Wal-Mart. What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear someone mention this company? Everyone seems to have an opinion. My mother, a farm-wife in rural south-western Ontario, won’t set foot in a Wal-Mart. In her opinion, Wal-Mart has squeezed out a swath of mom-and-pop businesses in the rural community where she lives. [...]
UK firms look set to fail to meet board gender targets
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011By: Simon Read, Personal Financial Editor Leading companies are failing to tackle gender diversity at board level, experts warn. That’s despite a government deadline demanding they publish proposals to boost the number of female board members. In February Lord Davies called on FTSE 350 companies to achieve “urgent change” and announce aspirational goals within the [...]
How to turn the Arab Spring into Summer
Wednesday, July 13th, 2011By: Donna Kennedy-Glans The Arab Spring has moved into its next season: Arab Summer. In the natural world, summer is the time for flowering blossoms to progress their journey to mature fruit. Yet, this summer, it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t feel a few pangs of apprehension about what these citizen-led revolutions will yield, [...]
Unlocking the full potential of women in the US economy
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011By: Joanna Barsh and Lareina Yee Women have been a growing factor in the success of the US economy since the 1970s. Indeed, the additional productive power of women entering the workforce from 1970 until today accounts for about a quarter of current GDP. Still, the full potential of women in the workforce has yet [...]
Women’s Empowerment Principles
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011Empowering Women to participate fully in economic life across all sectors and throughout all levels of economic activity is essential to: Build strong economies; Establish more stable and just societies; Achieve internationally agreed goals for development, sustainability and human rights Propel businesses’ operations and goals. Yet, ensuring the inclusion of women’s talents, skills, experience and [...]
Our world IS changing!
Friday, June 17th, 2011It’s easy to get cynical and believe that change isn’t happening. Want to shake that chill? Just take a quick look at the announcments in today’s news alone. 1. Saudi women are driving. They are challenging the archaic rules that ban them from driving cars, a pretty basic act in the rest of the world. [...]
Claims of sexual abuses in Tanzania blow to Barrick Gold
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011NORTH MARA, TANZANIA— From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail Just two weeks after the fatal shooting of seven people at one of its Tanzanian gold mines, Barrick Gold Corp. is investigating allegations of sexual assault by about a dozen police and security guards at the same violence-plagued mine. The Toronto-based corporate giant, the world’s biggest gold miner, [...]
Oil, Religion and Women in the Workforce
Wednesday, May 25th, 2011By: Amity Shlaes Why do Middle Eastern countries have so few women in their workforces? Is religion to blame? Or, perhaps, is oil? Michael Ross of UCLA investigates in an interesting study. His bottom line: “petroleum perpetuates patriarchy.” This is so for some obvious reasons: working for an oil company can yield strong wages, for instance, obviating [...]
Saudi woman arrested for challenging driving ban
Sunday, May 22nd, 2011By: Reuters JEDDAH (Reuters) – Saudi authorities arrested a female activist on Sunday who launched a campaign to challenge a ban on women driving in the conservative kingdom and posted a video on the Internet of her driving, activists said. The YouTube video, posted on Thursday, has attracted more than 500,000 views and shows Manal Alsharif, [...]