Gender equality in government, on screen and in the boardroom

With the world’s eyes turned to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum, EY has used the platform to highlight gender inequality in the workplace. The professional services firm erected an ice wall upon which it will be projecting short films documenting moves toward gender equality.

Gender equality was one of the summit’s hot topics this year. British actress Emma Watson made headlines with her address on the topic in Switzerland. A speech that followed her appeal to the UN late last year. She said, “Women share this planet 50/50 and they are underrepresented, their potential astonishingly untapped.”

Elsewhere, Rwanda was lauded as a world leader in political gender equality. The east African nation’s 30% quota system for women in parliament postgenocide has encouraged a female-dominated legislative body to emerge. Business leaders also took a stance on the issue. Tupperware’s CEO Rick Goldings discussed his experiences at Davos in encouraging gender equality and Melinda Gates, of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was a leading voice in the debate.

EY’s existing position on gender equality was enhanced with its activity at the World Economic Forum this year. John Rudaizky, EY partner, global brand and external communications leader says, “This initiative at the World Economic Forum is designed to highlight that 80 years is too long to wait for gender parity in the workplace. EY’s objective is to stimulate dialogue on this important global issue and ask, why wait? It’s in every organization’s best economic interest to fully utilize the talents of women.” The British communications industry, comprised largely of women, has been embroiled in a debate about flexible working. Having the focus of the world’s leaders on the issue may encourage positive change within comms.

EY recently released a report, ‘EY’s Women. Fast forward: The time for gender parity is now,’ documenting how itself and other companies and sectors are supporting career development and equal environments for women. The survey found that corporate boards featuring women achieved an average of a 4% higher share price than comprised solely of men. EY also notes the importance of transparency and narrative reporting in sharing with stakeholders the value of mixed boards and women in leadership positions.

For EY itself, the report notes that flexibility is key to maintaining positive relationships with women in the workforce and to supporting gender equality internally. The European Commission set out a goal in 2012 that 40% of non-executive boards should be women by 2020.

The company supports Davos’ ‘Women Leaders and Gender Parity Program’ and thus likely selected Davos as the venue for this CSR initiative launch to capture the attention of the world’s most powerful business leaders. The ice screen approach was one such attention-grabber. The ‘Worldwide Index of Women as Public Sector Leaders’, published by EY, shows that only four G20 countries have women comprise a third of the public sector workforce.

 The 4,500kg ice screen hosted films from 21-23 January in Davos.

Russian prospects and economic challenges For me, Davos remains the only game in town for discussion of the latest thinking and ideas on the global economy, business and development. For marketing and communications professionals, it is always exciting to see what causes the big moments at Davos. What big idea is going to capture the imagination is a question attendees always wonder when making their way to the Swiss resort.  

In 2013, Davos focused on the stubborn failure of the global economy to recover from the financial crisis, amid the woes in the eurozone and the US fiscal cliff. Last year, a key theme was harnessing technology to encourage the green shoots of economic growth. This year, participants discussed issues including wealth inequality, the eurozone and reviving growth through more unorthodox means (although many commentators now claim quantitative easing to be the new normal). 

A look at the above list makes it clear how the World Economic Forum has retained its edge. Davos has a knack for highlighting the big issues of our time. In our 24/7 media environment, the forum is able to rise above non-stop coverage of the latest crisis and join the dots between short-term problems and long term solutions. 

Take the issue of the Russian economy, for example. Russia’s prospects in 2015 were a huge theme at this year’s forum. No doubt these are challenging times – as Russia’s largest investment bank, we at VTB Capital face questions all the time about doing business in the country.

But look closer, as Davos participants have been able to do, and you can see some indicators that Russia’s prospects in 2015 are on the uptick. The business community this year were bullish on the country’s prospects, with one investor regaling an audience with Warren Buffet’s famous advice, “Be fearful when others are greedy, but be greedy when others are fearful.” Clearly the business community is looking at Russia in 2015 – it will certainly be an interesting period.  

VTB Capital’s event at Davos brought together over 70 high-profile investors and global business leaders to discuss some of these issues. The event, titled ‘Acknowledging Differences, Capturing Opportunities,’ was hosted by CNN’s Richard Quest, and looked at the implications of the US oil boom; the sustainability of public finances in a cheap oil economy; the prospects for growth in China and India; and the outlook for EU and US sanctions.

On each issue, participants made interesting and novel contributions. While a number of investors claimed to be nervous about the global geopolitical situation for 2015, the overall point we took away from the event was that Russia had a key role to play in some of the big issues facing the global economy in 2015.