Women poorly represented at Davos
Despite high-profile appointments last year, discussions on gender take back seat
MILAN, ITALY — From chief executive officer Mary Barra at General Motors Co. to chair Janet Yellen at the U.S. Federal Reserve to Daniele Nouy at the European Central Bank’s supervisory board, women nabbed top posts last year.
You wouldn’t have known it in Davos. The 2,500 delegates at the World Economic Forum conference were 16 per cent female, down from 17 per cent in 2013. A session titled Gender-Driven Growth with Facebook Inc. chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and Christine Lagarde, head of the International Monetary Fund, was among the final events and started after many had left the Swiss resort town.
“Sadly, it hasn’t evolved,” Cherie Blair, a lawyer and wife of former British prime minister Tony Blair, said in an interview at the event, which she’s attended six times. “There were about 15 per cent when I came the first time, and here we are at a similar level. The percentages are low.”
They’re also low in business and politics around the globe. Lagarde said progress has been so slow that quotas should be “a required step.” Her suggestion at Davos — where the theme was The Reshaping of the World — was echoed by several female delegates and some men, reflecting a frustration at how, despite the conspicuous advances, women have stalled out.
“We’ve tried the mentoring, we’ve tried the welfare, we’ve tried the various diversity training,” said Sue Clark, managing director for Europe at SABMiller Plc. It might be time for mandatory targets because “people do what gets measured — particularly within large companies.”
Forum founder Klaus Schwab called it “ridiculous” to suggest women weren’t well represented in Davos.
“If you look at participation here, you have the most famous women in the world,” he told CNN.
The 44th annual conference did draw powerful women, including South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff and Yahoo! Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer, who co- chaired the event with Rockefeller Foundation president Judith Rodin and five men.
Still, Davos was a disappointment to some who attended, considering the headway made around the world in 2013, with Inga Beale becoming the first woman to head Lloyds of London Ltd., Ursula Von Der Leyen named defence minister of Germany and Lynn Good appointed CEO of Duke Energy Corp. Men dominated most sessions, on topics from climate change and immigration to food security and the future of monetary policy.
“No more all-male panels!” Uschi Schreiber, global markets leader at EY, formerly Ernst & Young, said during a reception the firm hosted to honour women at Davos.
Gender-related discussions were featured on about six of the 250 sessions, which included panels on the opening and closing days, and that was viewed as some progress.
“It has taken years to have the subject of women and gender parity take place in the congress hall and not at the food tent,” said Rick Goings, chair and CEO of Tupperware Brands Corp., in Davos.
Women represent just 17 per cent of independent directors at companies in the U.S. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, barely above the 16 per cent level of 2007, executive recruiter Spencer Stuart said in a November report.
In the European Union, the percentage was 15.8 in October, according to European Commission figures.
Facebook’s Sandberg said during a panel discussion that the status quo was the “tyranny of low expectations.”