Women now drive the global economy controlling $20 trillion in annual consumer spending is the conclusion in an article in this month's Harvard Business Review entitled The Female Economy.
That global economic power should also mean increased opportunities for women in business and politics when we begin to come out of this global recession. There is a survey being conducted by The Boston Consulting Group on what women want and early results of the survey can be viewed at http://womenspeakworldwide.com/.
Specifically, given the amount of government influence today and in the future around the world, women will need to hold a larger percentage of elected positions in order to have their voice and views influence legislation. In the USA, there is a group focused on helping women prepare for political office. Check out this website http://thewhitehouseproject.org/.
Finally, check out this Forbes article You Want To Run For Office. Now What? The article is the story of a woman with no previous interest in politics that made the decision to run and won a seat in her state assembly.
Do you agree that more women need to run for public office?
Great to be back at the blog the day after Labor Day! Until Next Time,
Gail
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
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Hi Gail,
ReplyDeleteThis topic coincides with one of my girlfriends attending Harvard's Advanced Management Program (AMP) for the next 60 days. Based on the percentage of women attending, there is still a way to go in senior executive representation by women.
AMP caters to an elite set of business and governmental execs from around the world. Typically, you are sent as part of grooming for global command positions. This particular friend has been through a number of auditions in front of her company's board of directors before being tapped for the program.
The program requires her to spend 2 months away from her family; and her company had to sign off that she has no corporate responsibilities during the program.
"Welcome Day" was on Labor Day. So, she's through the 1st week. Need I say that she has a new definition for the word "intensity."
Her class consists of 162 participants from around the world. Upon arrival she discovered she was one of 12 women attending. Two of them are US based.
Are there really only 2 female execs in the US ready to take the helm of global operations in corporate America or governmental positions? Or are assumptions being made about women's capacity for managing the rigors of a program like AMP?
Or, lol, maybe assumptions are being made about the capacity of those womens' husbands to deal with their wives attending a program like AMP! Her husband is managing nicely; so are her kids.