Abano Ritz SPA & Wellness Resort (Italy) offers special prices for AFAEMME members

The “Abano Ritz SPA & Wellness Resort” of Abano Terme, Venezia, (www.abanoritz.it) offers to all the AFAEMME members (women who are members of the 37 businesswomen associations of AFAEMME’s network) a 15% discount on their stay.

You will have to show a certificate of your membership, signed by the corresponding businesswomen association, in order to enjoy this offer.

Please click HERE to see the Spa Profile.

“Facilitating the access of young women to the labor market, by promoting entrepreneurship in universities”

The division of Social and Civil Affairs of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) has labeled the new project of AFAEMME which will impact women in Jordan, Morocco, Palestine and Spain.

“Facilitating the access of young women to the labor market, by promoting entrepreneurship in universities” was labeled by the Senior Officials during its last meeting in September in Barcelona. It will be developed by AFAEMME and four of its member associations: AFEM, the Moroccan Businesswomen Association; JFBPW, the Jordan Forum for Business and Professional Women; the Ramallah Club of Business and Professional Women; and ACEE, the Catalan Association of Business and Professional Women.

This new project will promote self-employment and entrepreneurship among young women university students who are about to graduate in Morocco, Jordan, Palestine and Spain, through organizing different Women Entrepreneurship Days in these countries, and by providing the women university students with free advice to create new businesses. The Women Entrepreneurship Days will consist of seminars on self-motivation; key basics for setting up a company, legislative issues and business planning with a gender perspective, risk assessment and coaching for entrepreneurship, informative sessions about national entrepreneurship incentives, networking with encounters, role models and a talent searching contest.

By implementing this project, talented women we be spotted in the universities and assisted to become future businesswomen. The project will contribute towards the sustainable development of the countries’ economies by having talented women business owners, and to more equality in terms of women/men-led companies.

Results of the study about women in high decision-making positions

The Spanish Ministry for Health, Social Policies and Equality in collaboration with the Spanish organisation “Economy, Women and Enterprises” and the Spanish Chambers of Commerce, has carried out a very interesting study about the profile of women who are working in high decision-making positions.

By implementing this project, talented women we be spotted in the universities and assisted to become future businesswomen. The project will contribute towards the sustainable development of the countries’ economies by having talented women business owners, and to more equality in terms of women/men-led companies.

If you want to read the whole study (in Spanish) download it here.

New initiative to enhance the role of women in European corporate governance

In collaboration with the Global Telecom Women's Network (GTWN, a global network of female senior executives in the telecoms industry) and McKinsey & Company consultants, EDHEC Business School organised a meeting chaired by Viviane Reding. The meeting discussed ways of righting the imbalance between the number of men and women in company boardrooms by encouraging more young women to take up careers in business.

Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding met with leaders of Europe's business schools to discuss how to improve the gender balance in company boardrooms by encouraging more young women to follow a career in business. Under the initiative of Candace Johnson, a member of EDHEC's Board of Governors, the meeting was attended by Olivier Oger, dean of EDHEC along with deans of European business schools and female business leaders.

Despite around 60% of university graduates being female, women still represent only 12% of board members in Europe's biggest listed companies and only 3% of board presidents. Business schools play a crucial role in equipping young women for a career in business and helping them to reach the top. They are helping women to prepare for professional careers through seminars, training programmes and providing networking opportunities. Their initiatives follow Vice-President Reding's call to companies to pledge to voluntarily increase the number of women on corporate boards to 30% by 2015 and to 40% by 2020.

Business schools help shape the minds of future leaders. It is here that young women and men get inspiration for their business careers, said Vice-President Reding, the EU's Justice Commissioner. "We all have to make sure that our female talent considers this route in the first place. I am especially glad to see European business schools involved in this process. It reassures me that the education sector is strongly committed to the challenge of fighting the roots of inequality."

"This superb initiative of the European Commission is in total harmony with our goal of focusing on what is a major issue for Europe's business schools and businesses - namely, how should we remove the glass ceiling that blocks our female graduates from pursuing top-level international careers, despite their being as equally well-trained as their male counterparts, said EDHEC Dean Olivier Oger.

