Going to the Women’s Forum this year as a member of the student’s delegation has been an amazing experience. I’ve been interested in women’s issues and challenges since my master, when I made my dissertation about women entrepreneurs in Brazil. At this time, I hadn’t completely realized all the challenges women face in society and in the job market. And I became so excited about this study that I decided to continue to do my research on the subject for my PhD thesis at HEC, in Paris.

Participating in the Women’s Forum 2007 was therefore a wonderful opportunity. Not only could I attend sessions and panels with women and men who make a difference in the world, but I also had the pleasure of interviewing some of them, leveraging the work that we did with the blog.

During this three days in Deauville, I was impressed to see how much women have improved. Indeed, seeing all the successful and courageous women from all over the world who participate in the forum, it becomes clear that we have made some real progress. However, we also realize that there is still a lot do to. Women are not yet well represented in positions of responsibility in private and public spheres. How can it still be true in the XXI century? And, more importantly, how can there still exist some practices concerning women, particularly in some African and eastern countries, which go against the most basic human rights? It is a world of paradoxes. This is why the theme of this year was so pertinent: trust. Trust is the basis of any relationship between human beings.

The Women’s Forum is not only a gathering of important women (and men) but also a place where people discuss about the future, the environment, politics, world conflicts and current crisis, such as the one in Darfur. Long-term and concrete initiatives have also been created and put into practice since the first edition of the Women’s Forum, in 2005. One of the most interesting of these is the Cartier Women’s Initiative Award, with the support of McKinsey & Company and INSEAD. Five women entrepreneurs, one from each continent, have received a prize from Cartier, as well as a US$ 20 000 grant and coaching support for one year. The projects have a real impact. One example is the one of Lucie Avoaka, the African Laureate this year, whose project is a healthcare provider in the underprivileged region of Abobo, in Ivory Coast.

What I took from the Women’s Forum as a lesson is that we have to continue to fight for our dreams. All the interesting women to whom I talked to or interviewed during the forum had a couple of things in common: they had a passion for what they do and they were not afraid of taking risks, of fighting for their ideals. This is really inspiring.

Herminia Ibarra, Chaired Professor of Organizational Behaviour, INSEAD commented, “What has made you successful in the past in not necessarily what will make you successful in the future.”

Wang Yuan, Deputy Director, China Development Bank, mentioned that in the financial services women are on par with men as they are educated and compete on merit. Women have the confidence to succeed. In china, women get 6 months of paid maternity leave and husbands get 2 weeks. This is generous compared to the west!

To their credit, financial services sector puts the most effort, time and money into recruiting MBA students. But are there enough role models? What can we do to create more women in power within the finance sector. Organisations need to showcase their senior women and focus on attracting and retaining talented young women. Start educating women at a young age and introduce them to wide range to subjects and career choices. Women look for balance and growth in the organisations that they join. Be willing to adapt and be flexible to their needs. Nurture young talent and develop them by giving stretch assignments and coaching. Put this as a requirement for managers’ performance appraisal. Female senior managers need to mentor other women to help them grow.

Traditionally, finance has been dominated by men but we might need to create a level playing field so that women can also compete. Think creatively how work is designed and how career paths evolve. Can we deconstruct work so that we can creatively think of providing more flexibility. ‘Children and family’ is not just a women’s problem. We don’t make them on our own! Men are also looking for the same flexibility and balance in life.

Is it true that women are worse than men in playing the game of politics? Women tend to be direct and it may be that they don’t know how to play this game or that they dislike playing politics. Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of power and politics (i.e. when somebody gets what they did deserve), think about how you can sell your ideas and enlist people in what you want to do. By thinking of the positive aspects of politics, women can develop themselves to have greater impact and influence.

In golf it takes time to practise your swing, similarly it takes time to get to know your colleagues and build relationships with your clients. Talk to three people you don’t know, call three people you haven’t talked to in a while and call three clients everyday. Share a little personal story as it helps build relationship. To be successful, you need to build a network outside your career path. Make yourself valuable to the company and learn from different environments. Another suggestion was to get your clients to talk about how great you are to your boss. It is very important that you build a great reputation both inside and outside the company.

Finally more women are willing to support others and spend the time to mentor younger women. In the past, when we had very, very few women at the top it was hard for them to compete but now as the numbers are increasing they are enabling more women succeed. Mobility and flexibility is important and it’s a question for everyone in society as to how we can take advantage of flexibility without impacting our reputation or adversely affecting career progression.

