the status of women

I was at a meeting yesterday with a group of women ~ and one man ~ who all want to make a difference to the status of women. We came together to discuss how our mission could both be different and make a real difference.

As we engaged with one another, I realised there were a variety of agendas on the table that all had to do with the status of women and that all need addressing. A tall task indeed. 

Of course the UN has been reporting on the Status of Women for many years. Perhaps that is part of the problem? Reporting informs us that we are far from equal in this world. It does not necessarily link to action by and for women.
Many of the people around the table work or worked within corporate structures in one way or another and are seeking to influence change on a corporate level. Create more equity and recognition of their contribution to the workplace.  What they are really saying is that they wish to move towards a more feminized way of doing business ~ not that we were discussing this as a conscious theme or mode of being.  

Listening to the women around the table I couldn't help thinking of the women I've met during my travels, the indigenous, migrant and otherwise disenfranchised women who don't fit in the formal economy. They very much form part of what is known as the informal economy. The WorldBank estimates that 23.9 million people are employed in the informal economy vs. a 15.1 million labour force in the formal economy and more than 60% are women. These  are the women who contribute more to GDP than India and China combined (The Economist, 2010) ~ a concept sometimes referred to as Womenomics, which to some means women are good for business. In my book it means The science of understanding, supporting and linking women more effectively in the economy ~ wherever that may be.


Two very different pictures but it is clear that a change on the corporate level is as direly needed as a change in the informal economy. Both are a source of employment for women. Both are employing more women than ever, both deal with a gender gap in terms of equal worth and wages ~ although the gender gap in terms of wages in the informal economy is of course much higher than in the formal sector.


While women in corporate structures cope with unequal pay and 'boys club' conditions, women in informal economies haven't even had much of an opportunity to start the argument. Yet, while developed regions with 'formal' economies may be in a better position to fight the fights, it is the less developed regions that ~ due to sheer number of women ~ are more rapidly moving towards female critical mass in their workforce and, dare I say, to feminized markets. 

It is critical mass that will create the tipping point, as is the case with the adoption of any new technology or innovation. Just think, there were early adopters of the Internet ~ yours truly among them ~ but it wasn't until Internet use achieved critical mass that people really started to adopt it fast and understand its usefulness. Today adoption is not even at the tipping point so its potential remains in its infancy.  And of course there remain many technology adoption laggards for a variety of reasons ~ access, skills, culture ~ but that gap is closing with the rise and rise of mobile technology. There is no doubt that connectivity will be increasingly important to the status of women as it continues to connect women to knowledge and networks.

So I came away from the meeting thinking how good it was that we do all have different agendas, as they all do need attention and work. It will be interesting to see how all the agendas can be married into a meaningful effort. 


Stay tuned..

The femination of markets - ongoing

You may recall I started talking about this a blog or two ago and said I am keen to do more research into this area, so whilst I have been a bit slack on the blogging front, I have been working away in the background on this issue.  I have been reading, surfing, watching, and listening. As you do. And am only just beginning to grapple with this enormous issue.


I have been reading on womanhood. On what women want. Of course a 20-year old doesn't want what a 30-year old wants, let alone a 40-year old or a 50-year old, who btw, more than anything, just wants a good night sleep :-). The 60-year old wants to believe that 60 is the new 40 and is at a point in life where she wants to make a difference; she wants to change the system ~ that should be interesting, with the baby boomers coming of age. I have been reading about how western women struggle to gain what some call the impossible art of balancing work & life.  Some women are going for the superwoman 'I can do it all' model, whilst others are seeking the return of the happy housewife model of the 1950s, back when women knew their place.  

Somehow the return to the obedient housewife thingy is going to be a bit hard..If you listen to the new data on the rise of women presented by Hanna Rosin in a TED talk, it is absolutely clear that we are going through (in Rosin's words) "an amazing and unprecedented moment where the power dynamics between men and women are shifting very rapidly". I would argue that it isn't a mere moment but a solid ~ if underestimated ~ shift towards the feminisation of markets. Yes, women are dominating in fields such as banking, law, accounting and medicine, but not (yet) in science, engineering and technology, often viewed as a geeky professions which do not appear to be a huge turn on for women. But what is more striking is that this is an economic shift ~ all over the world it is women who are taking on the role of breadwinner, becoming the more powerful earners. As Rosin puts it 'the 200,000 year period in which men were top dog is coming to an end'. 

Why now, one may wonder. Rosin puts her finger on it. Men haven't changed, but the economy has. It has turned into a service economy, a knowledge economy in which information, knowledge and creativity are king. Well, queen, really, since the knowledge economy requires skills that women are naturally good at. Things like inclusiveness, team building, listening (!) and fluid communication.  


And this isn't an isolated phenomenon in developed economies. It's a global economic reality. Rosin talks about how in India poor women are learning English faster than their male counterparts so they can take jobs in call centres. In China more women than men are starting small businesses. When I think about my recent travels, I can see the evidence in Bangladesh and Peru. It was the women, often in cooperative structures, who were entrepreneurial, are keeping their communities going, communicating with the outside world.  


Rosin's wisest words...We are all in this together and we need to bring each other along. A culture change that is hard enough to achieve in the developed world and a massively difficult task in traditional cultures...