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Issue No. CCXI; August 27, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n THIS ISSUE’S HIGHLIGHTS:<\/strong> I. URBANIZATION AND WOMEN LEADING CITIES<\/strong> While urbanization brings new forms of economic opportunity, it presents new challenges, especially in terms of environmental strain and resource scarcity. It also points to a potential decentralization of political power from federal to urban leaders. As borders of cities spread, access to affordable transportation becomes a critical lightning rod that can unite or separate people.<\/p>\n These are but a few of the issues that city mayors will have to deal with in the future. While there are only a handful of women mayors currently, several women do run major global cities. Among them are Ana Botella, elected as the first woman mayor of Madrid, Spain in 2011 and Annise Parker, who runs the energy capital of the U.S., Houston, Texas, USA. Christine Quinn is a leading candidate in the current New York City mayoral race to be decided on November of 2013. If elected, Quinn would become the first woman to head the city whose economic power ranks among the top fifteen countries in the world, ahead of both Mexico and South Korea.<\/p>\n 5 Women Mayors or Mayor-Candidates: Ana Botella of Madrid, Annise Parker of Houston, Christine Quinn on New York, and Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet and Anne Hidalgo from Paris<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Paris is another major city with mayoral elections on March 2014, where the winner will be a woman, since candidates from the major parties are women: Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, former Minister of Ecology and Development under President Sarkozy, and Anne Hidalgo, who is the current Deputy Mayor. The new mayor will lead a city whose economy equals that of Malaysia, Israel, and Ireland combined. Against this backdrop, the 2014 Global Summit of Women, hosted by France in Paris from June 5-7, 2014, will have a special session featuring several women mayors that will focus on their vision for their respective cities. For more information on the 2013 Global Summit of Women, visit www.globewomen.org\/summit\/summit.htm.<\/p>\n II. CROWDFUNDING TO HELP START OF GROW A BUSINESS<\/strong> At the 2013 Global Summit of Women, Sam Shafie addressed an audience largely unfamiliar with the crowdfunding concept, according to the informal poll he conducted at the start of his presentation. Shafie, a lawyer-turned-entrepreneur and co-founder of Malaysia-based crowdfunding site pitchIN.my, noted that crowdfunding offers an attractive alternative to the standard ‘pitch’. “The beauty of crowdfunding is it tells you outright whether your idea is good or not,\u201d he said. \u201cThe crowd can be very honest with you and tell you that it’s not [good]. So rather than waste time and money, you can pivot to another area.” For more of Shafie’s remarks, see<\/p>\n
\nI. URBANIZATION AND WOMEN LEADING CITIES<\/strong>
\nII. CROWDFUNDING TO HELP START OR GROW A BUSINESS<\/strong>
\nIII. “LEANING ON”: AN APPROACH TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF WOMEN ON BOARDS<\/strong>
\nIV. WHAT WOMEN AND MEN THINK ABOUT WORK\/LIFE INTEGRATION<\/strong><\/p>\n
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\nAt the opening plenary session on \u201cMegatrends\u201d at the 2013 Global Summit of Women in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, attended by 1,100 women leaders last June, Marisa Drew, Co-Head of the European Investment Banking Department at Credit Suisse, pointed out a major global development \u2013 the world\u2019s increasing urbanization. \u201cThe urban population in the developing world will grow by about one million people per week in the next 25 years,\u201d she said. (For more of what Drew shared at the Summit, click here: http:\/\/youtu.be\/JVJ03Ulm1ts)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/globewomen.org\/globalsummit\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/1-12.jpg\")
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\nEvery new product idea, business venture, and social initiative must consider how it will finance its development and pursue its goals. Spurred by the growth of new technologies and social media, one form of financing has gained particular momentum in recent years: Crowdfunding — the use of the Internet to enable anyone to invest in small amounts on an enterprise, idea or creative project of their choice, a tool which democratizes financing of projects globally.<\/p>\n