It's been a big week for women. The National Council for Research on Women Honored Six Who Champion Women; The White House released its report, Women in America: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being; and Dan Abrams, the attorney-television commentator-turned media-mogul, released a new book, "Man Down: Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt That Women Are Better Cops, Drivers, Gamblers, Spies, World Leaders, Beer Tasters, Hedge Fund Managers, and Just About Everything Else" (Abrams Image March 2011).
The United Nations Global Compact released Wednesday a set of "Women's Empowerment Principles" as a guide to empowering "women in the workplace, marketplace and community." The principles will be discussed at a U.N. event, Equality Means Business: Putting Principles into Practice, March 9 and 10 in New York.
The Principles are:
- Establish high-level corporate leadership for gender equality.
- Treat all women and men fairly at work – respect and support human rights and nondiscrimination.
- Ensure the health, safety and well-being of all women and men workers.
- Promote education, training and professional development for women.
- Implement enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices that empower women.
- Promote equality through community initiatives and advocacy.
- Measure and publicly report on progress to achieve gender equality
The U.N. reported in 2010 that philanthropic institutions play a large role in furthering efforts for equality for women, and held an event in 2010 to encourage philanthropic efforts to empower women.
U.K. Moves Toward Board Parity
In February, The U.K. unleashed a report calling for improvement in the gender balance on corporate boards in that country. The report, "Women on boards, February 2011," said that women currently hold 12.5% of FTSE 100 corporate board seats. "At the current rate of change it will take over 70 years to achieve gender-balanced boardrooms in the U.K."
