"Building on history and trigger change" (3). Thoughts of a board member in a women professional organization.

It has been two years since I decided to step in a Vice-President Strategy of a women organization promoting economic empowerment in Business and Society.

?? Why did I commit 1.5-day for 2 years?

Before starting, I would repeat what I already stated once. I am well-aware of discriminations, abuses of all sorts (emotional, psychological, physical), rape as a weapon of war, and others crimes towards women. I am also well aware that women are still hit harder by crisis (see the COVID-19 crisis), socio-economic discriminations and are not equally represented in politics.

Emerging evidence on the impact of COVID-19 suggests that women’s economic and productive lives will be affected disproportionately and differently from men. Across the globe, women earn less, save less, hold less secure jobs, are more likely to be employed in the informal sector. They have less access to social protections and are the majority of single-parent households. Their capacity to absorb economic shocks is therefore less than that of men.

Policy Brief of the Secretary General, “The Impact of COVID-19 on Women”, April 2020.

But, when I started meeting women during networking events, I was very surprised to hear many stories of women having been discriminated, not feeling empowered to follow the studies they would like, e.g., sciences studies, not being supported by their hierarchy to have the resources at work to significantly impact their organization, and some being disregarded only because of their gender.

I am not na?ve either. I am well-aware that there are still sexists, women still facing the stigmas of one’s culture, as well as individuals keen to maintain their power at all cost within their organization. Yet, I remained puzzled to hear the above in Europe and in what seems to me “privileged” contexts.

But for me, there was also never any doubt that women rights are human rights.

Why? Because I was raised by feminists in my family and in my schools. Because I have been surrounded by peers who looked at competences, skills and character.

Never ever did I have witnessed at schools – and I did follow old French Mathematics and Physics courses (Bac S) in High School! - or later at university any form of discrimination based on gender from my teachers or classmates. Not even in highly competitive ‘classes préparatoires HEC’ for Ivy League Type business and engineer schools. We were 50% women.

I certainly also was more focused on social-justice paradigms and the complexity of dealing and facing intersectionality and multiculturality than gender itself. That might have explained my blindness to what seems a peak of gender-discriminations.

And that the reasons why I committed to a 2-year mandate in a transitional period that have required a lot of hard deliverables.

?? What do you do when you enter a rich heteregeneous network?    

You try to understand its history, its past and you built on continuity while triggering changes. Whether a strategy is disruptive or not, understanding all the initiatives conducted, the different specificities of every single network to bring a coherent history to life is of importance.

Below is what I learnt PWN Global have achieved over the years and the additional policy and advocacy stands taken since 2019.

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PWN GLOBAL was born from the willingness of women’s networks to join forces across European countries to advance gender balance leadership across sectors and industries to promote the Professional Progress of Women. 

Since then, PWN GLOBAL has crossed the borders of Europe to become Global with 28 City Networks in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America. Together, we represent 3, 2000 members and a global community of 35,000 followers. And we are proud of the diversity of our network!

We believe that ‘Together, we are stronger’.

This core belief is also a compass we share with our corporate partners, sponsors, partners and members. 

Since 2014, PWN GLOBAL has also been a pioneer in supporting balance leadership by engaging with men across our City Networks by nominating men board members, accompanying our corporate members through mentoring programmes and by engaging discussions with our partners and members.

PWN GLOBAL is also engaged in the major public policy debates at international, European and governmental levels:

• PWN GLOBAL takes part in the political and economic debates.
• PWN GLOBAL championed the political debate by launching the first pan-European board study that helped put gender balance on the radar screen of leaders and the media by pointing out the countries and companies lagging behind, as early as of 2004.
• In 2015, a manifesto was conceived in partnership with the French minister for Family, Children and Women's Rights and signed by top executives and academia to call to mainstream gender balance leadership in the governance bodies of companies, within companies and to support women’s entrepreneurs.

PWN GLOBAL tackles society issues for women. PWN GLOBAL supports all women through initiatives echoing societal challenges.

• In 2017, Spanish women over 50 were supported by the M+50 initiative co-funded by the European Social Fund and presented to Majesty Queen Letizia of Spain. For the first-time, solutions with more than 30 measures to boost the hiring and professional development of women over 50 years of age were mapped.
• In 2019, a digital museum of remarkable women was created in Romania.

Pay gap, access to finance and representation of women in all sectors (STEM, Finance, Trade, Logistics, Fashion, Entrepreneurship…) are among the topics we have advocated for through internal surveys, exchange of best practices among our members, programs and calls for action.

In 2020, and during the COVID-19 aftermath, PWN GLOBAL has remained committed to support all women across sectors and industries with the support of our allies, friends and partners and in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals in the framework of the United Nations Global Compact initiatives towards Businesses and Society.  

We also continued to be an engaged actor of the civil society for the economic empowerment of women as a participant of the United Nations Generation Forum celebrating the Beijing Declaration and by signing the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles while encouraging our partners to follow. 

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After listening to every stakeholders willing to share their expactations and challenges, you start building your vision and strategy. Based on the similarities, differences and different expectations, you gather and analyse the data, conduct research and design a vision encompassing the diversity of opinions expressed while bringing an organization to the next level - may that be level of maturity, organizational design, new inititiaves, etc. It all depends of the context of your organization.

As for the rest, it is a bumpy road as always when it comes to change.

Virginie MARTINS de NOBREGA