![\"\"](\"https:\/\/globewomen.org\/globalsummit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/eNews-banner.png\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/globewomen.org\/globalsummit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/1-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
No. CCXXXII; July 28,\u00a02015<\/strong><\/p>\n THIS ISSUE’S HIGHLIGHTS: I. WOMEN\u00a0CEOS PERCEIVED AS STRONG LEADERS AS MALE CEOS<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n If companies are hesitating to name a woman CEO out of fear for their company’s reputation, they should not wait any longer.\u00a0 According to a recent study conducted by KRC Research and Weber Shandwick, approximately\u00a0the same percentage of employees at companies with male and female CEOs responded that their CEO’s reputation is “very strong.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>While women are perceived as equally able once they get to the top post, the problem that remains is getting more of them into C-suite positions that lead to the top job.\u00a0 In the global survey, only 8% of companies had a woman CEO, while only 4% of the US\u00a0Fortune<\/em>\u00a0500 companies are led by women.<\/p>\n The study also revealed that\u00a0women are less likely to aspire to be the CEO.\u00a0 Globally, 32% of men said they wanted to be the leader of a large company in the future, but only 23% of women did<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 In North America, even fewer women — just 9% — aspired to be CEO.\u00a0 However, women executives in companies already led by a woman CEO were more likely to aspire for the top post than their counterparts in companies with male CEOs. (Fortune<\/em>, June 30, 2015).\u00a0 Bottom line —\u00a0without more role models of women leading companies, less women are likely to aim for those positions.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Does a woman CEO make a difference for other women?\u00a0 The\u00a02011 Corporate Women Directors International (CWDI) Report: Women CEOs Opening Doors to Boardrooms and C-Suites Globally\u00a0<\/em>showed that companies with women CEOs in 39 countries had a higher percentage of women in corporate leadership — 22.3% women board directors compared to the 9.8% average female representation in peer companies, and 24.3% women in senior management compared to 12.2% in companies led by men.<\/p>\n “Clearly, having a woman at the top of the corporate pyramid makes a difference for other women,” states CWDI Chair Irene Natividad.\u00a0 “Women help other women reach senior roles that are normally difficult to access.”\u00a0 For more CWDI research, visit\u00a0www.globewomen.org\/cwdi\/cwdi\/htm<\/a>.<\/p>\n II. WOMEN STILL FAR FROM EQUAL REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENTS GLOBALLY<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Women in Parliaments are often the catalysts for change, particularly in issues related to gender equality.\u00a0 However, women Parliamentarians are still largely not present in significant numbers in government bodies around the world.\u00a0 According to recent data from the Inter-Parliamentary Union,\u00a0only 22.2% of Parliamentarians in 180 countries around the world are women<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 Over the past decade, the percentage of women in Parliaments has been stagnant — increasing from 15.8% in 2005 to 22.2% today, an increase of only 6.4%, or less than 1% annually.<\/p>\n Some of Rwanda’s female majority Parliamentarians<\/em><\/p>\n Rwanda continues to be the country with the highest percentage of women in Parliament.\u00a0 In its Lower House, 63.8% are women,\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>while women represent 38.5% of Upper House members.\u00a0 The only other country to join Rwanda with a majority of women in the Lower House is Bolivia, which has 53.1% women.\u00a0 Bolivia’s Upper House is also close to equality with 47.2% women.<\/p>\n Other countries at the top include Cuba, the Seychelles, Sweden, Senegal, and South Africa.\u00a0 Ecuador, Iceland, Finland, Namibia, Nicaragua, and Spain also have over 40% women in their Lower or single House of Representatives for a total of 13 countries with over 40%.\u00a0 Ten years ago, only Rwanda and Sweden had over 40% women in Parliament.\u00a0 (Data from\u00a0www.ipu.org<\/a>).<\/p>\n III.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0TIME FOR A WOMAN UN SECRETARY-GENERAL IN 2017?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Ninety-six percent of respondents to a survey in the UK newspaper,\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>the Guardian, agreed that it was time to have a woman named U.N. Secretary-General.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Advocating for the cause, a group called Equality Now, gathered 20,000 signatures which they have sent to the General Assembly underscoring the need for women to lead this international agency.