Maryanna Iskander belongs to those women who make me feel bad about myself. Kind and brilliant, warm and available, she is one of those who have the courage to dedicate themselves to something meaningful to them and to society, when many others chose the “easy way” of more conventional careers. She is now working as the Vice-President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), which is the largest provider of reproductive health care in the US, and offers birth control, HIV and STD tests and cancer detection services to 3 to 5 millions people, mainly disadvantaged women, in the United States.

When she is asked why she took the step to embrace such career, she answers in the simplest way: “Well, I thought about something I really care about, this is how women usually advance, you know”.  According to her, enabling a woman to control her fertility is at the very root of her participation in society. This is all about female empowerment and having the possibility to make choices: to choose when it is the right time to give birth, given the expectations towards environment, job and life.

The reason why Maryanna made me feel bad when I met her is the way she talks about what she does. Most people try to ease their conscience about making the world a better place by giving a few hours a week after work to a special cause. She chose to make her job of this commitment towards society, like this is the most obvious thing to do. And her job can be really challenging. Although only 3% of the PPFA activities are related to abortion, this is enough to raise constant and strong opposition in the US. Maryanna faces this situation with confidence and lucidity: “Women’s health shouldn’t be a political issue”.

What would be the next step for her then? Stay passionate and committed as a full-time activity, and maybe run an organisation by herself one day.

When I was invited to the forum’s 3rd edition, I immediately noticed an interesting place for me not to feel absolutely exotic: the men’s corner; a little dark stall where minority men who dare attend the event can freely gather together (at least that is what I thought at that time). Every women were supposed to be prohibited from that place built on a club-style basis with a giant TV screen and leather armchairs. A sort of forbidden city in which the men could compound in case of any sudden feminine attack.

After the two first days I must confess the organizers were right but on the other way around what they had imagine: men have been ferociously attacked by hordes of women that seemed to consider the little square the best in the all Deauville CID (our host resort). So much so that men began to cautiously avoid the men’s corner.

But manliness had not enunciated its last word. The battle was going to its apogee on this afternoon. The forum comprehensive program was announcing the arrival of Carlos Ghosn (CEO of Nissan & Renault), Frank Brown (Dean of INSEAD), Olivier Marchal (Bain&cie) and JP Tricorie (CEO of Schneider). Yes, in the twenty-square-meter thing. Of course the idea was to enable these well-known economic figures to meet the happy few other men in Deauville and talk between men about something like how and why women matter in business.

That’s not saying much that the she-army would fight tooth & nail to evacuate the poor guys who dare to try to attend the conference planned specifically for them.Here’s come a genius idea from an organizer: let’s change the place for the conference: a very classical feint in war period. The women would headed like a whirlwind into the men’s corner, while, we, happy and victorious would celebrate peacefully our victory in good company. The machiavelic plan worked out, only one thing mattered: discretion. (you know Guitry? If you’re man, rush to that: “Of course women can keep a secret, they only need to be several of them”).

How The James Bond stronghold was attacked

Men rushes into a first floor conference place, hidden behind a big totem that advertises the event. But there was a previous conference that was taking place there. And guess what, the men’s gathering in front of a door was noticed by passing women that was hanging around. In less than five minutes, streams of red-headed, blonde or dark, asian, indian, american, european and african women were surging toward us, perched on stiletto heels, full of rage for the attempt to elude them. We could hear from the depth of the pit the victorious rumour moving upward. Our guests were already arriving to the James Bond room and the James Bond girls were following them in an unbelievable uproar.We tried diplomacy in order not to surrender immediately.After hard peace talks we agreed on the following rule: three women should have at least one man to assail the place.

Let’s make it clear they didn’t respect the treaty as soon as they were numerous enough inside to put us down: powerful women are crual and pitiless.

As there were so few chairs for these numerous women present, they began to sit onto the fitted-carpet, leaving shoes and pushing their peers just as if in a mud battle. Indeed women wanted to eye their hero intently.The conference started in a strange way: M. Ghosn, who probably meant to be sincere, explained that diversity was compulsory in order to achieve effectiveness in companies but had to be meticulously prepared, and so that in his executive there were no women so far. Here we were and I really thought at the time we were on the verge to a nuclear war. I grabbed my bag and rushed to the door. Actually I am too young to die and I cannot bear physical torture. Thus I ran toward the door in an desperate attempt to save my life as the popular discontent voices were coming up. Were the bodyguards ready to evacuate the unlucky Nissan CEO? Never mind, every man for himself in hard times.

The diplomatic crisis was managed by Bond, James bond (his friends also call him Carlos Ghosn). My colleague Camilla, much stronger than I and determined to cover the event, has already posted her summary of the risky debate those four men dare to host. A strong historical moment. That’s how a private men’s clandestine meeting was ruin in Deauville, October 12^th 2007 by the vikings of modern times, I mean, women.

