Today Il Corriere della Sera published an interesting article on the impact of the current economic downturn on women. Our initiative “Ready-for-board Women” is presented in the same page.
To read both articles, click here
We have recently presented our key initiative for 2009, the “Ready-for-board women” project, that aims at eliminating the most frequent excuse used to justify the scarcity of women in boards : “there are not enough qualified women” (see the post).
The project, thanks to the four leading executive search firms that are supporting us (Eric Salmon & Partners, Heidrick & Struggles, Key2people and Korn Ferry) and to the Osservatorio sul Diversity Management, is proceeding successfully.
Il Sole 24ore published an article on may 21st to update its readers on the initiative: “Più donne nei consigli ecco la prima mappa”.
Read the article (in Italian, pdf).
Italy seems to be always in last place when it comes to indicators of women’s careers or power. The most depressing thing is that the situation never seems to improve over time, and whenever quotas or other remedies are proposed, the reactions range from inertia to active opposition.
While we were organizing the “Women on Board – Moving Mountains” event, we all agreed that we were tired of spending time complaining about how difficult and sad the situation was and wanted to do something concrete. Our ultimate goal, while preparing this successful event, was to find a way to make the event the first step of a tangible action to help women open the doors that lead to boards.
After a couple of months, I met Simona Cuomo, from SDA Bocconi’s Osservatorio di ricerca sul Diversity Management (formerly Laboratorio Armonia), and we discovered they were considering a project on the exact same topic and decided to join forces.
After almost a year, that idea has finally become a reality and I would like to thank Stefania Celsi, Rosanna D’Antona and Maria Pierdicchi for having inspired us.
The “Ready-for-board women” project is aimed at eliminating the most frequent excuse used to justify the scarcity of women in boards and the glacial speed of change: “there are not enough qualified women, with the experience and skills required to sit on a board”.
With the fundamental support of four leading executive search firms (Eric Salmon & Partners, Heidrick & Struggles, Key2people and Korn Ferry) we will build a Profile Database of women that already have the required profile to sit on a board. The Profile Database will be officially presented by PWA Milan and its partners in the autumn of 2009.
With this vital tool, we will campaign to institutions, associations and corporations to convince them to be proactive in promoting the presence of qualified women in board positions.
If you want to know more about the “Ready-for-board women”, read the presentation ready-for-board-women.
Il Sole 24ore on march wednesday 11, in its Job24 area, presented PWA Milan project “Ready-for-board Women”, through an interview to Monica Pesce.
The full description of the project can be read here
Read the article (in Italian) “Una classifica per le prime 100 manager“
