Welcome to the inaugural Power 100 — our exclusive countdown of the world’s 100 most influential Arab women. Over the past six months, CEO Middle East has been scouring the globe to examine in the detail the influence of female Arabs. Though primarily from the business world, no sector has been left untouched — including science, media, entertainment, arts and sports. The result, we believe, is the most definitive list ever published on the power of Arab women.
This is a bit of a surprise. India now has the world's largest number of professionally qualified women. We have more working women than any other country in the world, handling everything from laser scalpels, blinking cockpits, nextgen software, farm equipment to the steering wheel of a city bus. From assigned roles as teachers, nurses, fish packers, telephone operators and administrative assistants to acquired ones as Principals, HR heads, Directors, Vice-Presidents, MDs and business owners, they have inched up in status and added up to their pay-cheques. They are stepping into the formal economy, happily knocking down cultural goalposts on the way.
With B.C. Premier-elect Christy Clark embracing her recent victory as British Columbia's second woman in history to hold the province's top political job, the topic of women and leadership is being looked at in many quarters once again.
Yet despite Ms. Clark's accomplishment, women leaders still have a hard time catching a break.
They're either stereotyped as too "male" -- hardened, cold and unfeeling, or the opposite; too caring and empathetic -- too "female" -- to get the job done well. It seems like they can't win.
By the time Gloria Steinem made her historic speech before the 1970 Senate, women's wages were little more than half of men's. A button bearing 59¢ was the shorthand statement of what a woman's wage was by comparison to every dollar earned by her male counterpart. Today, that amount has climbed to 78¢ for every dollar. Sort of looks like progress, doesn't it? We're only 22¢ and fifty years away from total parity.
Canadian organizations are not doing as much as their global counterparts in helping women break the proverbial glass ceiling when it comes to leadership roles, according to a new survey.
The report found 82 per cent of Canadian public and private sector organizations don't have solid strategies to develop women leaders. By contrast, 71 per cent of companies in other countries lack a similar strategy.
Offering flexible benefits to employees in the engineering, technology and information technology (IT) sectors could help to break the glass ceiling.
Roles models in these industries are often academic and/or childless, which can prevent female progress in these industries, according to Global Marathon Europe.
The Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering and Technology is an annual worldwide forum for women to discuss careers in the technology and engineering sectors.
Employers should make roles in these sectors "a career for life" for women, the organisers argue.
European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek has called for the implementation of quotas for female board members in a bid to boost the European economy as it crawls out of recession.
"It's time to shatter the glass ceiling for good," Buzek and Union Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding said in an article published by the International Herald Tribune. "Making better use of women's talents is not just a matter of equality and fairness. It's a business issue. And women mean business."
Women should occupy at least a quarter of the jobs on the boards of some of the top UK companies in the next four years according to a report issued by the government. Lord Davies Abersoch, a former trade minister who led the review, has said this doesn’t mean companies should hire more female executives.
A London Business School professor has attacked the "scandalous" absence of women in UK boardrooms in the run-up to a conference on the issue being held at the School on Saturday 5 March. This year's Women In Business event is themed Closing Gaps: The next stage in women's leadership, taking place on 5 March at London Business School. The conference is designed to address and inspire the next generation of high potential women and to help them succeed as managers, leaders and organizational visionaries.
This is Money Talk, the weekly investing podcast from the Motley Fool. I am David Kuo, and my guest is a pioneer in the process of psychology and coaching in business. She is a specialist in the science of positive psychology. She's the author of "Coaching Women to Lead". She is Averil Leimon, director of White Water Strategies, and I am delighted to say she is with me now.
