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On Thursday 17 October 2013, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, Minister of Women Rights and spokesperson of the Government released the French Ministry of Women’s Rights recent ranking of most important companies on the French Exchange based on their degree of corporate governance feminization. WIL is thrilled to announce that one of our main partners Orange was ranked as the top company for the feminization of their corporate governance. The ranking is based on transparent monitoring of company’s feminization, taking into account quantitative measures such as the number of women on the board of directors and the number of female executives, as well as qualitative factors such as feminization policies.

This ranking recognises the significant advances that Orange has made in gender equality, considering its proactive gender equality policy and in particular the feminization of its Board of Directors (33%) and executive committee (25%). Orange consistently aims at establishing gender equality and is convinced of the economic advantages related to a gender balanced company. In addition to their recognition, Orange’s Delphine Ernotte Cunci, Senior Executive Vice President and Deputy Chief Executive Officer signed a framework agreement on gender equality with Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, Minister of Women Rights.

Stéphane Richard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Orange, commented on the distinction stating: “I am very pleased that Orange is ranked in first place in this listing as this clearly recognizes the efforts we have made over several years in the field of gender equality. (...) We must move towards equal representation of men and women at every level of the company and towards equal career opportunities for both, but the road ahead is long. Today, one of our principal challenges in this field is to shift mentalities, and that takes time.”

Read more about Orange’s engagement for fostering feminization: press release

The European Commission’s Digital Agenda released a new study on October 3rd, 2013 titled “Women active in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Sector”. It ultimately stresses the importance of increasing the percentage of women in the ICT sphere, but also provides a multifaceted view of the sector to date. The report looks into the current state of women in the ICT sector and examines the number of women occupying the sector in Europe, how long they work within the sector and what types of positions they occupy. Additionally it dissects some of the factors preventing women from fully participating in the ICT sector and sets goals to improve on the current situation.

The main message that the report conveys is that “getting more girls interested in a digital career and getting more women into digital jobs would benefit the industry, women themselves and Europe’s economy” (Commission Report: Women Active in ICT) on a broader scale. Stressing the crucial economic and social significance of introducing more women into ICT oriented careers, will hopefully aid in working towards the objective of balancing the gender representation in the sector. European Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes states: “We now know, beyond doubt, that more women in a business mean a healthier business,…, and Europe’s economy [can] benefit from their enormous potential”.

The report reveals that of 1000 women with a Bachelors or other first degree, only 29 pursued studies in ICTs, as compared to 95 men. Furthermore, only 4 in 1000 women eventually end up working in the ICT sector and are much more likely to leave the sector mid-career – while 20% of women aged 30 with ICT-related degrees work in the sector, only 9% of women above 45 years of age do so. As in other professional fields, women are under-represented in managerial and decision-making positions; but with 19.2% female bosses in ICT compared to 45.2% in non-ICT related occupation.

In regards to barriers preventing women from fully participating in the sector, the study discerns three major trends: (1) cultural traditions and stereotypes regarding women’s roles, (2) internal barriers and socio-psychological factors, such as lack of self-confidence, risk-aversion or negative attitudes towards competition, (3) external barriers, such as strongly male-dominated environment, difficulties in balancing personal and professional life and lack of role models.

As concluding remarks the report finds an immense potential in respect to the accrued integration of women in the ICT sector. The European GDP is expected to increase annually by around EUR 9 billion and the ICT organisations would substantially benefit as businesses if they are more inclusive of women in management. The study claims that they could achieve a 35% higher Return on Equity and 34% better total return to shareholders than other comparable organisations. Moreover, the study found that women in the ICT sector earn up to 9% more than women in other parts of the economy and have higher flexibility in the arrangement of their work life.

