![]() |
| Afaemme news |
Abano Ritz SPA & Wellness Resort (Italy) offers special prices for AFAEMME membersThe “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 positionsThe 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 governanceIn 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 CommitteeThe 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 EmpowermentThe 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 ProjectAs 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 AFAEMMELast 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 IslandsAt 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.
|
AFAEMME and IRYDE – new collaboratorsLast 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.
|
AFAEMME has been granted with the Special Consultative Status by the ECOSOCThe 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.
|
Project Meeting with the Union for the Mediterranean and AFAEMME’s partner associationsLast 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".
|
Meeting with Mr. Daniel Calleja, Deputy Director General of the DG Enterprise and IndustryThe 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.
2) To facilitate the access to finance:
3) To promote internationalization:
|
Afaemme meets the Secretariat of the Union for the MediterraneanLast 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. |
AFAEMME’s Greek member SEGE has been selected to represent the National Female Ambassadors Network for Greece
|
AFAEMME is acting as "interest representative" at the European Commission’s initiative Your voice in Europe
|
AFAEMME collaborates with the Aragonian Businesswomen Association (ARAME) in its new digital citizenship project (Plan AVANZA)
|
EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding meets European business leaders to push for more women in boardrooms
|
Economic crisis and gender pay gap in Spain
|
United Nations inaugurates the first agency dedicated to women
|
The European Central Bank, a men's world
|
FIRST BOARD MEETING OF UN WOMEN
|
The World’s Women 2010: Trends and Statistics
|
Conciliating Family and Work-Life in Spain
|
Photo GalleryReview our most important moments resumed in pictures. |