Editorial December 2008

Wishing all of us the best minds and best leadership for 2009!

“More than ever, in the current economic downturn we will need the best minds and the best leadership to find the most creative solutions, revive growth and prevent such crises in the future. In other words, we will need to ensure that the minds and talents of both women and men are fully engaged in this process,” said World Economic Forum’s Chairman Klaus Schwab in the Global Gender Gap Report 2008. What better quote to end the turbulent year 2008 with?

You can’t change what you don’t know
The report measures the gaps in terms of economic opportunities, education, political empowerment and health between women and men in 130 countries. Analysing the numbers creates awareness. After all, you can’t change what you don’t know. But does this report present a full picture of the current status of affairs in the world economy?

Only quantitative, not qualitative
From our membership, we know that many women simply do not reach the qualitatively high level jobs men do. Not only because of ‘time-out’s’ in their careers, or a (temporary) choice for part-time work, but also because of factors such as company culture, lack of re-entry and mentoring programmes, expectations about ambitions women may have, prevailing stereotypes about women leaders, and many other (in)visible barriers.

Women with university degrees, who work in jobs that require less educational background and present fewer options for personal growth and promotions, experience a mismatch between their education and the quality of their job. In the Global Gender Gap report, these factors only come out through the pay gap, expressed in numbers, but not in qualitative assessments. Why not include an indicator on the loss of talent caused by this mismatch between education and job level? This indicator should also take into account the loss of leadership talent in the world. After all, women are as capable as men to take leadership positions but are still seriously underrepresented. What does it ‘cost’ the world’s economy to let so much leadership talent go to waste?

Only negatives?
All factors in the report come out negatively for women. Is this a true reflection of the status quo, or is it part of the ‘you get what you measure’ mechanism? If we measured the informal economy (work being done by volunteers, often unpaid), women would completely outrank men without question. Another area is the success of female entrepreneurs; their start-up businesses demonstrate a stability of longer duration and, although their growth rate is relatively slower, fewer women-led businesses go bankrupt. There is no indicator in the report to measure this. Because the informal economy does not produce a cash flow in the strictest sense of the word, it is now not taken into account. But everybody knows that without the enormous energy of women caring for the elderly, children and societal causes our society would simply come to a grinding halt. You could say that women make the economy liveable.

I therefore wish all our readers and members a liveable and leader-full 2009!

Mirella Visser
President European Professional Women’s Network
December 2008