Women mean business, because:
1. Women represent most of the market
Women represent most of the talents, representing 60% of university graduates in Europe and North America. And they make 80% of consumer goods purchasing decisions.
2. Profitability
Companies with more women in leadership functions outperform those with less.
3. Crucial to demographic challenges
Countries that facilitate women in work enjoy higher birth rates and higher growth, opening doors to tomorrows talents and develop a more integrated and thus sustainable society.
4. Innovation
Companies that adapt to women and female qualities in their culture are better prepared for the new workforce, integrating the senior and younger generations, and to handle this diversity. Diversity is known as a main driver for innovation.
5. Laws
Europe’s listed companies will be forced to reserve at least 40 per cent of their executive director board seats for women by 2020 or face fines and other sanctions under a proposal being drafted by the European Commission.
6. This is good news for you guys, too!
The new young generation, the Generation Y, has learned that women and men are equally worthy and chooses a partner with the same approach to the work-life balance. The following effects can be observed:
- Their children perform better at school.
- They have less psychological problems.
- They have less diseases.
- They have more and better sex.
- They develop new regimes and abilities to master both private and business lives.
- This integrated perspective leads to better interaction.
- The understanding of self in work life creates a new future.
- They choose workplaces according to values based reflection and interest .
- This creates sustainability in the sense that one can affect ones own future.
- And it leads to new ideals as well as to the feeling of safety and freedom.
7. Your organization is probably only utilizing between 20 and 50% of its potential.
There is good researched based validation for the goal of integrating masculine and feminine principles. In a landmark study at Stanford University, psychologists discovered that the highest levels of intellectual functioning are incompatible with stereotypes of femininity and masculinity.
See also “Why women mean business” by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox & Alison Maitland.
