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| GlobeWomen E-newsletter Issue No. LXX, August 31, 2009 |
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THIS ISSUE'S HIGHLIGHTS:
I.
CORPORATE
WOMEN DIRECTORS INTERNATIONAL AT THE JOHANNESBURG STOCK
EXCHANGE II. INVESTING IN
GIRLS III. PAY INEQUITY IN THE
U.K.: WHERE DOES IT
START? IV. TANZANIA AND A NEW BANK FOR WOMEN
I. CORPORATE WOMEN DIRECTORS INTERNATIONAL AT THE JOHANNESBURG STOCK EXCHANGE
Corporate Women Directors International – an offshoot of the Global Summit of Women – will join South African women directors and executives in opening the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Monday, September 21st. This is the third in a series of stock exchanges in which CWDI has actively promoted women’s participation in these market events. The first was NASDAQ in 2006, followed by the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2008; and now JSE in 2009. In all three exchanges, women business leaders as a group opened the markets for the first time.
“The old adage that pictures say a thousand words is applicable to these events,” states Irene Natividad, CWDI Co-Chair. She adds: “The numbers of women on corporate boards remain paltry worldwide with one exception – Norway – so the image of women opening a stock exchange suggests that they belong there as much as they do on corporate boards and executive suites.”
For 11 years, CWDI has conducted research on women directors in different countries, regions, and industries, as well as convening these directors on issues of corporate governance. Market open at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange will be followed by a Colloquium for Women Directors that will also be held at the Exchange. CWDI developed this program with the International Women’s Forum of South Africa and JSE. To see past market opens, executive summaries of CWDI reports and the programs of past colloquia, log on to www.globewomen.org, click to CWDI.
II.
INVESTING IN
GIRLS “Investment in girls’education may well be the highest return investment available in the developing world,” stated Lawrence Summers when he served as Chief Economist for the World Bank. It is a prescription that has gained currency from the United Nations to the World Economic Forum to private foundations, who now see that investment in girls both as an effective development strategy.
The Global Summit of Women was the first organization to contribute to the Girl Fund of the United Nations Foundation, which established this vehicle for donors to support the work of the United Nations and civil society to improve adolescent girls’ lives around the world. Improved access to health care, life-skills training that includes delay of marriage, increased opportunities to continue school, and income generating opportunities are some of the ways in which the foundation hopes to elevate the rights and needs of 600 million adolescent girls in the developing world. Take a look at their brief video on www.globewomen.com.
The UN Foundation worked closely with the Nike Foundation, whose very inventive message on the “Girl Effect” (see on www.globewomen.com) underscores the fact that girls are the agents of change. Improving their lives, as the Nike message shows, improves the welfare of the communities in which they live, and the countries of which they are a part. To learn more, go to www.thegirlfund.org and www.thegirleffect.org.
The pay gap, which afflicts women workers worldwide, has increased in the U.K. from 21.9% in 2007 to 22.6% in 2009, according to the country’s Women and Work Commission, which was created to determine how to close the gender pay gap in Britain. The commission reports that sex stereotyping in schools has contributed in the widening pay gap. Girls are often encouraged into traditional careers – caring, cashiering, clerical, catering and cleaning – jobs in which pay tends to be lower. (BBC, July 29, 2009).
In the European Union, the pay gap
averages 17.4% with lower percentages in the Nordic countries and
higher ones in some Eastern European countries. In the U.S. the gender pay
gap remains stubbornly stuck at 25%. A study by the American
Association of University Women showed that women earn less than men
even a year after college.
The reason – they do not negotiate for higher starting
salaries, which begins a gap in pay that can make them lose up to a
million dollars in lost pay during their working lives. The EU has embarked on a
concerted campaign to address the pay gap through a combination of
education initiatives that move girls into nontraditional areas of
study and government action to make unequal pay
illegal.
IV. TANZANIA AND A NEW BANK FOR WOMEN
A new bank,
specifically targeting women, opened in Dar-es-Salaam,
Tanzania. Only an
identification card or a passport is needed to open an account – a
far more lenient policy than that of other banks in the country,
which often require title deeds or proof of wealth. A lower minimum deposit is
required compared to other banks. Financial help and
advice will be provided by the bank to its women depositors. Should this bank succeed,
low-income women will be able to establish credit history in their
own names enabling them not only to save, but also to secure loans
in the future for personal or business
needs.
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