With these aspects in mind, the Commission’s study suggests four priority areas of action:

• Building a renewed image of the sector among women and society, with actions such as disseminating most appealing ICT topics for young women (exciting, diverse, profitable etc.)
• Empowering women in the sector, e.g. promoting, together with industry, harmonised European educational curricula to foster clear and straightforward ICT careers paths;
• Increasing the number of women entrepreneurs in ICTs, e.g. improving access to seed and venture capital programs for women entrepreneurs; and
• Improving working conditions in the sector, e.g. by highlighting the improved performance of businesses employing women. By showcasing a variety of profiles of women working in ICT jobs, the study sets a good example in how to attract more girls and women to consider careers in the area of digital technology.

To read the press release and find a link to the full report please click here.

August 21, 2013 WIL member Anne Bouverot, Director General, GSMA has made the 2013 list of Fiercewireless’s top ten ‘Most Influential Women in Wireless’ working in the United States market.

Fiercewireless is a well-known daily monitoring newsletter operating within the scope of the wireless industry. It has a robust subscriber network of over 80 000, from diverse sectors like telecoms, Enterprise IT, Government, health services, life sciences and more.

For over five years Fiercewireless editors have been tracking high-level women working in the world of wireless and creating a list of the ‘top ten’ most influential women. The criteria is based on two aspects, the role these women play in their company and the role these women play in the broader wireless industry.

WIL is proud to have Anne Bouverot honoured as one of the wireless world’s most influential women!

To read the Fiercewireless article please click here.

On 9th July 2013, WIL acted as official partner for the book launch of “Entrepreneurs need Freedom” (Trauner Verlag, 2013), written by Dr. Paul Rübig, Member of the European Parliament and Co-founder and Honorary President of the business association SME Europe. WIL member Afke Schaart, Senior Director of EU Institutional Relations at Microsoft, also expressed her support for women entrepreneurs by attending the event, which took place at the European Parliament in front of an exclusive audience invested in the growth and flourishing of SMEs in Europe.

For this occasion, WIL had the opportunity to personally interview Dr. Paul Rübig on his views on the role of SMEs in the European economy, female entrepreneurship and new technologies as a means to support start-ups (videos in English and German below).

The book “Entrepreneurs need Freedom” (the English translation is currently underway) uses initiatives of the European Parliament benefitting SMEs to illustrate the European community’s legislation process on the basis of practical examples. It thus functions in two ways: On the one hand it promotes SMEs as an engine of growth and introduces concrete measures to support them. On the other hand it allows European citizens to follow and understand the legislative processes at work that make up the daily routine of those who represent them at the EU level.

The evening was opened by MEP Nadezhda Neynsky, President of SME Europe, followed by MEP Iulio Winkler, who introduced Dr. Paul Rübig as the so-called “SME MEP” for his endless dedication to the needs of small and medium-sized companies.

Dr. Rübig then briefly introduced his book, emphasizing the importance of encouraging female entrepreneurship and the role of SMEs in reducing youth unemployment, before handing over the microphone to statements from Christian Weinberger, Senior Advisor Entrepreneurship & SME Policy at the Directorate General Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission, and Bettina Lorentschitsch, Head of the Commerce Department of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber.

Christian Weinberger specifically pointed out Dr. Rübig’s dedication to promoting female business angels and supporting the COSME program (Programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs 2014-2020) of the European Commission. Bettina Lorentschitsch mentioned tight regulations as an obstacle to SMEs’ growth and urged the European representation to explain and justify its actions and function to the very skeptical enterprises. She argued for a simplification of the tax system and the bureaucracy surrounding the foundation of a company, to give entrepreneurial minds incentives rather than discouragement.

Finally, Dr. Rübig thanked WIL and Microsoft for their support and opened the floor for the Q&A, in which the aspects of diversity, global mobility and data protection were addressed. Overall, the prevailing attitude of the evening was the desire to remove regulations and other barriers that counteract the initiative and innovative spirit of Europe’s entrepreneurs. The book is one example of how such progress can be achieved at the European level.

Eliane Fiolet is the co-founder and editor of Ubergizmo.com, a leading technology news site that features product reviews and coverage of all topics related to new gadgets, computing devices, technology breakthroughs and home entertainment products.

