to take action. Time is running out for the planet. 2020 is too late to put a legally binding agreement in place. A legal framework with clear and common rules to which all countries are committed is critically important. It is the only assurance we have that action will be taken to protect the most vulnerable. This COP (U.N. Climate Change Conference in Durban) must agree to initiate negotiations towards this end — with a view to concluding a new legal instrument by 2015 at the latest.

Climate change is a matter of justice. The richest countries caused the problem, but it is the world’s poorest who are already suffering from its effects. The international community must commit to righting that wrong.

For me, a high point of the Durban Conference was that it demonstrated once again the value of women’s leadership in global efforts to deal with climate change. The outgoing COP President who did an excellent job in Cancun last year is a woman, Minister Patricia Espinosa. The COP President at Durban is a woman, Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane from South Africa and the Executive Secretary of the Convention is also a woman, Ms Christiana Figueres. Collectively these and other women leaders are playing a vital role in highlighting the gender dimensions of climate change.

Awareness of the differential impacts of climate change on men and women is increasing. We know that in continents like Africa, where women are responsible for 60-80% of food production, unpredictable growing seasons and increased incidence of droughts and floods place women, their families and their livelihoods at risk. All over the world women are adapting to these changes, showing incredible resilience in the face of crop failures, water shortages and increases in environment-related diseases such as malaria. They are growing different crops, planting trees, harvesting rainwater and growing fodder for livestock to minimize the impacts of climate change. We need to continue to support women to be innovative, creative and resilient in a climate-constrained world as we strive to ensure equitable solutions to the climate problem. Investing in climate smart agriculture and capacity building for vulnerable rural communities will not be sustainable without the inclusion of women in the decision-making process.

But we also need to see the value of women as drivers of economic growth — as educators, carers, farmers, entrepreneurs and above all, as leaders. A recent World Bank report found that “women now represent 40% of the global labor force, 43% of the world’s agricultural labor force, and more than half the world’s university students. Productivity will be raised if their skills and talents are used more fully.” The report also found that eliminating the barriers that discriminate against women could increase labor productivity by as much as 25% in some countries.

Clearly we need to harness the contribution of women if we want to find our way out of the current economic recession and if we want to embrace inclusive, sustainable green growth. Last month, in remarks made at the International Forum on Women and Sustainable Development in Beijing, Sha Zuhang, Secretary General of the 2012 U.N. Commission on Sustainable Development, said “in many countries women are the champions of the green economy, practicing sustainable agriculture, nurturing our natural resources, and promoting renewable energy.”

Around the world women are showing leadership and championing change, often due to more progressive policies and a greater social inclusion. Their voice and leadership on climate change can result in a low-carbon revolution for the 21st century that is sustainable and equitable.

We can have a future where economic growth is not proportional to greenhouse gas emissions and where, for example, off-grid energy solutions could enable the 1.3 billion people without access to electricity to reach their full potential by providing access to affordable and sustainable energy technologies. At present burning kerosene for light and cooking over open fires damages women’s health and limits their ability to engage in other work or education because they spend hours collecting wood.

It also costs them a lot of money — up to 20% of their weekly expenditure. Solar panels, improved cooking stoves and LED lights can transform lives, create jobs and contribute to our collective low-carbon future and are clear examples how intelligent climate change policies do not lead to a gray and dull existence but the opposite: They lead to a brighter future.

I encourage all leaders to highlight the importance of gender throughout COP17 and at Rio+20 next year. We need to secure stronger references to the gender dimensions of climate change in the texts, institutions and mechanisms agreed by Parties to the Convention. Leaders informed by the experiences of grassroots women from around the world can and must make a difference.

I call on women to speak out and lead the way. We cannot wait, we have to act. Our children’s and grandchildren’s future is at stake.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Mary Robinson.

News link

Tags: , , , , , ,
No Comments »

NST – Women: No discrimination here

September 6, 2011 in Articles

Noorliza is proud to be the first woman CFO

September 5, 2011 | By Kasmiah Mustapha

Malaysian women may be lagging behind men when it comes to holding top corporate positions but not in IBM Malaysia. KASMIAH MUSTAPHA finds out more

A RECENT statement by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak that women must hold 30 per cent of top corporate posts by 2016 is an indication that women are still way behind in holding top positions compared to men. The Prime Minister said that currently only eight per cent of women held top posts in listed companies and six per cent in financial institutions.