I’m sure you know what a Girls Night looks like. Well, try to imagine one, multiply it by 500, and you’ll know what the Women’s Forum looks like. I’ve never learnt so many tips about waxing techniques, moisturizers and shoe-style within such a short period of time. What do women do when they think nobody’s watching? They spend a significant part of their time gossiping and talking about their fellow’s lack of taste in fashion. But that does not prevent them from being highly competent if not the best in what they do. People often forget that part. Stereotypes can be useful; they also can be true and help you to apprehend your social environment. I am not criticising the fact that people can have stereotypes – if somebody is good at putting people in little boxes, that’s me. But the real problem arises when they influence your action and may jeopardize somebody’s career.

That was the whole point of the conference moderated yesterday by Julia Harrison. According to a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers presented by Marie-Jeanne Chèvremont-Lorenzini, the cultural perception of their gender is the main barrier women have to face in their professional life. Laws and education clearly affect the way they are perceived by their environment, and as such, indirectly impact their career. Women’s abilities and competences are often questioned; but perhaps the questioning should be reversed in favour of our deep and unconscious social beliefs: are we right when we think women are not able to deal with their professional, social, family and personal lives? Women have a couple of role models proving it’s possible. That’s not much, I agree. But as long as they’re properly doing what they’re asked to do, and as long as they’re asking for more, stereotypes should not matter.

This is a woman’s right to be both brilliant and superficial.

If you spend a few minutes with Antonia and Claudia, you will not want to leave them until you have heard the whole story! Not because they are from Colombia and Mexico and their story telling puts you under spell in the best Latin American fashion. Not only, at least. It’s because they are two very inspiring women and I want to share how their stories touched me.

Antonia Sanin and Claudia Garza are finalists of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards — the winners will be announced tonight. Being finalists has helped them a lot by giving them the confidence to pursue their dreams. Not that self-doubt has stopped them on their way to become innovative entrepreneurs so far!

They have developed two absolutely new business ideas which respond to a big need in Latin America, if not everywhere else: giving every child and young person the opportunity to take out the best of themselves. Is there a mission more important than that, I was thinking as I was listening to them.

Claudia Garza is an inspiring teacher who has worked for a number of years giving vocational guidance to kids and their families in her town in northern Mexico. Dropping out of universities is a huge problem in Mexico, with up to 400 million dollars wasted every year in students who never graduate. But it’s an even bigger problem for the student’s self-esteem and for the whole family which invested in the wrong career. Claudia turned this into a business. She developed a testing model to help kids decide their future independently from pressures from their parents or society. She boasts an impressive record of success and is now planning to franchise her company into other parts of the country.

Antonia Sanin has started an educational business which organises workshops for young children in Bogota. The idea is to show the world to children who may never get to travel out of Colombia. “I enjoyed seeing the world when I was small and kids should also get out of their little bubbles”, she says. It’s pure global fun, by the sound of it. After three months of setting up her business, she is also working on developing interactive multi-media tools for children and teaching aids for parents.

It’s a spell. Since meeting them I have not stopped thinking about my own dreams and how I can go about realising them… If Claudia and Antonia make the same impact on the children and young persons they will encounter in their businesses, Mexico and Colombia will be better places! And perhaps the grown-ups who meet them on the way like me will become better persons also…

If someone can change the world by doing TV, it is harder, however, to change it by watching it.

Well, this is not Jobeda Ali’s point of view. And the last thing you want to do is contradict this committed and effusive 32 years-old film-maker – the main reason being she may be right, and is determined to prove it. This young woman of Bangladeshi origin aims at making the world a better place thanks to the promotion of equal opportunities for everyone – nothing more. And for that, TV and media contents are nowadays the best ways to increase the visibility of given issues, and in the end, raise people’s awareness and make them react towards those issues. “People often believe I’m doing films because I like it”, she says, “Actually, it’s more like a social tool for me.” Jobeda is currently working on a film aiming at modernising radically the way Muslim women are perceived, as well as the way they perceive themselves. “The problem with Muslim women is they don’t realise they can disagree,” she comments. In order to help them gain their independence, this bullish young woman has a 20-year plan: make them and people around them accept they can question their environment, and give them the tools to get what they want and need.