European Women’s Lobby welcomes the election of the first man to Chair the EP’s Women’s Rights Committee

The European Women’s Lobby (EWL), the largest association of women rights organisations in the European Union, welcomed the election of Swedish MEP Mikael Gustafsson to the Chair of the Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) Committee of the European Parliament.

Mr. Gustafsson takes over from Ms. Eva-Britt Svensson, with whom he ran for election in 2009 on a shared platform calling for a strengthened gender equality perspective in European politics and decision-making. Eva-Britt Svensson resigned from the European Parliament in September 2011 due to health reasons. Mikael Gustafsson was her alternate on the 2009 electoral lists.

According to Cécile Gréboval, Secretary General of the EWL: "For us, the priority is for the elected Chair, whether woman or man, to show strong and progressive leadership to bring about concrete advances for women’s rights and gender equality in Europe. It is on this criteria that we will be judging Mr. Gustafsson’s performance over the coming months, and we trust that he will live up to these expectations. With this in mind, we also count on Mr. Gustafsson to play an active role in advocating gender balance in decision-making within the Parliament, including in view of the mid-term elections in January 2012 and EP elections in 2014."

The Coca-Cola Company and UN Women form a Global Partnership to Accelerate Women’s Economic Empowerment

The Coca-Cola Company and UN Women announced a partnership to promote women’s economic empowerment. Responding to both UN Women’s Strategic Plan and The Coca-Cola Company’s global 5 BY 20 initiative, this partnership aims to enable the empowerment of women entrepreneurs by building upon the strengths of both organizations.

The Coca-Cola initiative seeks to enable the economic empowerment of 5 million women entrepreneurs across the Coca-Cola value chain by 2020. Specifically, the Company is developing and implementing programs to help break down barriers for women entrepreneurs in the small businesses that The Coca-Cola System touches.

The UN Women’s Strategic Plan lays out a range of initiatives that it will support, from promoting laws and policies that provide women protection and equal rights, to employment, income-generating opportunities and access to economic resources. UN Women is also encouraging companies to sign the Women’s Empowerment Principle – Equality Means Business, a set of measures geared to promote women’s empowerment in the workplace and marketplace.

Through this collaboration, The Coca-Cola Company and UN Women plan to address the barriers women entrepreneurs commonly face by providing increased access to business skills training, financial services and support networks of peers and mentors.

Work is already underway at the country level to identify potential programmes in areas such as business skills training programs for women-owned recycling cooperatives and women-run shops. Each organization will bring their expertise and capacity to the table through concrete on-the-ground programmes. This approach capitalizes on the comparative advantages of each, creating a public-private partnership to leverage and offer transformational opportunities for investment in women’s economic opportunity.

Achieve gender equality in decision-making positions by recommendations or quota laws?

European women are advancing towards gender equality step by step. France, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands are at the top of the list of countries which are enhancing women’s leadership by law. After initial criticisms, nowadays Europe agrees in implementing more than sole recommendations.

Imperative quota laws are supported by more and more experts although some employers’ organisations qualify this measure as unnecessary and against meritocracy.

Mrs. Carlos Obeso, director of the Institute for Labour Research of ESADE Business School says: “Although the professional abilities of women are the same as for men, women are not equally represented in the labour market. Therefore, quotas are a regulatory instrument. The opinion that quotas facilitate the access of incompetents to decision-making positions is absolutely ridiculous. At the contrary: quotas guarantee that competent women have access to posts that they deserve.”

MBA Kilimanjaro Leadership Project

As part of the Rotterdam School of Management “Women Empowerment” initiative 15 MBA students from 11 countries have climbed Africa’s highest mountain, the Kilimanjaro.

The project was designed to address the challenges faced by women when climbing the corporate ladder. Using the climb as a metaphor for business, the candidates worked closely and lead each other through difficult terrain, pushing past significant physical and mental barriers over 7 days as they ascend the 5.895 m. summit. This project wanted to enable women to work with each other better and surpass bound to reach a potential the business world has not yet seen.