One company that strictly practises gender equality is IBM Malaysia. According to two female workers, employees are promoted based on performance and qualification, irrespective of gender.
Mona Loh who has been with IBM for 34 years, says she has never heard of women being side-lined for promotions or appointments to managerial positions.

Loh was the company’s first woman employee when IBM Singapore setup a branch office in Kuala Lumpur in 1961. She was hired as secretary to the general manager.

“There were only the two of us at that time. But I was often left alone because the general manager had to be in Singapore most of the time. I was doing the accounts and I even signed cheques. If the workload got too heavy, workers from Singapore were brought in to help.
“When the company expanded, a personnel department was set up to hire more people. The department was managed by a woman and as the number of employees increased, IBM Malaysia began to employ more women, some of whom were appointed as managers.”

Loh, who retired in 1995 as the executive secretary to the managing director, says IBM Malaysia had always adhered to gender equality at the workplace.

“Promotions and salary increment were given based on merit.”
Loh’s sentiment is shared by Noorliza Abu Bakar, currently IBM Malaysia’s first woman chief financial officer.

“I have never been discriminated against because of my gender. I realised that if you perform well, you would be given the same opportunity as a man to climb up the corporate ladder.

“I joined the company as an accountant, became first line manager, then second line manager and so on until I reached my present position.”

Noorliza, who joined IBM Malaysia in 1984, has worked in sales commission, business planning, treasury and business controls.

“When I first joined, opportunities for promotions were limited but not because of my gender. However, that soon changed and now everyone has a chance to be promoted.”

Noorliza says her male colleagues do not resent her appointment as chief financial officer as they are aware that IBM Malaysia practises equal opportunity for men and women.

“Nor do I feel that the men — my superiors and subordinates — look down on me because I am a woman. I’ve never faced hostility from male employees because of my position.

I also do not feel I need to prove myself to my male colleagues or bosses.”
When she was made CFO six months ago, Noorliza deemed it a challenge but says it was something that she was ready for.

“I believe that hard work and confidence can help one overcome challenges. I also have a good team which works well together.”

Managing director Ramanathan Sathiamutty says IBM Malaysia is a merit-based company which looks at performance regardless of gender and race. “Of the total workforce, 50 per cent are women, many of whom are in managerial and leadership positions. However, some departments may have more men than women because of the nature of the job.”

He says the company believes that the most important thing is to appoint the best person for the job. “If a man and woman have equal experience and education, we will look at their previous records. We do not discriminate against women just because they have families. If they perform well, we will promote them.

“Personally, I think women employees are hardworking and well balanced. They are also very competitive and driven. I think when it comes to equal opportunities for women, IBM is way ahead of other companies.”

Ramanathan adds that he is not worried about more women being promoted to managerial posts as long as the company is profitable.

“If the company has 80 per cent women employees and the bottom line is healthy, I am happy. The most important thing is that we are measured by what we are giving back to our shareholders.”

News Link

Tags:
No Comments »

International Herald Tribune – Motherhood as a Retreat From Equality

August 25, 2011 in Articles

* Photo from http://www.babycaredaily.com

August 23, 2011 | By Katrin Bennhold

OSNABRÜCK, GERMANY — Playgrounds can tell you a lot about a society.

I used to cycle to work through the Square des Batignolles, our local park in western Paris, and was always struck by the almost uniform ethnic segregation: mostly white toddlers chasing each other and their caregivers, brightly clad West African women chatting away on the benches rimming the sandpit. On those same benches on Sunday afternoons, I would socialize with other young, professional French mothers.

Here in Germany, the only adults populating playgrounds on any day of the week appeared to be mothers — often mothers with a university education who not long ago earned a respectable income.

Of the several social insights to be gleaned from this comparison, one is surely this: French mothers work, and many of them full-time.

The nanny culture seen in Paris is by no means unique. Indeed, in places like New York City and London, where the system of state child care is generally less developed than in France, nannies are also a common sight.

What is striking is that in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, that nanny culture barely exists. Only 14 percent of women return to full-time work after having one child, and only 6 percent after Baby No. 2.

In France, where about 60 percent of mothers with young children work, two-thirds of two-income families employ a nanny, according to the national statistics office, Insee.

“I could not leave my children with a stranger at this age,” Jutta Funke said as we watched our 2-year-olds get covered in mud on a playground in this northwestern town where I grew up.

