Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Women only make up eight percent of managerial posts in Europe.
A recent high-powered summit in Berlin to improve women’s economic opportunities amid intense global competition underlined the dearth of female representatives in boardrooms across Europe.
Women in European countries to date still constitute only eight percent of managerial positions, according to the European Women’s Network.
Speaking at the 17th Global Summit of Women that took place in Berlin last week, Mirrella Visser, a president of the European Women’s Network said she is the first women to be on a company board in The Netherlands.
However, other male members of the board sometimes intimidate her, she said. “Maybe these men do this to me because they do not believe in women making decisions.”
According to research revealed at the summit, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom are the two countries that have the highest percentage of women in decision-making positions.
Visser said it remains hard for women to climb the career ladder since unlike other countries, “The Netherlands does not have a legislator that could back women up and to get to the top, you have to be on your own.”
“Davos for Women”
The challenges facing women in the business world was one of the core themes of the summit which is also known as the “Davos for Women.”
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga took part in the summit
An annual occurrence, the three-day meeting this time drew over 1,000 female government and business leaders — most of them top corporate executives — from 95 countries. Participants included Latvian President, Vaira Vike-Freiberga and vice president of Microsoft USA, Gerri Elliot.
Irene Natividad, president of the summit said the meet allows women across borders, disciplines and cultures to learn from each other in their ongoing work towards economic equity.
“Sustainability and growth in our global economy would be unthinkable without women” Natividad said.
She admitted that there weren’t enough women in top managerial positions and emphasized the need to change the mind-set of both men and women.
“Many corporate leaders still view the inclusion of women board directors as a matter of political correctness or as a form of affirmative action to address past inequities.” She said both views are misguided approaches that merely entrench opposition to diversifying corporate boardrooms.