Are we at the tipping point?

Great Question, Nadine. I don’t see it as a tipping point (which is passive), but rather a fulcrum poised to move in the direction we push it. In other words, the answer to the question is “it’s up to us”, insofar as women in the Western and industrialized countries are concerned. The doors are open, but we have to walk through them ourselves and we have the responsibility to do it. Globally it’s more complicated of course, with great variance.
However, if women ever see the power we have in our hands, we’ll be at parity in short order.
Best,
Gloria

Bring a man, bring a son, bring a daughter, bring a mother, bring a father, bring a sister; and as long as women keep inching along the way, the day will come when the word gender will only be used for medical reasons!!!!

I write my comment from Qatar and its quite remarkable how much the past decade changed the landscape. Some women now hold ministerial positions, head corporations, senior managerial positions and leaders in the community. Is it enough, of course not!

Dear Nadine,

I learned so much from you over the years that I was invited to be on the board of directors of an organization that helps formerly incarcerated women achieve dreams through college education. I’m also running our 10th Anniversary Benefit. Here are some amazing things about College and Community Fellowships:

CCF spends about $4,220 per student. The cost for someone to return to prison is about $30,000 per person.

Higher education programming has proven to be one of the most effective ways of preventing people from returning to prison. While the national recidivism rate hovers around 63%, for people who earned an associate’s and bachelor’s degree, the rate is15.0% and 13.7% respectively. CCF’s rate is even better: fewer than 2% of women who participate in CCF programs return to prison.

Nearly 70% of CCF students complete a 4-year college degree within four years of becoming CCF Fellows, compared to the graduation rate of 51% within six years for all students attending the same colleges.

I wish you the best at IMD. You will surely be an asset.

Debbie

Women’s equality, tipping points or otherwise, although a noble idea, is not the right question to be asking. When we attempt to address the issue of childhood obesity, we miss the point as well…it is not childhood obesity, it is family obesity, society-obesity. It is in many ways the same for women and other groups that remain outside the inner circles of power. When Nadine mentions the absence of business at the UN meetings she is hitting the nail on the head…government and nonprofits alone will not move society, all aspects must be represented. Equality is brought about when people realize that we are talking about their sisters, mothers, neighbors…not some “other’ being from outside our sphere of everyday life. Grameen has been so impactful, not so much for targeting women, but for giving them the resources they needed to take their rightful place in society. Once given the opportunity, they became the leaders and men treated them (in many cases, not all) as equal, or at least of deserving respect. The key element is and remains education…literacy is power and the mastery of language, spoken and written has and will continue to change the world. Put power in the pens of people and watch the world change before your very eyes.

@ Wadzanai: As long we as continue to “join” the Boys Club rather than de-gender it, we will always face these hurdles.