Lenovo champions gender diversity at the 13th Women’s Forum Global Meeting
by Catherine Ladousse, Executive Director of Communication EMEA at Lenovo and Co-fondatrice & Présidente du Cercle InterElles
This story was originally published on LinkedIn.
The 13th annual Women’s Forum Global Meeting was held in Paris on October 5–6, 2017, and Lenovo was pleased to be the official technological sponsor for the 13th consecutive year. This event is a unique opportunity for women and men from around the world to come together to consider new perspectives, propose new solutions, and promote diversity. Fiercely committed to gender diversity, Lenovo intends to play a key part in this initiative and to amplify its message of engagement and empowerment.
Reports say that the average percentage of women working in the technology industry ranges from 25–30%, with significantly fewer women in tech companies having positions that enable them to influence their companies’ product development or strategic decisions: approximately 15% on average are in technical roles and around 20% are in leadership.
Addressing the gender diversity balance in our industry is thus a very real challenge that needs solutions now. The Gender Scan study http://www.global-contact.net/ have shown that mixed teams actually improve employee well-being, which is yet another reason why we should all actively seek to improve workplace diversity. As a company that was born in the East, was acquired by the West, and has created a truly global entity, cultural and gender diversity is a true part of Lenovo’s DNA; it is an essential component of our corporate culture, as well as a powerful driver of our performance.
In order to foster greater gender diversity across the industry, Lenovo is taking concrete action by focusing on key drivers of progress. These include a commitment from senior management, such as Lenovo’s executive leaders working to increase visibility among governments and NGOs on the lack of #womenintech; HR tactics to attract and retain more women, such as the Women at Lenovo EMEA digital hiring campaign in 2016 #lenovowomen and harnessing the power of networking, via the Women in Lenovo Leadership (WILL) network, for example, or our involvement in Cercle InterElles.
Lenovo’s active and long-standing contribution to the Women’s Forum is perfectly in line with our ongoing commitment to gender equality and diversity. It is a pleasure to take part once again in this year’s Global Meeting, during which I will moderate a special session on the hub “Women in Stem” dedicated to the topic “How Women’s Networks nurture women’s self-esteem and confidence.” Executives from Lenovo from South Africa, UK and France and other companies, member of the Cercle InterElles : Corinne de Bilbao President and CEO of GE and Nathalie Wright VP Software IBM, will share their experiences on the challenge they faced and how they built their confidence to succeed ! Please join us !
