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Linking BusinessWomen Worldwide GLOBEWOMEN ENEWS ISSUE NO. LVII, February 22, 2007
THIS ISSUE’S HIGHLIGHTS:
I. MEET WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS AT THE 2007 GLOBAL SUMMIT OF WOMEN II. EUROPEAN UNION ATTEMPTS TO ADDRESS WOMEN’S PAY GAP III. LARGEST SEX DISCRIMINATION CASE IN U.S. HISTORY NOW HEADED FOR THE COURTS IV. GENDER QUOTA BILL IN CHILE TO INCREASE WOMEN’S POLITICAL REPRESENTATION MEETS OPPOSITION
I. MEET WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS AT THE 2007 GLOBAL SUMMIT OF WOMEN Women entrepreneurs from China to Kazakhstan, from the U.S. to South Africa, from Mexico to the U.K., from every corner of the world, in other words, will be present at this year’s gathering of women business and government leaders in Berlin, Germany on June 14-16th. The Global Summit of Women plans to list ‘delegations’ of businesswomen with contact information of their leaders on the Summit website, www.globewomen.com, so that meetings can be arranged directly between groups. Readers are invited to view the list of International Member and Partner Organizations on the Summit website to get a preview of some of the women’s business groups planning to attend the June event.
Here are three women entrepreneurs who will be participating in the Summit program for readers to ‘meet.’ They exemplify the business leadership that will be present at the Berlin gathering. • Terry McNally is CEO of Chicago-based Global Capital, Ltd, which is engaged in the business of offering a variety of leasing and financing opportunities to corporations of various financial needs, markets and sizes. With revenues nearing US$100 million, her company has been recognized as one of the top women-owned businesses in Illinois. Ms. McNally is a panelist on the Summit session on “Securing Corporate Contracts: Best Practices in Corporate Supplier Diversity Programs.” • Gun Nowak is CEO of Face Stockholm, a cosmetics business founded in 1980 in Sweden but which has grown to a global company now in 34 locations worldwide. Ms. Nowak runs the business with her daughter Martina, who is based in New York. Recently celebrating the company’s 25th anniversary, Ms. Nowak has been recognized with numerous awards including the “Entrepreneur of the Year” by the Independent Cosmetic Manufacturers American Division. Ms. Nowak is presenting in the Summit session on “Learning from Business Downturns.” • Safa Al Hashem is Founder, Chairman, and Managing Director of Advantage Consulting Company, a management and business advisory firm in Kuwait. One of the highest profile female executives in Kuwait, Ms. Al Hashem specializes in working with executives to establish business strategies and has consistently used best practices to translate business strategies into attainable objectives at a micro level. Her firm works with companies in both the public and private sector. Ms. Al Hashem will be presenting in the Summit session on “Managing vs. Leading.”
SUMMIT ANNOUNCEMENTS: • VISAS to Germany take time to process. Participants are strongly urged to apply for their visas the soonest possible. Please log on to www.globewomen.com (click to Global Summit of Women) for the list of countries for which visas are required.
• Microsoft is providing a scholarship to the Summit covering travel, lodging and registration for a woman in the field of technology from selected European countries. Details are available on www.globewomen.com, click to Global Summit of Women.
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II. EUROPEAN UNION ATTEMPTS TO ADDRESS WOMEN’S PAY GAP Women employees in the European Union earn, on the average, 15 percent less than men even for the same jobs. A recent European Court of Justice decision allows women workers in the European Union to challenge employers who cite lower length of service as the reason for lower pay. A legal breakthrough for EU women employees, this decision addresses a common problem for women who tend to have fewer years in the workplace because of family responsibilities that often result in shorter tenures and lower pay. The question that Prospect, a U.K. labor union, raised with the Court on behalf of one of its members – does longer length of service necessarily lead to better performance which results in higher pay?
“It’s clear that if the length-of-service criteria in a pay scheme is having an adverse effect on women, then the employer and the employee can raise what the European Court of Justice refers to as ‘serious doubts,’ and the employers will have to explain themselves,” states Emma Hawksworth, the lawyer for the female employee who brought this issue to the courts. Prospect Union is now preparing numerous legal cases to test the application of this court decision, which has tremendous potential in equalizing pay scales between male and female workers. (Source: Women’s eNews, 1/24/07)
III. LARGEST SEX DISCRIMINATION CASE IN U.S. HISTORY NOW HEADED TO THE COURTS A U.S. federal appeals court has ruled that a class action suit filed on behalf of two million women against Wal-Mart, accused of paying female workers less than men and giving them fewer promotions, may now proceed to trial. The lawsuit is the largest sex discrimination case against a U.S. company. The judge in the original case filed by six female employees ruled that there was sufficient evidence for a class action suit based on “largely uncontested descriptive statistics which show that women working in Wal-Mart stores are paid less than men in every region, that pay disparities exist in most job categories, that the salary gap widens over time even for men and women hired into the same jobs at the same time, that women take longer to enter into management positions, and that the higher one looks in to the organization, the lower the percentage of women.”
Wal-Mart has argued that its stores are autonomous and make their own personnel decisions independently. The company is appealing this ruling rather than go to trial. Home Depot, Publix Super Markets, Morgan Stanley, Boeing have all settled out of court various cases of sex discrimination to the tune of millions of dollars in compensation rather than have the cases tried in court. Wal-Mart is the world’s largest employer, so this case will have profound implications not only for the company for many other large corporations. (Source: Washington Post, 2/7/07).
IV. GENDER QUOTA BILL IN CHILE TO INCREASE WOMEN’S POLITICAL REPRESENTATION MEETS OPPOSITION Chile may have elected its first woman president, but its legislative bodies still lack women in sufficient numbers. A bill proposing that 40% of political parties’ candidates list should now include women in municipal and federal races has been introduced and is meeting opposition from legislators. A party that does not field enough women candidates will be disqualified, according to the proposed bill. At the moment, half of the countries in Latin America have quota laws to ensure women’s representation in parliaments, but most mandate only 30% representation. President Bachelet’s Cabinet currently is half female, but women’s representation in both houses of Congress only comes to 12.6%, well below the regional average of 20% in the Americas, excluding Canada and United States. The countries with the most progressive laws are Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Colombia. (Source: Women’s eNews, 2/16/07)
JOIN THE PREMIER GATHERING OF WOMEN IN BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT GLOBALLY AT THE 2007 GLOBAL SUMMIT OF WOMEN IN BERLIN, GERMANY, JUNE 14-16, 2007.
LOG ON TO WWW.GLOBEWOMEN.COM FOR DETAILS. |
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