Dr. Dianne Bevelander, Associate Dean, MBA Programmes, who initiated the project in 2010, says: “by climbing one of the highest mountains in the world this leadership elective will help the participants break through their own perceptions of their limitations, be it physical or psychological, to realize they do not have a glass ceiling”.

All 15 women successfully made it to the high base camp at Kibo Hut just below 5000m, 10 made it to Gillman’s point and 5 made it all the way to the summit. But succeeding the climb was only a minor aspect in succeeding this MBA elective.

Stay tuned for the stories and insights from this groundbreaking initiative – and in the meantime, read about the project at www.rsm.nl/kili and by following the wealth of insights and information on the student blogs on that page.

Meeting with CNA Impresa Donna, new member of AFAEMME

Last 20th of September, Mrs. De Felipe, AFAEMME’s President, met in Brussels during the European Commission’s Conference on Gender Equality, Mrs. Paula Sansoni, President of “Impresa Donna”, a special interest group of the Confederazione Nazionale dell’Artigianato e della Piccola e Media Impresa (CNA) and a new future member of AFAEMME.

Meeting with the Businesswomen Association of the Balearic Islands

At the end of August 2011, Mrs. Maria Helena de Felipe, AFAEMME’s President, had a meeting in Palma de Mallorca (Mallorca - Spain) with the Businesswomen Association of the Balearic Islands (ASEME Baleares), which was represented by Mrs. Joana Pons, ASEME’s President, Mrs. Maria Luisa Marqués, ASEME’s General Secretary, and Mrs. Alejandra Marqués, a member of ASEME’s Board.

Mrs. Pons, ASEME’s President and AFAEMME’s Vice-President, and Mrs. De Felipe exchanged information about past and future activities of both Associations and about eventual collaborations in gender and business projects.

ASEME Baleares is one of the most active members of AFAEMME and a regular partner at the Association’s projects and activities.

AFAEMME and IRYDE – new collaborators

Last 28th of July 2011, AFAEMME signed a collaboration agreement with IRYDE (“Instituto para la Resiliencia y el Desarrollo Emocional”), an organisation which is specialized in coaching and mentoring and in offering solutions for specific objectives and results.

Mrs. Maria Helena de Felipe, on behalf of AFAEMME, and Mrs. Reyes Rite, on behalf of IRYDE, have been talking about common aims and activities and agreed to collaborate in future programs.

AFAEMME has been granted with the Special Consultative Status by the ECOSOC

The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) at its Substantive Session of July 2011 adopted the recommendation of the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to grant Special consultative status to AFAEMME.

The special consultative status enables AFAEMME to actively engage with ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies, as well as with the United Nations Secretariat, programmes, funds and agencies in a number of ways. This status enables AFAEMME to participate in the work of the Council, including opportunities to consult with Member States and the United Nations system at large, and it allows AFAEMME be informed about the provisional agenda of the Economic and Social Council. Finally, AFAEMME will have the possibility to attend UN events, conferences and activities and to submit written statements relevant to the work of the Council on business and gender, make oral presentations at ECOSOC and consult with ECOSOC and its subsidiary bodies.

Project Meeting with the Union for the Mediterranean and AFAEMME’s partner associations

Last 19th of July, AFAEMME and four of its member associations -AFEM, the Jordan Forum for Business and Professional Women (JFBPW), the Ramallah Club of BPW and the Catalan Association of Business and Professional Women (ACEE)- met at the headquarters of the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean in Barcelona in order to coordinate the preparing tasks of a big sub-regional project: "Facilitating Young Women the Access to Work by Promoting Entrepreneurship in Universities".

We will be updating you on the ongoing development of the project.

Meeting with Mr. Daniel Calleja, Deputy Director General of the DG Enterprise and Industry

The Catalan delegation of the Spanish Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises (FEPIME - Catalonia) has recently welcomed in Barcelona the Deputy Director General of the European Commission's DG Enterprise and Industry, Mr. Daniel Calleja.