When she heard that I planned to resume full-time work within six months of having my second child, handing the care of two daughters to a nanny in London for 50 hours a week, she was polite but clearly disapproved.

Jutta is 34. She has a business degree and worked for an advertising agency in Hamburg for seven years, steadily climbing the ranks before meeting her husband, Horst.

When Horst, a doctor, was offered a job near Osnabrück, Jutta followed him. And when she didn’t immediately find work, she decided to have a baby. Next year, perhaps, she will look for a part-time job.

Does she mind being financially dependent on her husband? Putting her professional life second to his? “I don’t think about it that way,” she said. “I put my child first.”

I met several German mothers like Jutta on the playground and was torn between sympathy and impatience.

Most of them grew up with education and ambitions similar to mine: combining children with career and sharing family responsibilities with the partner. They all think of themselves as equals to their husbands. In practice, the roles they have assumed still bear a striking resemblance to those of their mothers, who had a much narrower set of opportunities and rights at their disposal.

Working mothers still face more stigma in Germany than in many other Western countries. A Teutonic mother cult infamously celebrated by the Nazis was institutionalized by successive postwar governments in West Germany. Even now, half-day schools are the norm, and the tax system rewards unequal earnings between spouses.

Things have begun to change: A fifth of German schools now offer full-day programs, and more are signing up. Mothers can share 14 months of paid parental leave with fathers.

Yet the shockingly low number of day care places in Western Germany is increasing only at snail’s pace, despite a 2013 deadline to give all year-old toddlers the legal right to a nursery place.

Why have politicians felt free to drag their feet on improving child care infrastructure? Why does the average Western German mother work only 25 hours a week 10 years after the birth of her last child? Why do only 19 percent of German couples with children both work full-time, compared with 42 percent in France?

Bascha Mika, author of a controversial best-selling book, “The Cowardice of Women,” published in Germany this year, thinks women have largely themselves to blame. According to her, they aren’t putting enough pressure on politicians, are failing to negotiate equal terms in relationships and often voluntarily retreat into a traditional mother role that spares them other hard questions about identity and purpose in life.

It’s a risky strategy at a time when the economic crisis is putting male jobs and incomes at risk, when increasing longevity means bringing up children is only a passing phase in a woman’s life and when divorce rates are high. Even if childcare eats up all of the female income, there is a long-term pay-off to staying in the labor market.

“What’s the matter with us?” Ms. Mika asks German women. “Don’t we want to be free and equal?”

“We are collaborating with a system that reduces us to motherhood,” she writes. “We voluntarily choose to be powerless and adjust to self-inflicted victimhood. That’s cowardice.”

Whether the term “cowardice” helps anyone more than Bertelsmann, Ms. Mika’s publisher, is questionable. The power of tradition and lack of comprehensive state child care are strong barriers to effective gender equality.

But Ms. Mika, herself Polish-born and childless, has made a useful contribution to the protracted debate about women’s advancement in Germany by posing some uncomfortable questions about the implications of being emancipated in the 21st century.

Why do we insist on spending ridiculous amounts of money on our looks, all the way up to elective plastic surgery? Why do we still draw so much of our self-confidence from having a husband and a baby? Indeed, why do young professionals often obsess about being that elusive “perfect” mother?

Yes, women are fundamentally different from men: they give birth. So one answer is that they have different priorities and are making choices that make them happy. Another is that their freedom to choose remains somewhat illusory.

Opening up that freedom of choice may hinge less on bringing a nanny culture to places like Germany and more a social contract involving parents, business and government in altering the work-life balance.

One country where you wouldn’t find nannies on playgrounds is Sweden. But that’s not because parents worry about leaving offspring with “strangers”; most Swedish toddlers are in subsidized preschools, and most parents finish their jobs in time to pick them up.

With 21st-century reach-everyone-anytime technology, might we not rethink child-unfriendly work hours? In the process, more of Ms. Mika’s “cowardly” mothers might hang on to their careers.

News Link

Tags: , , , ,
No Comments »

FORBES – Are There Really Boards With No Women?

August 5, 2011 in Articles

*photo credit to pichaus.com

August 2, 2011 | by Aditi Mohapatra

Three college degrees for every two earned by a man. 85% of purchasing decisions. Nearly 50% of the workforce. And yet, the tiniest of chips in the glass ceilings of  boardrooms across corporate America with women holding just 18% of corporate board posts at S&P 100 companies. What’s wrong with this math?

