Women at the top in Luxembourg
Over 200 participants at the conference “The path to parity” at Philharmonie
A conference jointly organised by the Luxembourg Times and the Financial Times brought a touch of glamour to the Grand Duchy on Thursday, when dozens of delegates travelled to the nation’s capital to discuss parity for women in the workplace.
They had come to listen to such international business stars as Giny Boer, CEO of C&A Europe and Céline Assimon, CEO of De Beers Forevermark and De Beers Jewellers, as well as Luxembourg’s big-league leaders Manou Hoss, Managing Partner at Elvinger Hoss Prussen, Karin Scholtes from BIL and Martine Reicherts, chairwoman of Mediahuis Luxembourg.
In just three hours, a superengaged audience peppered speakers with many questions that all boiled down to one thing: how can women rise to the top in the workplace? This is a complex issue, and there is no simple solution for the gap that women are still experiencing.
At the very least, companies now need to have a diversity strategy in place that does more than paying lip-service to reaching parity in the workplace. Change – for instance in closing the pay gap – is slow and it is not something that only companies can do. One frequently heard message was that couples need to decide how to divide childcare in advance, rather than finding themselves stuck in a situation neither of them like.
Another was that women need to have the courage to rely on their authentic selves if they want to make it to the top in business. Little surprise then the 130 delegates found plenty to talk about in the two networking sessions that formed an essential part of this important event. C.