At the first glance one can understand why Maud Fontenoy had been chosen to be one of the WF “Rising Talents“. Maud has been through incredible projects, she is the first woman to have sailed around the world against winds and currents in 2007. She is also the first woman to have crossed the Atlantic and pacific Oceans rowing. Maud has been awarded Chevalier de l’ordre National du Mérite as recognition of all her successful projects.

When asking her the difficulties of being a woman in such ambitious projects, she first answered, “my arms were not muscular enough”. More seriously, Maud told me that as a woman she may have been under a bit more pressure because people looked more at her in those activities where men represent usually the majority.

Maud is handling many new projects. She is trying to share all what she discovered around the world, particularly with children. The creation of an educational programme called “Jeunes aventuriers” to teach young children to respect the environment they live in has been one of her important moves for the ecological cause. She wrote two books about her world tour depicting her life on board. One of those, “Le sel de la vie“, is very personal. Maud has been involved in projects and associations for a long time. “I created my first association when I was 21″ but she now enjoys developing projects that have a greater impact within France and the rest of the world because the cameras are focusing on her, and that offers her a good platform for passing her messages along.

Talking with her, people would notice that she speaks a lot with her hands. I guess that is quite normal for a woman with Italian origins that rowed all over the Earth. That gives “the message I’m trying to deliver more intensity and a greater impact” and it is also a way to illustrate her sentiments when talking to children.

Mercedes Erra, Executive Chairwoman of Euro RSCG Worldwide in France has just presented a survey showing consumer’s opinion on companies.

Firstly, this survey highlighted the point that 65 % of the public thinks that their opinion should drive company’s conduct and overall strategy.

The thing that has to be kept in mind, particularly by all the leaders attending this Forum is that their responsibility is constantly growing. Indeed people are mainly thinking that the role of companies in our world is changing in lots of fields. For example, more than 75% of English, American and French people think that business bears as much responsibility for driving positive social change as governments.

Corporate reputation on social and environmental responsibility is a key driver of confidence and will become a driver of companies’ performances. With greater awarness people are ready to pay more for ethical and sustainable products.

In Alphonse Daudet’s book, the Arlésienne is a character that everyone is thinking of, worrying about, but that never appears clearly.

We have our Arlésienne at the Women’s forum. Yesterday, lots of speakers referred to her, without mentioning her name. Guess who she is?

Helping you talking about the fact that she is actually member of the US senate would break the myth. Chatting about the fact that she’s running for the US presidency or that she is married to a former US president is clearly inappropriate…

Possibly, political opinions don’t have their place in the Women’s Forum. True, but the most powerful nation in the world could be ruled in few months by a woman, for the first time. Is that what is on the minds of the forum delegates? She’s probably in everyone’s mind because she could change our world and become an example of a woman succeeding as a the first woman US president.

When I asked the Human resources director of an American consulting company her opinion on the future “master of the world” as a woman, she seamed quite confident in the likelihood of that happening. “She’s very smart, she will not try to rule the world as a policeman, and she has lots of experience as the shadow adviser of her husband”.

“Talking about her is probably such a tough subject that it would requires its own forum” answers a French lawyer. Keeping for them their political opinions, most people I interviewed told me their wish to see a woman at the top of US politics. Recent polls shows that their wish could come true in the near future.

Yes, I’m talking about Hillary Clinton. It took about 1 hour and 10 minutes yesterday, during the first session of the Forum, for a panelist to mention her name.

One of this morning debates asked the following question: What should women expect from political leaders? Interesting, but what about women as leaders in politics? Elisabeth Guigou, former French minister of justice and Linda Lanzillotta, Italian minister for regional affairs agreed on the fact that women are sharing qualities that could lead them to perform better in political positions. Women are “more innovative”, “more generous”, “they bring diversity”. Women’s are also more ethical than men. Maria Anjeles Amador, former health minister of Spain, thinks that as soon as women’s will reach a similar level of responsibility as men, they will probably be as corrupted as men are!

Diversity is important in politics because people need to identify with leaders that are able to understand their needs and their problems. Gender diversity improves politics efficiency. It also leads to a better knowledge of the population aspirations. But women credibility has to be challenged. Women should be criticized just as men are, that is actual equality Elisabeth Guigou thinks.

To achieve that goal, men have to play a role, they have to “share the power”, Maria Anjeles Amador told me, “Women are half of the population, we are not men’s adversary, we just have a different vision that could be useful”, it seems that the right solution is to “walk together” she adds. Long Jiang Wen from the Chinese delegation insists on the necessity to bring women to higher position especially in countries where this results difficult. Particularly in those countries it is important to make men be aware of the necessity to leave some place to diversity in governing bodies.

The main goal is to reach Plato’s will: “a world in which nobody feels happy for being a man and nobody feels selfless for being a woman”.