A peek behind the oak-paneled doors of just a few of those boardrooms reveals a stunning lack of diversity in those rarified cocoons where for the “pale, male and stale” board member it is business as usual: On the boards of Urban Outfitters, the Cheesecake Factory, Expedia, Steve Madden, Panera Bread, American Apparel, and Discovery Communications, how many women? None.  What’s so striking here is the disconnect between who these companies identify as their target customers and their governance. And the absence of women on these and other boards becomes even more striking—and increasingly awkward to explain—when you consider that other Western countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, Spain and France all have moved to require female representation on corporate boards.

Impact on the Bottom Line

Even putting aside social justice, the lack of women on these boards simply does not make business sense. Shouldn’t these companies include women in their strategic business planning at the boardroom level, especially when they rely on them so heavily for revenues and as employees? This lack of gender diversity should be of critical concern to investors. At Calvert Investments, we come to this issue of board diversity from an investment and business case perspective. We know all too well the research that supports a strong bottom-line argument for diversity and we are frustrated that more companies refuse to see what study after study confirms: women contribute heavily to the bottom line.

McKinsey’s Women Matter study found that companies with the highest share of women on executive committees outperformed those with all-male executive committees by 41% in terms of return on equity and 56% in operating results. As investors, we want to ensure that companies benefit from strong boards of directors that reflect a full range of available talent and the diversity that exists within  their target markets. Unfortunately there are still many companies that are not placing a sufficient emphasis on the value of diversity at the board level, despite the unarguable business case. (See related article.)

The Importance of Company Engagement

All too often qualified women are overlooked, while the same tired pool of candidates is scoured again and again for these high-powered positions. That is why our engagement process focuses on changing the director selection process. Every year, we file shareholder proposals with companies that we believe lack sufficient diversity. Our proposals ask companies to expand their director selection process and include women as part of the slate of director nominees. To be clear, our objectives are not quotas or mandates, rather what we see as a gentle, but firm, push in the right direction. To date, we have filed such proposals with 55 companies and 46 have agreed to change their process.

Wait Until 2070 Or Use NFL’s Rooney Rule?

As men still make up 92% of the highest paid positions within major corporations, we encourage companies to also look to non-traditional arenas where qualified female candidates are more likely to be found such as executive positions beyond the C-suite, as well as in government, academia, and non-profit organizations. Until companies expand director searches, it is unlikely women will make significant advances in boardroom representation. In fact, if women are added to boards at the current pace, it will take until 2070 for women to reach parity with men—and that is simply unacceptable.

Beyond casting a wider net for candidates, we encourage companies to include women as part of every slate of potential director nominees. The process is analogous to the Rooney rule in the National Football League where teams must interview minority candidates for head positions. We do not recommend that companies limit their interviews or nominations solely to women candidates, but rather that the Board regularly evaluate applications for director positions from diverse candidates. We believe that the more often women are interviewed for these positions, the sooner they will play a significant role in the ranks of corporate boards.

Leading the Charge for Diversity

During many of our engagements with companies, we hear that they “agree with the merits of achieving diversity” but they just can’t find any qualified diverse director nominees. That myth is quickly being dispelled. Last year, Agenda Magazine published a list of the Top 100 Diverse Board Candidates You’ve Never Heard Of. Major institutional investors, led by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers’ Retirement Fund (CalSTRS), are building a database of diverse director candidates known as the 3D Initiative.  Both of these efforts showcase what many of us already know: there are plenty of qualified women candidates for boards, but companies are neglecting to look for them.

Be An Engaged Shareholder

As an investment manager, Calvert directly engages with companies on board diversity and a range of environmental and social issues on behalf of our shareholders. What can you as a shareholder do?  Take a close look at the companies you own in your investment portfolio, whether you hold them directly or through a mutual fund. Make sure you are voting the shares you own directly and find out if your mutual fund is voting your proxies the way you want and engaging these companies on your behalf.

Also, you can help right now by signing up to support 2020 Women on Boards, a grassroots campaign aimed at increasing the percentage of women on U.S. corporate boards to 20% by the year 2020.  The numbers are not going to change overnight, but we can close the gap by staying engaged.