Early career

Originally, Eliane began her career as a graphic designer. Upon graduating with a Master’s degree in visual communication and design from the “Art Decoratifs” college in Strasbourg, she started working for several well-known agencies, such as Trois Quarts Face and Atelier François Miehe et Cie, contributing to the creation of visual identities for several cultural institutions.

She then turned towards video games for Cryo Interactive Entertainment, in particular to work on the educational game Versailles 1685, which sold over half a million copies worldwide, and ranked among the best-selling games in France in 1996, alongside Tomb Raider and Myst.

In 1998, after 3 years with Cryo Interactive Entertainment, she decided to change her professional direction once more and became Senior Designer for Minale Tattersfield Design Strategy, an agency specialized in visual identities and strategic design consulting for big groups such as Eurostar, Sephora, Caisse d’Epargne, Banque Bruxelles Lambert, and others. Minale Tattersfield Design Strategy, which was renamed Minale Design Strategy in 2000, has been rated among the world’s top ten corporate identity agencies.

Exploring new territory in Silicon Valley

During the famous internet bubble, Eliane moved to Silicon Valley, California. Initially arriving as a tourist, she quickly found a position as the Creative Director of Design Matters, a company developing web-based applications in San Carlos. For almost two years she created the user experience and graphic design for multiple applications (e-commerce, publication platform, intranet, and others) and websites for a variety of clients, from start-ups to big groups, such as 3Com, Airgas and Robert Mondavi. The bust of the internet bubble in 2001 prompted her to return to France in 2002 to lead design projects on a freelance basis.

Creation and development of Übergizmo

In 2004, after having obtained her Green Card for permanent residence in the United States, Eliane Fiolet returned to California indefinitely. This time she found herself in Palo Alto, where she founded Übergizmo together with Hubert Nguyen, graphics engineer at NVIDIA.

Interested in innovation and new electronic devices, these two entrepreneurs used to eagerly read the new “gadget blogs” Gizmodo and Engadget, which have since become their competitors. They decided that they could write about the same subjects from a slightly different angle, because unlike these new kinds of publications they enjoyed reading, Übergizmo would be published directly through the technology industry and not through the press.

At the end of September 2004, the English version of Übergizmo was created online; the French version followed in January 2005. Today, Übergizmo is published in English, French and Spanish and read in over 200 countries.

In June 2005, Eliane created Übergizmo LLC (Limited Liability Company) to operate the business, of which she and her partner each own 50% of the shares. During the summer of 2007 it became obvious that Übergizmo, which had built a consistent following, required full-time attention. Eliane stopped her freelance activities, Hubert quit NVIDIA and Übergizmo’s headquarters were established in San Francisco.

Since then, the site’s readership has continuously increased, having thus turned Eliane and Hubert into online publishing professionals, together with an internationally-based team. Originally a “hobby website”, Übergizmo is now a news site dedicated to consumer electronics and emerging technologies that is well-respected and established among both its peers and audience, thanks to its neutral and informative editorial policy and product tests.

Übergizmo has received an Honorary Webby Award and has been mentioned in many of the biggest international media outlets (Wall Street Journal, Venture Beat, BBC, Le Monde, Europe 1, France Info, Stern and USA Today, to name a few). Its founders were included among the 50 French citizens who have left their mark on the United States by France Amérique magazine, as representing innovative new media business ideas and, most of all, entrepreneurial spirit on an international scale.

On 11th March 2013, Club L Benelux - in cooperation with WIL - is hosting a high-level dinner on the “Women and Power” study carried out by WIL member Viviane de Beaufort, Professor in European and Comparative Law at ESSEC Business School, and founder of the "Women Be European Board Ready" program.

Club L Benelux, which is a network of over 200 high-level women from the world of politics, business, arts and media, presided over by Evelyn Gessler, regularly organizes networking events with the aim to support women to find new opportunities and reach top leadership levels.

The dinner will take place at 7.30pm at Cercle Gaulois, 5 rue de la Loi, 1000 Brussels, and several members of the European Commission as well as WIL Emerging Leaders are registered to participate in debating the results of this insightful study.