During the meeting, which has been also attended by Mrs. Mª Helena de Felipe, AFAEMME's President and Vice-president of FEPIME - Catalonia, Mr. Calleja has presented three main points of the new European Strategy for SMEs:

1) To reduce the bureaucracy:

• To enable SMEs to set off within 3 days and with an initial cost of 100 €
• To create a program of electronic civil service and a system of just one window
• To reduce the administrative burden in 25% within 2 years

• To establish a program of European funds
• To simplify the civil service by implementing a framework program promoted by the European Investment Fund
• To improve venture capital in order to facilitate financing at European level

• To establish business opportunities between the European Union and the big emerging markets of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China)
• To harmonize the taxation system
• To facilitate SMEs the access to public contracts
• To encourage the enterprising spirit and promote entrepreneurship

Afaemme meets the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean

Last February 16th 2011, Mrs. Maria Helena de Felipe, AFAEMME's President, has met at the Barcelona headquarters of the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean at Palau de Pedralbes, Dr. Lino Cardarelli, Secretary General of the Secretariat on interim basis and Senior Deputy Secretary General for Projects Funding Coordination and Business Development Division.

On Tuesday 29th of March, Mrs. De Felipe received at AFAEMME's headquarters in Barcelona Mrs. Cecilia Attard-Pirotta, Deputy Secretary General for Social and Civil Affairs.

The main objectives of these meetings have been to establish relations among both organisations in order to open the doors for future collaborations in gender and business projects in the Mediterranean area.

AFAEMME’s Greek member SEGE has been selected to represent the National Female Ambassadors Network for Greece

Published by S. Mally, April 2011, Barcelona (Spain)

The Greek businesswomen association S.E.G.E., in cooperation with the CI Chamber of Piraeus, has been selected by the European Union to represent the European National Female Ambassadors Network in Greece. National Networks tend to be the support mechanisms for the promotion of Female Entrepreneurship.

Within the framework of the European general call, there was an open call for the selection of the first 10 Greek Female Entrepreneurs Ambassadors. Mrs. Apostolina Tsaltampasi, General Secretary of S.E.G.E, was selected to represent the Network at a national level.

The attribution of the titles took place in Brussels, 9th December 2010. The Ceremony were held by Ms.Sabine Laurelle, Belgian Minister for the S.M.E.'s and Mrs. Maria Damanaki, Commissioner of Sea Politics. HRH, Princess Mathilde of Belgium, was the Host of the evening.

Thessaloniki there was a Second Ceremony for the whole Network. The titles were attributed by the Major, Mr.Boutaris, and Presidents of the local Chambers. The activity though has just begun, since new events are coming, and most important, new Ambassadors are about to be selected.

AFAEMME is acting as "interest representative" at the European Commission’s initiative Your voice in Europe

Published by S. Mally, April 2011, Barcelona (Spain)

AFAEMME is registered as organisation acting as "interest representative" at Your Voice in Europe, the European Commission’s “single access point” to a wide variety of consultations, discussions and other tools which enable organisations to play an active role in the European policy-making process.

Your Voice in Europe has been set up in the context of the Interactive Policy Making initiative. The objective of IPM is to use modern technologies, particularly the Internet, to allow both Member State administrations and EU institutions to understand the needs of citizens and enterprises better. It is intended to assist policy development by allowing more rapid and targeted responses to emerging issues and problems, improving the assessment of the impact of policies (or the absence of them) and providing greater accountability to citizens.

This system has been put in place to facilitate the stakeholders' consultation process by the use of easy-to-use and straightforward online questionnaires, making it easier both for respondents to participate and for policy makers to analyze the results.

AFAEMME collaborates with the Aragonian Businesswomen Association (ARAME) in its new digital citizenship project (Plan AVANZA)

Published by S. Mally, March 2011, Barcelona (Spain)

AFAEMME will be collaborating with the Businesswomen Association from Aragon - Spain (ARAME) during 2011, in order to execute an innovative project called "Plural Feminine: Online Business Platform".

The project will create a Social Media Optimization Plan to increase the promotion and commercialization -at national and international level- of products and services of the participating female enterprises. A Strategic Business Plan will help businesswomen to introduce also instruments such as geo-pagers, video blogs, SMO channels or E-mail marketing.

If you are a women entrepreneur, your company is based in Spain, and you would like your company to participate, please sign in by sending an e-mail to projectassistant@afaemme.org.