Male-Only Corporate Boards
NDN 99 Cents Only Stores MHGC Morgans Hotel Group Co.
APP American Apparel, Inc. PNRA Panera Bread Company
BAMM Books-A-Million, Inc. PERY Perry Ellis International, Inc.
CHTR Charter Communications, Inc. PETS PetMed Express, Inc.
CAKE Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (The) PPC Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation
DISCA Discovery Communications, Inc. ZQK Quiksilver, Inc.
DG Dollar General Corporation RUE rue21, inc.
EXPE Expedia, Inc. SCVL Shoe Carnival, Inc.
GRMN Garmin Ltd. SKX Skechers U.S.A., Inc.
HANS Hansen Natural Corporation SHOO Steven Madden, Ltd.
JJSF J & J Snack Foods Corp. TRLG True Religion Apparel, Inc.
JOEZ Joe’s Jeans Inc. UA Under Armour, Inc.
KID Kid Brands, Inc. URBN Urban Outfitters, Inc.
KIRK Kirkland’s, Inc. VCLK ValueClick, Inc.
KSWS K-Swiss Inc. VG Vonage Holdings Corp.
LYV Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. WBMD WebMD Health Corp.
PCS MetroPCS Communications, Inc. ZLC Zale Corporation

Aditi Mohapatra is a Senior Sustainability Analyst with Calvert Investments,  a leader in the field of sustainable and responsible investing.  Aditi leads a number of initiatives aimed at improving corporate diversity including promoting the adoption of the Calvert Women’s Principles, the first global code of conduct focused on empowering, advancing, and investing in women. For more information, go to: www.calvert.com/women or contact Aditi at (aditi.mohapatra at calvert.com).

Featured by WomensMedia, Expert Advice for Business Women

News Link

Tags: , , ,
No Comments »

Financial Times – Europe takes lead on boardroom diversity

August 1, 2011 in Articles

*Credit to http://www.howstuffworks.com/

July 31, 2011 | By Ruth Sullivan

The issue of women in the boardroom has gained impetus in recent weeks. The European Commission consultation paper on corporate governance, which closed for responses last week, has a strong focus on boardroom diversity. It was reinforced last month by a call from the European Parliament for EU-wide legislation to ensure women make up 40 per cent of listed company boards by 2020.

And last week UK government ministers put pressure on FTSE 350 companies to meet the Davies review recommendations to announce targets to increase the number of women on their boards by next month’s deadline.

Norway led the way on quotas in 2003 by legislating for companies to reserve 40 per cent of board seats for women by 2008. Spain followed suit in 2007, and France this year. Brussels is keen to ensure other EU member states adopt similar policies. The Netherlands and Germany are currently debating the issue.

In a recent speech on corporate governance Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, Germany’s justice minister, said more action was needed to get women into boardrooms. She believes “a flexible solution [to quotas] will lead to success”.

Some re-thinking was taking place, she maintained, pointing out that Germany’s 15 per cent female representation on boards was above the European average of 11.9 per cent. She called for further action from politicians and companies but wants change to come through self-regulation rather than legislation.

While change is happening in Europe, the US has no plans to impose women director quotas. A decade ago, the US made progress in getting women into the boardroom with a 10-15 per cent representation, depending on the sector, says Matteo Tonello, director of governance research at the Conference Board in New York.

“Since then, the level has plateaued. Companies have had one woman on the board for the last 10 years and nothing has changed.” He attributes the lack of progress to lack of women in the talent pool.

Mr Tonello believes the education sector is a good place to look for female talent and more companies should extend their search.

He hopes that rules put in place by the Securities and Exchange Commission in December 2009, requiring companies to reveal what they are doing to improve board diversity, will lead to more recruitment of women to the top table.

However, in a review of diversity policies disclosed by companies in the Dow 30, under the new SEC rules, all 27 companies surveyed said they considered diversity when indentifying potential directors, but only one had a policy of board diversity, according to the Conference Board.

In the UK, Helena Morrissey, chief executive of Newton Investment Management and founder of the the 30% Club, an initiative that aims to shake up male-dominated boardrooms on a voluntary basis, is against quotas.

She believes “we can achieve a better gender balance on boards without quotas”. The Club has gained the support of 25 chairmen of FTSE and other large companies to commit to having at least 30 per cent of women in board seats by 2015 on a voluntary basis.

Although she recognises the pace of such an initiative may be slow, she maintains “quotas give a short-term fix and the appearance of change”.

They could lead to a two-tier board where decision-making is made by a core male board and a peripheral board is staffed by women, she says.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011.

News Link

Tags:
No Comments »

← Previous Entries