•  ABOUT US
•  NEWS &
  EVENTS
•  TALENT POOL
  PROGRAM
•  PARTNERS
•  CONTACT

WIL EVENT REPORTS

• NEWS
• EVENTS
  • Other events
  • WIL event reports
• 5 MINUTES WITH...
• BEST PRACTICES
• MENTORING
• IN BRIEF
• SUGGEST A TOPIC

A New Design for Europe’s Sustainable Development Biannual Meeting

Posted in WIL event reports
28 April 2010 - Brussels

Executive Summary

The proportion of women in decision making and the inclusion of women's perspectives in government policies, business planning or academic research are the two dimensions for which the European Network for Women in Leadership is constantly building supportive actions.

The last bi annual meeting dovetailed these objectives, reuniting 50 high-profile women concerned about learning how to contribute to the development of a “green” economy in Europe and to network as a means to boost their participation in the green economy.

In addition to the challenging opening and closing debates with Members of the European Parliament Britta Thomsen, Antonyia Parvanova and respectively Anneli Jäätteenmäki , former Prime Minister of Finland, and Vice-President of the European Parliament Diana Wallis, the day included three thought-provoking roundtables on women’s mobilization for a sustainable economy. A video conference brought together GlobalWIN and US Congresswoman Melissa Bean.

Finally, the meeting was the launching point of WIL’s much-looked-for study “Boosting the next generation of female leadership”. Through this study, WIL aims at discovering the women with the potential to step up to no. 1 leadership positions in the upcoming years across European public and private enterprises and provide them with a platform for learning and networking.

High-level networking lunch & Video conference with GlobalWIN, Washington DC

Two Members of the European Parliament, Dr. Antonyia Parvanova, Committees on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety & on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, and Britta Thomsen, Committees on Industry, Research and Energy & on Women's Rights and Gender Equality, opened the day by speaking about the ways to respond to the long-term effects of the economic crisis so that women do not miss arising opportunities. Dr Parvanova insisted on driving policies which would enhance the number of women entrepreneurs and innovators, while Ms Thomsen supports quota policies as a solution for the underrepresentation of women in decision making positions.

The two different viewpoints raised an interesting debate based on comparing differing practices and their results across Europe which opened the flow to an interesting exchange of views with US Congresswoman Melissa Bean and GlobalWIN in Washington DC.

“Let girls rock!” - WIL partners from across the Atlantic raised the issue of dealing with the low numbers of women professionally ready to work in a sustainable economy from a very early stage. They called for more systematic awareness campaigns aimed at girls and teachers or mentoring programs.

Enabling Women’s Leadership in the New Economy

The roundtable moderated by Pinuccia Contino, Head of Unit Multilingualism and translation studies, DG Translations - EU Commission, was a great chance to launch the study commissioned by WIL and headed by Marina Niforos, Former Gender Diversity Initiative Lead at INSEAD. The study “Boosting the Next Generation of Female Entrepreneurs” aims to measure the number of women in no. 3 -4 leadership positions in European public and private enterprises who will be able to take the lead in upcoming years.

Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, a renowned author of gender books, delivered an impressive speech about the positive impact that a society with a gender balanced leadership can have on demographics or on the increasing rate of school failure among boys. As far-fetched as it may seem, countries with a high rate of women participating in the economy, such as France (80%), are registering a growing population while in Germany, for instance, the birth rate is very low.

Would Sodexo’s solution – “What gets measured, gets done!” – work out? Alison Lazerwitz, Vice-President International Development at Sodexo, is one of the top managers who will contribute to raising the percentage of women in their top management from the current 18% to 25% by 2015.

There are some more systemic issues which need to be regarded, including the fact that young women are not aware of the existence of a “glass ceiling” until they reach a certain career position, in both the private and public sectors. Solving this issue, will open professional opportunities to many young women to an environmentally-aware economy.

Industry Mobilization for a Low Carbon European Economy

Europe targets to emit 20% less CO2 and produce 20% of its energy from renewed energy sources by 2020. The roundtable moderated by Sixtine Bouygues, Head of Communication Unit, DG INFSO European Commission, and joined by investors, entrepreneurs and large business reps as well as by regulators, discussed this topic as a way to open the domain to the women who can contribute to reaching these targets.