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding meets European business leaders to push for more women in boardrooms

Published by S. Mally, March 2011, Barcelona (Spain)

The meeting hold on the 1st of March between the Commission and business leaders and social partners is the first step towards a better gender balance in boardrooms and in senior management at Europe's biggest companies. This issue was initially raised in September 2010 when the European Commission, following a proposal by Vice-President Reding, said in its Gender Equality Strategy that it will "consider targeted initiatives to improve the gender balance in decision making.” On the basis of new figures recently published, the Commission had an exchange of views with companies and social partners to see what measures they have taken and intend to take in the near future to improve the gender balance in board rooms. Over the next 12 months, the Commission will closely monitor progress. After that period, the Commission will assess whether further measures are required.

Vice-President Reding, the EU’s Justice Commissioner said "Women mean business. We need to use all of our society’s talents to ensure that Europe’s economy takes off" and "I believe that self-regulation could make a difference if it is credible and effective across Europe. However, I will come back to the matter in a year. If self-regulation fails, I am prepared to take further action at EU level."

The new report on Gender Balance in Business Leadership finds that on average women make up 12% of board members in the biggest publicly-listed companies across the EU and only 3% of board chairs… Therefore: there is still much to do in order to achieve gender balance in boardrooms and senior management positions in European companies.

Women and men on the boards of the largest listed companies (2010)
Source: European Commission, Database on women and men in decision-making.

Share of women and men in decision-making positions (2010)

Employment rates of women and men (25-49) depending on whether they have children under 12 (EU 27, 2009)

Economic crisis and gender pay gap in Spain

Published by S. Mally, March 2011, Barcelona (Spain)

The gender pay gap in Spain is decreasing!

But this data does not mean that there is less wage discrimination in the country. At the contrary, it is just that the crisis has affected more men than women because men represent the biggest part of the Spanish working population. The wage approximation is not due to a better professional recognition of women and a therefore higher wage but to a decrease in the men’s salary.

Furthermore, the crisis is also stopping previous advances: for the time being there are only at about 12% of women directors in Spanish companies, compared to 19% in 2008, and the number of female chief executives has just increased in 4 points since 2008. Spanish women are also presenting a higher unemployment rate than men and they are still abandoning their jobs to be mothers.

Due to the fact that these data do not differ so much from the European average, the European Commission wants to strengthen sanctions for the case of violations of the equal pay right, improve the transparency in terms of wages and favour the incorporation of women in boards of directors.

United Nations inaugurates the first agency dedicated to women

Published by S. Mally, March 2011, Barcelona (Spain)

Last February 25th the United Nations inaugurated UN WOMEN, created in June 2010. The agency is directed by Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile.

The European Central Bank, a men's world

Published by S. Mally, February 2011, Barcelona (Spain)

Despite banks and companies know that there is a positive correlation between female leadership and good business development, the ECB Council is a men’s club. The only woman among its 23 members, Mrs. Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell from Austria, will leave its position next May and will be substituted by the Belgian Peter Praet which has been elected by unanimity after being rejected Mrs. Elena Kohutikova.

It is still very difficult for a woman to achieve decision-making positions in the financial world. We could count the female presidents of European banks on the fingers of one hand. In Spain, for example, there is no single woman at the top of a bank or a savings bank...

Women in the Private Sector

Despite some advances toward gender equality in the private sector, the gaps in the corporate sphere remain enormous.

Evidence suggests that corporate boards with more female members have greater participation of members in decision-making and better board governance but although women directors are now present on most boards of directors of large companies, their number remains low compared to men.

Some countries have implemented proactive policies to boost female participation at the board level of private companies, particularly in Scandinavia. Spain, for example, mandated a quota to raise the number of women on boards.

Women corporate leaders have a potential to influence the way employees live and work by promoting fairer management practices, a better balance between work and family life and fewer gender disparities in the workplace. However, neither women chief executives are common in the private sector.

