Women - now here's a subject I know something about!!

Last night in Doha before boarding a miserably long flight home tomorrow at the crack of dawn. A bit sad that the conference is over but miss my family so much (not to mention my dog!) and am longing to be home. Yesterday, I finished my report on the panel called "Women, Global Corporations, Corporate Responsibility." There were four panelists -- two from multinational corporations and two from NGOs. It was certainly interesting, but I think it lacked a certain critical edge. It was a bit of a "rah-rah" session, aren't we women great, without recognizing that the Middle East and elsewhere have a long way to go before women have equal rights and equal opportunity. Anyway, here it is... Homeward bound!

ENRICHING THE MIDDLE EAST’S ECONOMIC FUTURE V CONFERENCE

“WOMEN, GLOBAL CORPORATIONS, CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY”

JUNE 2, 2010

Participants:
• Judith Barnett, President, The Barnett Group (Moderator)
• Pam Darwin, Vice President, Geoscience; Management sponsor for ExxonMobil’s Science Ambassador Program, and Member of Advisory Board for ExxonMobil Women’s Economic Opportunity Initiative
• Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, Founder and Chair, Women’s Campaign International
• Nancy Owens, Vice President of Human Resources, General Motors International Operations
• Soraya Salti, Senior Vice President of the MENA Junior Achievement, INJAZ Al Arab

The panel focused on the advancement that women have made both in the Middle East and worldwide and the role that corporations and the NGO sector have played to facilitate this progress. The gender gap in higher education in the ME region has been closed. However, the challenge is that educated Arab women are still not entering the workforce.

The first panelist, Pam Darwin, opened by stating that there is a strong business case for investing in women because they have a multiplier effect (they give back to their communities). Citing a McKinsey report, she claimed that a gender diverse workforce helps financial performance and that such workplaces have operating margins that are twice as high as those that are less diverse. Corporations can increase their number of professional level employees by offering flexible work plans (for pregnant women, mothers and fathers), professional women’s networks, and leadership and mentorship programs. She discussed the importance of encouraging girls to study math and science so that they can become leaders of Fortune 500 companies, which are often led by engineers. She mentioned the MENA Business Women’s Network, which is soon to become an independent regional NGO that is focused on advocacy campaigns to change public policy and raise awareness about women in the workplace.

The next panelist, Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, began by stating the importance for women to be at the table in both business and politics, because when women are empowered, they empower their own communities. She described her NGO, Women’s Campaign International (WCI), which helps women all over the world by providing training for grassroots organizing, fundraising, entrepreneurship, and conflict resolution. However, she acknowledged the difficulty of establishing metrics for success in the short term, because the success stories for the women they support are more anecdotal than quantitative. Quantitative measures for success can be obtained in the longer term. WCI’s newest effort is to develop global programs for adolescent outreach.

Nancy Owens, the third panelist, discussed the ways that General Motors (GM) helps women around the world by providing programs that focus on: 1. Training and development; 2. Employment generation; 3. Environmental awareness; 4. Health and wellness; 5. Educational scholarships, and 6. Community development projects. She gave examples of successful programs in Egypt, Colombia and Brazil, and emphasized that GM feels a commitment to the countries where they have a corporate presence.
Soraya Salti, the final panelist, began by saying that the women’s revolution has at last hit the Arab World. Arab women are now more likely to be educated than Arab men. Female labor participation across the ME has gone up to 30%. Women and girls are demonstrating resilience and determination to be agents of change, even in places like Yemen where resources are very limited. She stated that one of the challenges is that Arab women have typically relied on government jobs because there tends to be much more discrimination in the private sector, but the economic crisis has greatly reduced the number of government job opportunities.

Bullet point summary:
• The existing antidiscrimination laws to protect women in the workplace need to be enforced.
• NGOs working on these issues in the ME need help connecting to financial resources outside of the region.
• ME women need support and training to become activists in their home countries.
• Ministries in the region should explore economic incentives for women owned businesses.
• Young women and girls in the ME need encouragement, via mentorship, to study math, science and entrepreneurship.
• Educating ME women is not enough; we need to find ways to bring them into the workforce in greater numbers.