Life lessons on gender diversity from the Women’s FIFA World Cup 2019.

We talk about the #gendergap and #diversity in the #workplace on a regular basis. We have also put metrics in place at most organizations to measure progress towards meeting diversity goals. Most nations now track the gender gap from a political #empowerment standpoint. As I watched the womens #FIFA #world #cup and the lack of interest from my immediate network (personal and business), I realized that we have a very long journey ahead of us as a society to achieving #gender #equality.

Please allow me to explain what I mean. Women make up 50% of the world’s population. Without a doubt, the #competition at the world stage for any sport is real, and statistically equal regardless of gender. Every #competitor is a #hero in my books. However, I know most of the male soccer players, not so much the female players (shame on me!!!).

So far in this tournament, Marta Vieira da Silva (aka Marta) from Brazil scored her 17th goal in a FIFA world cup a few days ago, surpassing Miroslav Klose from Germany on the mens’ side. In comparison, among active popular male players that we all seem to know on a first name basis, Ronaldo from Portugal has only scored 7 goals and Neymar from Brazil has scored 6 goals. At 33 years old, Marta’s got a few more goals and tournaments ahead of her – I can’t wait for her to keep breaking records!!!

Miraildes Maciel Mota (aka Formiga) from Brazil has played in 7, I repeat 7, World cup tournaments. The most any male player has played is 5 tournaments (Antonio Carbajal and Rafael Marquez, both from Mexico and Lothar Matthaus from Germany). Formiga started playing at the age of 12 and represented Brazil at the age of 17 in the 1995 world cup. Just truly an amazing and phenomenal player at the age of 41!!! Oh, by the way did I fail to mention that Marta is the first player to score in 5 world cups … and she is only 33!!!

From the WEF Global gender gap report 2018 (see figure above), we are only at 68% of closing the gender gap. Among the 4 key areas being measured, Education and Health & Survival are pretty close to closing the gap at 95% and 96% respectively. On economic participation and opportunity index, we are at 59% and on the political empowerment index we are at 22%. In my opinion, to drive these latter 2 indices up, we need to focus on empowering our little girls and providing them with the opportunities to excel in everything they do, just as we do for the boys. This responsibility lies solely on every one of us, regardless of gender, and it starts from our every action and in action.

Back to the world cup, the limited coverage that the Women’s FIFA World cup has received from our #newsmedia is truly shameful. Some folks will argue that watching male sports is much more exciting and fun than watching female sports, hence they get more coverage. Well, I challenge that notion - who is responsible for all that excitement and fun? Its not the media, its not the government, its not the society, it starts with you and I - in our homes, our workplaces, at the local watering hole, in the village square, our places of worship, wherever we go and gather with others.

While we can’t control what others do, you can control what you do. Take a look in the mirror and ask yourself – what actions on in actions, do I take every day to promote equality? I urge you all as individuals to take some time to watch a few games with your families, cheer the girls on as you would have if they were boys playing. Create that excitement and engagement that will make others sit up, notice and recognize whats going on.

Reflect and celebrate the achievements of Marta and Formiga with your network, friends and #social #media … And when you are considering your next hire, remember the adage …. what a man can do, a woman can do better!!!

I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments section and please do feel free to share some pictures of you enjoying the games.

Have a great weekend and happy watching!!!

Lenny Joseph.