The ground-breaking, but still gender imbalanced ICT sector will have a major role. Not only will it monitor our carbon footprint, but it will also support other industries to make the life-cycle of their products and services more efficient, as Mary-Veronika Tovšak-Pleterski, Principal Adviser in DG INFSO, stated.

In the words of Jean-Philippe Vanot, Deputy CEO in charge of Quality and CSR at France Telecom Orange, exchanging a London-Singapore plane ticket with a tele-meeting would reduce the carbon footprint impact from 2250 kg to 110 kg!

Other businesses will be mainly concerned with reducing their impact across the environment. Babette Pettersen, VP New Business Development at DSM, pinpointed the need to intensively research other energy sources, beyond the scarce petroleum and agricultural feedstocks. Although positive in approach, Marie Christine LeBlanc, an engineer and entrepreneur, CEO of APuissance3, raised the issue of a uniform regulatory system for large companies and SMEs, but which restricts SME’s innovation possibilities.

To this, Soledad Blanco, Director for Industry in DG Environment, argued the future Europe will have to offer the same economic value by using less resources than today. This is why the current regulatory framework is trying to speed up the alignment of business and consumer practices to future needs.

One of the solutions for the lack of financial resources came from Charlotte Kalaidjian, who launched an investment fund for companies developing “green” technologies, Greenwish Partners. As the value of low-carbon energy markets is expected to reach $500BN by 2050 (Stern) and the demand for renewable energies to increase by 46% (IEA 08), new opportunities will quickly arise for women entrepreneurs or innovators. Ignoring the importance of having diverse talents in the domains mentioned above will hinder the development of low-carbon technologies and a sustainable economy, in general.

Preparing Europe’s Talent Pipeline for a Green Economy

The roundtable run by Dorothee Belz, Associate General Counsel at Microsoft, discussed the ways to diversify the skills of the current and future workforce. The current society needs inventors and innovators to build resources for growing societal needs. Prof. Yves Quéré and Luisa Prista, Head of Unit in DG Research, explained the missing talents in science and research. While Prof. Quéré is changing the way science is taught in schools, through programs like La Main à la Pâte and The European Pollen Project, so that children, and especially girls, become passionate about scientific discovery, Ms. Prista has touched the sensitive subject of less innovation due to the gender biased decision making process in research.

The industry has the capacity to encourage the development of technical skills for an environmentally- aware economy, particularly among girls. Throughout her experience as Executive VP Mobile and Devices in France Telecom Orange, Anne Bouverot witnessed how relationships across industries became more interdependent and how women draw cross-sectorial economic growth through their capacity to relate to other people’s needs.

Elena Bonfiglioli, Co-chair of the E-skills Industry Leadership Board & CSR Director for Microsoft also stressed that society needs people with dual skills, not just IT experts, but communicators, not just managers but environmentalists.

What is the status in the primary and secondary sectors? Candice Stevens, former OECD consultant, presented her study regarding the capacity of women in all sectors to occupy available “green” jobs. Worldwide, the percentage of women in green jobs is growing - 20% of farming, fisheries and forestry, 9% in constructions and only 12% in engineering and 15% in finance.

A growing economy is grounded on equity, whether speaking about the high or the low-skilled jobs which help it grow: which is why governments should activate policies that open new sectors of growth to women at all stages of their professional development.

High level Dinner at the European Parliament hosted by Dr Antonyia Parvanova MEP

In a friendly exchange of ideas, Vice-President of the European Parliament Diana Wallis, our host Dr. Antonyia Parvanova MEP and Anneli Jäätteenmäki MEP, former Prime Minister of Finland, wrapped up the day by making the liaison between the current participation of women in a sustainable economy and their low representation in the highest political decision making forums.

Both their professional and personal examples, including the support given to the nomination of a woman in one of the 4 highest European decision making positions, highlighted the existence of a political glass ceiling which replicates at other levels of society.

The overall feeling was that the systems within our society should be adapted to the needs of the women. At the same time, to boost the number of female leaders, women need to adapt some of the systems to their socio-professional plans, including networking and investing in their own learning skills.

Tags: Environment, IT skills, Member of European Parliament, EU Commission, Sustainable development, European Union Policies, Antonyia Parvanova, Marina Niforos, Mary-Veronica Tovšak-Pleterski, Sixtine Bouygues, Dorothée Belz, Luisa Prista

∧ top

| Mail | Print

Leave a comment

Firstname^*
Lastname^*
Email^*

Please, enter the text above

Comments

∧ top