Who run the world?

March 8th is International Women’s Day , a day dedicated to the contributions, achievements, and resilience of women worldwide while campaigning for equal representation and rights. So in this week’s Edit we’re shining the spotlight on organisations that inspire inclusion in the workplace, and taking a look at what can be done to fix the broken rung.

The power of partnership?

1 in 3 businesses globally are owned by women, but women win only 1% of the procurement spend of large corporations. A mere 4% of companies set procurement targets for female-owned businesses and less than 5% provide training to women to compete for formal bid processes. Stark facts that organisations like WEConnect International are determined to change. Find out how Women-Owned Businesses all over the world are going from strength to strength and powering their growth through partnership with WEConnect International.

The power of community for women in tech

Chaitra Vedullapalli, the founder and president of Woman in Cloud, has big goals for women working in tech. In this episode of Women in Tech , we learn why and how Vedullapalli started Women in Cloud — a community-led economic development organisation with a vision to generate $1B in new net economic access for women entrepreneurs and professionals by 2030. Here’s what we took from this conversation:

• The emphasis on empowering women through community: creating global partnerships with corporations, community leaders and policy makers, as well as having your tribe of supportive women around you.??
• Breaking the taboo around hormonal health, and the importance of balancing hormones to thrive at work. Vedullapalli is making a documentary to educate the next generation of girls on hormonal health.?
• Write your eulogy now and become your own competition. To empower you to focus your goals and function at your ultimate potential and power, try writing your eulogy now, with everything you want to be remembered for. Vedullapalli did it 20 years ago and everything she wrote has been actualised!

It’s not the glass-ceiling, it’s the broken rung

For the ninth consecutive year, the biggest hurdle women face in their careers is the first critical step up to manager. According to McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace report, for every 100 men promoted from entry-level to manager in 2023, only 87 women were promoted.

Not surprisingly then, the report focuses on managers as key drivers of organisational change, playing a key role in fostering Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and ensuring employee well-being. So how do we make sure that managers get the support they need to create an inclusive workplace, and that women are fairly represented at this level?

1. Make the managers’ role in cultivating equality and inclusion clear from the start.?
2. Provide ongoing, high-quality education for managers to help them build the awareness and capabilities to be effective in driving change.?
3. Make sure managers have the time and resources to do their job well, and put in systems to make their job easier.?
4. And crucially, put safeguards in place to ensure that evaluation criteria are applied fairly and bias doesn’t creep into performance reviews and promotions.

For more great insight and suggestions on how to promote inclusivity in the workplace, read the full report here.

Thank you!?

2 months ago we asked you how we should share our Happy Holiday message budget across 3 organisations, chosen because they take action to make the world a better place through the power of learning. And in perfect time for International Women's Day, the results are in:

• 57% went to PLAN *, to help fight for equality for all girls and young women.?
• 23% went to School Girls Unite , a youth-led U.S. non-profit organisation who advocate for equal education opportunities for everyone.?
• 19% went to FEE’s Global Forest Fund to support environmental educational projects around the world.

*GPE nominated education advocacy partners PLAN to receive the amount.

This vote not only helped us to spread the love, but also to point us in the right direction to focus our give-back efforts for 2024. Thank you once again for taking part.