Hilary Clinton’s historical speech in 1995 has never been more relevant. Over the last few months we have seen women in public life continuing to be harassed for their elected roles or standing for election. All I say to this is we are not going away. Women have a vital role to play in every level of government. We are representing not just 50% of the world’s population, but bring a different skillset that is vital in building strong and safe communities.
Hilary Clinton visiting the U.K. this month and restated the issues raised in her speech 20 yrs ago “Women’s Rights are Human Rights” and today we are fighting for the same rights. We must ensure that we do not loose the progress we have made.
Below I share with you a number of pieces about how we continue to move forward and stories of how women are striving in all corners of society.
Let us keep momentum and work together to secure progress for us all.
All the best,
Baroness Goudie
The best and worst countries to be a woman
Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security
The new 2019 Women, Peace, and Security Index ranks 167 countries on women's equality, reveals trends in women's wellbeing across 11 indicators, and offers subnational data for China, India and Nigeria.
In partnership with thePeace Research Institute of Oslo, we draw on recognized international data sources to provide a more comprehensive measure of women's wellbeing and their empowerment in homes, communities, and societies more broadly. #WPSindex
Women in STEM: 50 years and counting
BY CINDY CHIN
50 years ago, the first man step foot on the moon. It was an amazing achievement in the history of the human race and we are again on the precipice of a new frontiers and historical times. The Apollo Missions were game changing missions and our world as we knew it back then in 1969 changed. In looking back, I started to explore some questions. What would we have done differently 50 years ago had we known? Space is hard and it took a lot of sacrifice to get to this point. The sacrifice was also of women’s voices, the hidden figures in STEM that were not told, until now.
Today, we know that women’s economic participation is critical to global growth across all sectors. And we know that the business case for diversity and gender equality is significant reflects social impact and its placement as a priority for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Goal 5 of the SDGs specifically addresses women’s equality and empowerment but gender equality is also integral to our global ability to meet all 17 of the SDGs.
In January 2015, McKinsey & Company published a report on “Why Diversity Matters” and published its research on the effect of diverse workforces on companies’ financial performance. Recently, a follow-up report by McKinsey, “Women in the Workplace 2018” indicates that progress on gender diversity work has stalled, calling companies to turn good intentions to concrete actions. The bottom line is women are doing their part; corporate leadership is not doing all it can.
30% Club and PwC launch ‘Are you missing millions’
Looking at inclusion and diversity through a commercial lens is a huge, but still largely untapped, opportunity for organisations to differentiate their business, boost brand loyalty and reinforce their social licence to operate.
We worked with the 30% Club to review how organisations can address the potential ‘missing millions’ of gender related insights and opportunities.
The findings are unveiled in “Are you Missing Millions? The commercial imperative for putting a gender lens on your business” a new report created by the 30% Club’s Strategy Best Practices Working Group and launched this morning at London Stock Exchange.
The report is produced in conjunction with PwC, with support from WPP and case studies from global and FTSE100 diversity champions including Diageo, GSK, HSBC, Mastercard, PwC, Unilever and Vodafone. It aims to inspire and support businesses to seek commercial benefit by taking a more systematic and enterprise-wide approach to gender, far beyond the traditional focus within HR.
Case studies in the report show how businesses have increased customers, revenues and evolved relationships with suppliers as a result of focusing on gender considerations. For example, Vodafone has identified 200 million women in emerging markets without access to a mobile, 50 million of whom it aims to connect by 2025. Through re-designing its products and services specifically for women, Vodafone has already connected 20 million women. Unilever found that recognising under-represented audiences and focusing on diverse, inclusive and unstereotypical character portrayals created 37% more brand impact and 28% higher purchase intent for its brands, as well as improving the relevance, credibility and enjoyability of its adverts for millions of consumers globally.
FTSE 350 hits 30% women on boards for the first time
in 450 years
The FTSE 350 can now demonstrate a third of board positions filled by women for the first time since the London Stock Exchange was established in 1571.
The latest figure is from the 30% Club, the global campaign with presence in 14 countries that encourages greater representation of women on boards, and shows the number now stands at 30%, with 903 female directorships held by women out of 3008 positions in total (data source: BoardEx, 30 September 2019).
This is in stark contrast to female representation on boards when the 30% Club was founded, by Dame Helena Morrissey, in 2010. Then, only 12.5% of FTSE 100 boards and 9.5% of FTSE 350 boards were female.
For nine years, the 30% Club has implemented a collaborative, concerted business-led effort to help accelerate progress towards better gender balance at all levels of organisations.
In August 2016, the 30% Club wrote to FTSE 350 CEOs in a rallying cry to urge them to commit to setting an aspirational minimum target of 30% female representation on their senior leadership teams by 2020.
Hillary and Chelsea Clinton: ‘We cannot give in. That’s how they win’
Losing the 2016 US election was ‘devastating’, but Clinton is keeping up the fight. Mother and daughter talk about authoritarianism, inspiring women and why thrillers are the perfect escape
If there is a prevailing message in Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s The Book of Gutsy Women – albeit perhaps not precisely the one they meant – it is that making change for women and girls is painful, tough, and requires almost inhuman reserves of personal grit. The volume is a collection of mini-biographies of “gutsy” women, and its intended mood, I surmise, is upbeat and inspirational. The subjects range from the learned 17th-century Mexican nun Sor Juana de la Cruz to the bracingly named Cherokee politician Wilma Mankiller. But behind the celebratory gloss the real “take-home”, to use the requisite Ted Talk phrase, is this: toughen up. The fight is on.
“My view,” Hillary says, “is that we are going to continue to progress – there is too much energy behind that, and women are not going to easily surrender to the pressures they are now facing. But we have to be aware that it doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because women and men continue to point out the unfairness and oppression and absurdity of trying to put women out of the public arena.”