The “Women and Power” study, authored by Viviane de Beaufort, is based on a series of interviews with women leaders and executives and explores the different dimensions of the relationship between women and power, such as cultural conditioning, career factors and perception of quotas, thus encouraging reflection on contemporary models of governance and leadership.

After the dynamic feedback meeting co-organized by AmCham France, and a session within the context of the Women’s Forum in Deauville, this will be the third in a series of events aimed at discussing the study’s results.

WIL has interviewed Denis Perret-Gallix, CNRS Research Director, Director TyL Lab, about its project to find European partners for the launch of the first Japanese award for women in research.

European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Máire Geoghegan-Quinn recently warned that “the European Union is going to need up to one million extra researchers by 2020. And right now, women comprise more than half the EU's student population and 45% of all PhDs, but they account for only one third of career researchers. We need them to solve problems like climate change, energy and public health. We need them to help improve our economy and to help provide growth and jobs.”

Improving gender equality and the gender dimension in research and innovation is one of her major commitments. To that end, Europe needs to boost its innovation & research culture.

Collaboration with non-European countries is also relevant. That is why we wanted to better understand Denis Perret-Gallix’s initiative. His story is an example of an innovative European scientific collaboration with Japan.

Can you explain what TYL lab is?

6 years ago, IN2P3 (CNRS) and Irfu (CEA)[1] in France created a joint laboratory in the field of particle physics with KEK[2] in Japan. Its name, TYL (Toshiko Yuasa Lab.), is a tribute to the first woman physicist in Japan[3]. She carried out most of her research career in France (CNRS), in Frederic Joliot-Curie’s team[4]. During the war, she had to move back to Japan and taught at the Ochanomizu Women’s University in Tokyo. She became very active in improving cooperation with Europe and promoting women in physics. Today, TYL houses 25 joint projects on many aspects of particle and high-energy physics, studying the basic forces of nature and the origin of the universe. This is the same physics which made headlines recently at CERN[5] with the discovery of a new boson, the famous Higgs particle[6]. In addition, every year TYL organizes in cooperation with KEK, Ochanomizu and Nara Women’s universities a school for high-school women students providing an initiation into research in the field of physics.

Could you tell us more about the “Women in research” award ceremony to be launched in 2013?

Discussions in Japan involving TYL, universities and industries are being held to award, from 2013 on, women researchers in the field of natural sciences (including physics, biology, chemistry, IT, mathematics, ...). One option would be to award 2 prizes a year: one, at post-doc level, to a promising young woman researcher and one, at an advanced level, to a well-established woman researcher. The award ceremony will be part of an international symposium giving researchers an opportunity to present their challenges and achievements. Thanks to the international dimension, the awardees would be given the possibility to visit companies, laboratories or other organizations in Europe related to their field of expertise.

How would you like to associate WIL and/or any of its members to this first award? Which type of collaboration with Asia are you looking for?

WIL can play a pro-active role by informing its members about this rare initiative and its benefits for developing stronger links between Japan and Europe. Some of the organizations may wish to sponsor this event and/or welcome Japanese women researchers. They could even form a foundation of sorts to support women in science in this bilateral framework. In a second stage, setting up a more balanced project could be considered in a joint foundation between the EU and Japan[7] and why not Asia, sponsoring cross exchanges for young women between the two regions in all domains of leadership.

Switzerland, Sweden and Singapore are the three most innovative countries in the world, according to the Global Innovation Index (GII) 2012, a ranking of 141 countries co-produced by INSEAD and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO, a specialised agency of the United Nations) published in Geneva on July 3, 2012.

This is the second year running that Switzerland, Sweden and Singapore have been in the top three positions. The rest of the top ten this year are: Finland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Hong Kong (China), Ireland and the United States. Canada dropped out of the top ten this year, while the U.S. fell to tenth position from number seven last year, changes which the report attributes to cutbacks in spending on, and support of, education and research and development.

A new measurement in this year’s GII includes the Global Innovation Efficiency Index, showing which countries exhibit innovation despite an environment which may be less than supportive. China, India and the Republic of Moldova are the top three in this category.