The proportion of directors and chief executives who are women varies widely among countries even within the same region. Furthermore, the glass ceiling appears to be most impenetrable in the largest corporations, which are still essentially male domains. Of the 300 largest corporations on the world, only 13 had a female CEO in 2009: less than 3%. In 33 countries in Europe (EU-27 plus 6 others), the same pattern emerges of a very low proportion of women in the top position of the highest decision-making body in the largest companies, namely the chairman of the board. Only in 3 countries (Bulgaria, Slovakia and Norway) there were women at the helm of at least 10% of the country’s top companies as chairman of the board.

IN SUM, women are still severely underrepresented in the highest decision-making positions within the private sector and this situation is even more severe than in the government, judiciary and civil service.

FIRST BOARD MEETING OF UN WOMEN

January, 24-26 2011, New York (USA)

During the opening session of the first UN WOMEN Board Meeting which took place last January 2011 in New York, Michelle Bachelet, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, has presented the vision, priorities and the working plan of the 100 first days of the organisation. In the 'Vision and 100 Day Action Plan' Mrs. Bachelet highlighted the five thematic priorities of UN Women:

1) Expanding women’s voice, leadership and participation
2) Ending violence against women
3) Strengthening implementation of the women, peace and security agenda
4) Enhancing women’s economic empowerment
5) Making gender equality priorities central to national, local and sectoral planning and budgeting

The Executive Board of UN WOMEN was elected on November 2010 by the ECOSOC according to regional criteria and among donor partners. There are 10 African, 10 Asian, 4 East European, 6 Latin American/Caribbean, 5 West European and 6 donor countries.

UN WOMEN is an important step forward in the United Nations reform process. Gender inequality is still deeply rooted in the societies all over the world and lots of women have difficulties in gain access to respectable jobs and have to face occupational segregation and wage differences based on gender. Furthermore sometimes women can not even get access to basic education of health services. Women from all over the world are victims of violence and discrimination and are not represented in decision-making positions.gmai

On January 1st 2011, UN WOMEN started its therefore ambitious mandate.

http://www.unwomen.org/2011/01/statement-to-the-first-regular-session-of-the-executive-board-united-nations-entity-for-gender-equality-and-the-empowerment-of-women/

The World’s Women 2010: Trends and Statistics

Published by S. Mally, January 2011, Barcelona (Spain)

The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs has published the report “The World’s Women 2010: Trends and Statistics” where it offers a detailed overview of the situation of women during 2010.

The World's Women 2010 is intended to contribute to the stocktaking being done to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the Beijing Conference. It addresses critical aspects of life: population, families, health, education, work, power and decision-making, violence against women, environment and poverty. It finds that progress in ensuring the equal status of women and men has been made in many areas, including school enrolment, health and economic participation. At the same time, it makes clear that much more needs to be done, in particular to close the gender gap in public life and to prevent the many forms of violence to which women are subjected.

To download the report click here.

Conciliating Family and Work-Life in Spain

Published by S. Mally, January 2011, Barcelona (Spain)

According to a report published by the Fundación Alternativas, in Spain the lack of occasional permissions for the care of child who got ill is an important gap in Spanish work-family conciliation policies.

In countries such as Austria, Belgium, Germany or Netherlands these paid permissions can reach 12 days per year and can, in some cases, be distributed in hours.

In Spain approximately 36,5% of mothers highlight child illnesses as the main problem for combine work and child care, followed by the lack of coordination between working hours and school timetables (23,6%) and the long duration of school holidays (20,8%).

Currently, this situation is being solved only because one of the parents has more flexible working hours or because there is a good will of the employer or an agreement between employee and boss.

Article 37.3 of the Spanish Workers’ Statute only foresees two days for the birth, dead, serious accident or illness, hospitalization or chirurgical intervention without hospitalization but with home rest of the child for parents. Recently, the Spanish Congress has passed a paid permission for child care in cases of minor children with a serious illness, such as cancer, whish require a long hospitalization period. But there is no regulation for cases of slight or sudden diseases which also require the presence of an adult.

Therefore, if there is no available familiar network and no work flexibility, mothers and fathers end up missing at work without coverage. This generates tensions and often entails labour misdemeanors and sometimes dismissals.

In conclusion, Spain needs a specific permission for these cases.