We’re Talking About A Revolution: Davos 2016
Women in the American workplace have indeed come a long way. Progress is being made at companies across the country, and the news is alive with “firsts” on a monthly basis. Women have earned the right to bear arms in the military. Women are running for high office. Women are joining public boards at an unprecedented rate. Women are graduating with more degrees and moving into middle management in corporations. Likewise, many countries are ahead and paving the way for equality in education, in the workplace, and in leadership.
That said, progress has stalled. The numbers show it. Women make up a 60% majority of college graduates, but make $0.81 to the dollar compared to their male counterparts. The female labor force participation has increased by 53% in the last 50 years, but senior management roles are still elusive: less than 4% of the CEOs of top companies are women. The number of female Fortune 500 CEOs is declining as conversations about unconscious bias, the wage gap, and the ever present glass ceiling are abounding. At today’s pace, it will take over a century to achieve gender parity — and we’re not going to wait until 2133 for it.
This year’s 46th World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland takes the theme of “Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” and The Girls’ Lounge will be there to establish a new era-defining manifesto with corporate leaders from around the globe. With unprecedented potential for economic and social change, there are newfound prospects for achieving equality. In every professional sphere, the wage gap and resulting gender disparity is still too great.
This is our moment. It’s time for a fresh look — a new S-curve — to accelerate growth and reach the next horizon. Accordingly, we have a jam-packed agenda for The Girls’ lounge’s three days at Davos. Our aspiration is to immerse ourselves, and all who join us, in the facts to build a strong foundation. We’ll use that to share and agree on a declaration of action and then organize around the next steps to enact real change. By prioritizing this initiative at the World Economic Forum, we’re bringing home the idea that the greatest steps forward in history — and taken together.
Over the three days of the WEF meeting, The Girls’ Lounge will work with the top female and male thinkers, CEOs, and inspirational disruptors in three phases to rectify existing issues and fortify our foundations for immediate future changes to gender equality in the workforce.
Day One is a day of learning: For change to be both widespread and intrinsic, we need as much insight, perspective, and knowledge as possible. Jim Yong Kim, the World Bank Group President, has noted that the resulting strength of gender parity is marked in business and society: “Gender equality doesn’t require trade-offs; it only has benefits. And the benefits accrue to everyone, not just women and girls. Societies benefit and, as even men are beginning to understand, economies benefit, too.” With this in mind, Wednesday, January 20th, we’ll be assembling all the research and using it to engage the conversation on what it takes to activate leadership, on how corporate work environment has to change for mothers (and fathers) to sustain productive careers, and on what enablers must be put in place for women to thrive and succeed.
With our foundation built, Day Two is about creation: With a better understanding of the boundaries in which we operate, we’ll know which ones we need to break through in order to realize our aspirations. Thursday, January 21st, we’ll work with leading women from Fortune, Forbes, the Lean In mission, and the World Economic Forum will work together to agree the elements of our toolkit. Knowing what our definition of success looks like, it’s up to us to create the measures of accountability, and with it, the Femenism Manifesto: a modern declaration of true equality, drafted by women and men working together to redefine the archaic norms of today, state our milestones, and create and move on a timeline of action. By Tuesday night, we plan to have an agreement on what has to happen going forward to see corporations thrive and reach the next horizon towards gender parity.
On Day Three, we move to action: The last day of the meeting will be the first day of acting upon the new manifesto. On Friday, January 22nd, we’ll be spreading the word on what it means to support and join our movement, creating concrete partnerships, and discussing specific deliverables with company leaders. Through true collaboration between companies, thought leaders, and the women and men at The Girls’ Lounge, the actionable items we come up with will solve the economic and business issues facing us. Stronger corporations, better business and measurable strides to gender parity are within our reach.
After three short days, we’ll be ready to show the fruits of this process to the press. We are realistic about the hard road ahead just as we are optimistic about the power of the community to make change happen, and we are pulling in partners, CEOs and top teams who want to use the gender equality toolkit being assembled to lead transformational change in their organizations.
We hope to be challenged, to strengthen our approach with proven best practices, and to find stories of success amongst companies ahead of the pack to inspire and guide us, and we hope you’ll join us in becoming a Femenist and take action with us.
Written with ❤ by the Girls at The Girls Lounge.