Currently in its fifth year, the GII measures the degree to which countries and economies integrate innovation into their political business and social spheres. Knowledge partners for the GII 2012 are Alcatel-Lucent, Booz & Company and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

To go to the INSEAD full article, click here.

To go to the official website of the Global Innovation Index, click here.

This article is republished courtesy of INSEAD Knowledge (http://knowledge.insead.edu ). Copyright INSEAD 2012.

ACT4Growth is a European Citizens Initiative, ECI, an instrument set up within the European Treaty and legislative process to enable CITIZENS to have a voice. The campaign requires one million signatures from EU citizens in the next 6 months and has the ultimate objective of promoting gender equality and the advancement of women in Europe. WIL, the European Network for Women in Leadership, is partnering up with ACT4Growth and invites all interested members, emerging leaders and friends to take this opportunity and use their power as a citizen to change policy.

Broadly the initiative aims to spark job creation, innovation and sustainable jobs and ultimately to ensure that women’s entrepreneurship remains on the policy agenda in Europe. Furthermore the campaign also plans to introduce robust measures providing governments with real data about women setting up in business, accessing government funds and support as well as securing financial growth.

Madi Sharma, a successful entrepreneur, has launched the ACT4Growth Initiative to bring to policy implementation the recommendations of an official opinion for the European Economic and Social Committee. Ms Sharma, recently returned from an event in Vilnius where she increased recognition for the importance of female entrepreneurship. A long-time supporter of WIL, Ms Sharma shares the values of WIL in supporting female entrepreneurship and access to capital.

ACT4Growth establishes the link between social development, female entrepreneurship and the economic growth which results from these activities. Furthermore, the initiative stresses the lack of selective measurement of the economic contribution of female entrepreneurs, due to the government’s lapse of baseline information collection. The promotion of female entrepreneurship seems to have fallen off Europe’s enterprise agenda altogether and increasingly since the crisis. The debate about women’s enterprise and whether it needs to be addressed will never be answered until we are able to measure our performance. One of the key measures we are calling for in the ECI is a legislative requirement for European Governments to collect business statistics from a gender perspective. Therefore ACT4Growth is collecting supporters for our campaign, which will hopefully give them a hearing at the European government level.

For more details on the initiative and to sign as a European or non- European citizen, click here

The 2012 McKinsey & Company Women Matter report gives a clear picture of the representation of women in companies’ boards.

The outcomes of the research, based on qualitative and quantitative surveys and interviews with senior managers and CEOs of 235 large European companies in eight different countries, shows that even though there is a progress regarding the female representation in the boards or at senior positions in the companies, the change is slow.

If improvement goes at these rates, in 10 years from now women will have less than 20 percent of the seats of boards or executive committees in the European companies.

In countries, which introduced quotas, the percentage of women on corporate boards increased significantly. The changes however are – just like in countries where quotas haven’t been introduced -mainly in the percentage of women on boards, and to a lesser extent in the executive committees.

An important point, is that in order to incorporate more women in their corporate boards, some companies simply increased the number of seats; the number of men therefore has not decreased.

This does not show significant progress in terms of gender balance. It seems like some companies are fulfilling the quotas, rather than show commitment to promoting diversity on boards and in executive committees.

Another important outcome of the study, is that many companies employing many women, have no female CEOs and very few women in the executive committees – this is particularly the case in the media, telecommunications and technology sectors, energy and basic materials and financial services. Companies from sectors such as transport, logistics and consumer goods however employ less women, but one third of them are CEOs and have seats in executive committees.

The study also shows the different key gender diversity issues in different European countries. In the UK and France for example companies are investing a lot in gender diversity, but still have not seen much change. In Germany companies are committed to increase the number of women in senior positions - the number of women in executive committees has increased by 16 %. One of the main gender diversity issues the Netherlands needs to face, is the lack of women in mid-level management positions, while the issue to be addressed by the Czech Republic, is women’s return to work after maternity leave, which lasts up to 3 years.