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The group\u2019s campaign succeeded, helping to prod the General Assembly to draft a resolution highlighting gender equality.<\/p>\n As the regional rotation for the next Secretary-General potentially moves to Eastern Europe, leading candidates from the region include the Head of UNESCO Irina Bokova and EU Commissioner and economist Kristalina Ivanova Georgieva.\u00a0\u00a0Also mentioned as possible candidates from other regions include IMF Chief Christine Lagarde, President of Chile and former Executive Director of UN Women Michelle Bachelet, and the former Prime Minister of New Zealand and Head of UNDP Helen Clark.<\/p>\n Under the leadership of current Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon, who created UN Women, the UN has focused more deeply on gender equality.\u00a0 However, does it make a difference to have a woman heading up this global body?\u00a0\u00a0Former President of Ireland Mary Robinson was quoted as saying, \u201cIt matters for women\u2019s empowerment globally,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWomen very often have a different way of leading, which could reinvigorate the United Nations as a whole, because there is more listening, being inclusive and working in practical ways to resolve problems.\u201d\u00a0(The Guardian<\/em>, July 9, 2015)<\/p>\n IV. CLOSING THE GENDER PAY GAP IN SILICON VALLEY<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Noticing that he was chairing a meeting with no women present, Salesforce Co-Founder and CEO Marc Benioff started what he called the Women\u2019s Surge to achieve 100 percent equality for men and women in pay and promotion, and to make sure that at least one-third of all participants at any meetings were women.\u00a0\u00a0Two of the women initially promoted, Cindy Robbins who became Head of Human Resources and Head of the Desk.com unit Leyla Seka, raised the issue with their CEO that even with his personal leadership on gender equity in the company, women were being paid less than men.\u00a0\u00a0The company then embarked on a unique, systematic effort to evaluate each position and to make the necessary salary adjustments when it found a disparity in wages.<\/p>\n Salesforce is not alone in trying to address pay discrepancies.\u00a0\u00a0Facebook, for example, claims to review its compensation data yearly and makes adjustments when it finds inequity.\u00a0\u00a0Other smaller companies are also taking innovative approaches, such as having salaries be transparent internally.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With large gender pay gap still present, though, it will take a combination of assertive employees, closer monitoring of compensation data, and managerial efforts to promote men and women equally to reduce the gap. (New York Times<\/em>, 7\/26\/16)<\/p>\n See photos and presentations from the 2015 Summit at\u00a0www.globewomen.org\/globalsummit<\/a><\/p>\n Join us in Warsaw, Poland\u00a0for the 2016 Global Summit of Women *** \u00a0June 9-11, 2016<\/em><\/p>\n Polish delegates at the Closing Ceremony of the 2015 Global Summit of Women inviting delegates to Poland in 2016.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Don’t receive this e-newsletter regularly? Subscribe\u00a0by\u00a0clicking here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nI.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0WOMEN\u00a0CEOS PERCEIVED AS STRONG LEADERS AS MALE CEOS
\nII.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0WOMEN STILL FAR FROM EQUAL REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENTS GLOBALLY
\nIII.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0TIME FOR A WOMAN UN SECRETARY-GENERAL IN 2017
\nIV.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0CLOSING THE GENDER PAY GAP IN SILICON VALLEY<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/globewomen.org\/globalsummit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/enews-cwdi-ceo-chart-1-300x213.png\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/globewomen.org\/globalsummit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/enews-rwanda-parliament2-1-300x225.png\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/globewomen.org\/globalsummit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/3-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/globewomen.org\/globalsummit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/enews-scales-1-300x295.jpg\")
Men in Silicon Valley earn up to 61% more than their female peers, according to Joint Venture Silicon Valley, an industry research group.\u00a0\u00a0Some companies, however, are striving to end the pay differences between men and women.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Salesforce, a San Francisco-based cloud computing company, is one such company making efforts to raise the salaries of underpaid women one at a time.<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/globewomen.org\/globalsummit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/enews-poland-1-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n