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GlobeWomen.com Linking BusinessWomen Worldwide GLOBEWOMEN ENEWS ISSUE NO. LX, MAY 8, 2007
THIS ISSUE’S HIGHLIGHTS:
I. 2007 GLOBAL SUMMIT OF WOMEN UPDATE II. PAY INEQUITY BEGINS EARLY – 2007 AAUW REPORT III. SECURING CORPORATE AND GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS FOR WOMEN-OWNED ENTERPRISES IV. “TAKE YOUR DAUGHTERS TO WORK DAY” 15 YEARS LATER
I. GLOBAL SUMMIT OF WOMEN UPDATE Sixty-seven economies to date are being represented at the 2007 Global Summit of Women, which takes place June 14-16th in Berlin, Germany. Sizeable delegations are coming to this year’s Summit and participation is projected to match last year’s 900-delegate attendance. Forty-one high-ranking government officials who range from Latvia’s President to 38 ministers and sub-ministers attending the Ministerial Roundtable preceding the Summit comprise the government side of this global gathering.
On the corporate side, DaimlerChrysler, Deutsche Telekom, Accenture, Microsoft, IBM, Pfizer, among others are having their own pre-meetings with their respective ‘delegations’ while the Ministers are holding their own exchanges. On the entrepreneurial side, the Vice President of Vietnam leads a delegation of 70, including 60 top businesswomen organized by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce. Iceland’s Minister for the Environment, Jonina Bjartmarz, is leading a trade mission of women small business owners from her country, while the Deputy Minister of Trade of South Africa is bringing 20 women business owners to join the Summit. Organizations like AED from Spain and the China Association of Women Entrepreneurs are also forming groups of businesswomen from their respective countries, as well as the Summit’s 50 International Member and Partner organizations. The Summit will be posting on its website, www.globewomen.com, a listing of delegations so that groups can arrange to meet each other at the Summit during the designated networking sessions.
“We always aim for the Summit to be a truly international gathering, and this year is no exception,” states Summit President Irene Natividad. “We want delegations, however, to bring one young person to this global gathering to be part of the Youth Forum, which we are including in the program for the first time, so that they can be exposed to the female talent present at each of the Summits.” A special Youth Forum at Humboldt University has also been scheduled before the Summit itself, in which German students will be hearing from a panel of accomplished businesswomen from different parts of the world.
II. PAY INEQUITY BEGINS EARLY – 2007 AAUW REPORT With the majority of U.S. undergraduate and graduate students now female, it was shocking to hear from the American Association of University Women that one year after graduation, women earn only 80% of what their male counterparts earn. Pay inequity, in other words, begins early. As women get older, they fall even further behind the men. According to the AAUW report, ten years after graduation, American women earn 69% of what their male peers do.
“We still found a wage gap among a demographic that you’d expect there to be very little difference with, given, for the most part, that they don’t have caregiving obligations. But surprisingly, and unfortunately, we find that women already earn less, even when they have the same major and occupation as their male counterparts,” states Catherine Hill, AAUW’s Director of Research. The study looked at a pool of 19,000 male and female college graduates, graduating in 1992 and interviewed a year later and then ten years after receiving their degrees.
According to Ann Marie May, a Visiting Professor of Economics at Middlebury College: “It’s estimated that a woman will lose $420,000 over the first 20 years of her career by not negotiating on her first salary.” Unfortunately economic security is often not in the minds of most female students. A coordinator of student programs at Tulane University affirms this state of affairs: “Students just don’t often show up to career programs. It’s kind of a hard sell. These women haven’t dealt with pay inequity yet, so it seems far removed from their reality.” (Source:Women’s eNews, 4/27/07). Note. There will be a session at the Berlin Summit on “Developing Win-Win Negotiating Skills”. Check the program on www.globewomen.com.
III. SECURING CORPORATE AND GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS FOR WOMEN-OWNED ENTERPRISES Inequity in government contracting is the subject of a recent report by Rand Corporation commissioned by the U.S. Small Business Administration. What it found did not surprise American women entrepreneurs, whose advocacy organizations have long clamored for more government action in this regard. The study found that even though women-owned businesses now comprise nearly half of privately-held firms in the United States, their share of government contracts comes to only 3.3%. (Source: WIPP enewsletter, 5/2/07).
American corporations have done better at proactively opening doors for women-owned businesses through their supplier diversity programs. Organizations such as Women Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) have developed certification for women-owned enterprises that signified their readiness for corporate contracts. Largely a U.S. corporate program, supplier diversity is set to move to other countries. At the 2007 Global Summit of Women, there will be a session on Securing Corporate Contracts that will provide insight into this program.
IV. “TAKE YOUR DAUGHTERS TO WORK DAY” 15 YEARS LATER A public education campaign which began in 1993 to raise awareness about the role of women in the workforce and to expose girls to their working futures, “Take Your Daughters to Work Day” has been a resounding success. With 35 million Americans participating last month and the program now replicated in several countries around the world, this initiative has done a great deal to provide an anchor event that has focused attention on the potential of girls worldwide. Founded by the Ms. Foundation for Women fifteen year ago, the program will now exit out of the Foundation since it has received widespread support and can now be managed by an outside private organization.
Turning girls’ attention to entrepreneurship – the economic arena which has shown explosive growth among women globally – is the subject of a session at the 2007 Global Summit of Women. “Growing the Next Generation of Women Entrepreneurs” presents examples of such programs from different parts of the world that may be replicable in other countries. The Summit’s Youth Forum will also include successful women entrepreneurs who will share their experiences in building their respective businesses.
JOIN THE PREMIER GATHERING OF WOMEN LEADING GOVERNMENTS AND BUSINESSES OF ALL SIZES WORLDWIDE – THE 2007 GLOBAL SUMMIT OF WOMEN IN BERLIN, GERMANY, JUNE 14-16TH.
LOG ON TO WWW.GLOBEWOMEN.COM AND SEE THE EXCITING ARRAY OF TALENT AT THIS YEAR’S GATHERING.
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