The least you can say is this proactive woman has a strong sense of values and morals. Jobeda was raised in the Muslim faith, and her opinions make her take risks towards her community. Though, she is not afraid to face complex questions such as cultural relativism and tolerance, and does it in a really lucid way. For instance, where should be the limit between acceptable and non-acceptable when it comes to discuss personal beliefs or cultural issues? Where is the deadline in the sacrifice of oneself when balanced with the greater good? Can anyone pretend  to have an answer on that?…

In today’s world, a large number of executive women are having children later in their lives, or even deciding not to have them in order to advance in their careers. They make longer studies and some of them invest in a time consuming career. Indeed, the mean age of the first pregnancy went from 23 years old in 1976 up to 29 years old in 2005. These facts were shown yesterday Thursday by Corinne Hubinont, Professor and Co-Head of the Department of Obstetrics at the Clinique Universitaire St-Luc, in Belgium, during the Discovery Moments, to a very interested audience, in a session (photo) titled: “Pregnancy and Executive Women …is it a challenge?”

To answer that question, Corinne confirmed what most executive women feel when they think about having children and continuing to advance in their careers: Yes, pregnancy for executive women is a challenge. After the age of 35, the risks of pregnancy start growing at a higher rate. In addition, the time when executive women start thinking of having a child coincides with the time when they are on the track to a successful career, which normally demands long hours of work, travelling and late meetings. She called attention to a “new high risk pregnancy”, associated with stress, high physical workload, dissatisfaction at work and late pregnancy, despite the major medical performance we have today.

Some ways to manage this challenge were suggested and discussed during the session. For example, to facilitate early pregnancy, during the studies or early in professional life. Another important point would be to allow long pregnancy and materity leave in “late pregnancy” in order to decrease their complications. But all these solutions depend not only on women, but on society as a whole.

One of the women in the audience reported that she was noy very reassured by the solutions that exist today, as they depend on a change in society and this takes time. She is 35 and doesn’t have children. Another woman, from the Belgian Board of the Women’s Forum, said that she decided to have children later, around the age of 30, so that she could advance in her career before. But she considered herself lucky because she didn’t have any problems getting pregnant or during pregnancy.

The question of how women executives can manage the challenge of pregancy is not solved, but discussing them in the Women’s Forum seems to be a good beginning to think about solutions and starting to make things change.

The expectations are high for the finalists of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards 2007, a joint project by Cartier and the Women’s Forum, with the support of McKinsey & Company and INSEAD. Yesterday Thursday, the fourteen women entrepreneurs gathered to show their start-up projects in the Women’s Forum. There will be five winners of the Prize, one from each region (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America). The five winners will receive The Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards Trophy, US$ 20 000 each, coaching support for one year and media visibility. I could talk to some of the finalists about what they expected from the Award (which is to be announced tonight). All of them agrees that it is already great to be among the finalists.

Lucie Cissé, an entrepreneur from the Ivory Coast, said that it is already an honor to be there. If she wins the Prize for her project of a healthcare provider in the underprivileged region of Abobo, she thinks that it will help her develop the project and it will also be good for Africa. The Argentinian entrepreneurs Marisa Otamendi and Carola Pradas are also very excited to be finalists. They said that the Cartier Award helped them make their dream come true, a customer service consulting and outsourcing for e-businesses in Argentina. The Cartier Award helped them develop their idea, write their business plan and organize their work. They argue that their project can benefit women, as it will allow them to work from home. If she wins, Bettina Götzenberger, from Spain, will be happy to benefit from the consulting and coaching that come with the Prize.

Among the European women entrepreneurs, Jenny Carenco, who quit a job in a consulting firm to open her own business, a new generation of baby food jars and frozen baby food, thinks that the products and services that the finalist women entrepreneurs propose make a real sense. Besides, she believes that the credibility of the structure of Cartier’s Award will certainly help them obtain funding for their businesses. Katalin Berenyi, a French entrepreneur, remembered that there are not many women entrepreneurs in France. According to her, the level of the projects of the finalists is very high and they are all very interesting. Her business is an anti-fatigue cosmetics range based on traditional Korean herbal science. If she is one of the winners, she believes her company will obtain a great visibility. Antonia Sanin, who created a day-care center for children aged 3 to 6 in Colombia, considers that the Cartier Women’s Initiative has already given her a lot. It helped her formally write her idea and consolidate her working team.

Indeed, Freja Day, from Cartier International, explains that Cartier has been a sponsor of the Women’s Forum since its creation in 2005. She reminds that women are the driving force of the economy. They wanted to create something concrete for women, a long-term initiative that could help women open and develop their own businesses. Cartier has a long history (founded in 1847) and, as Freja says,”women are the heart of what we do”.

How are women shaping the business environment of the 21st century?

In a panel on Thursday, Laura Liswood (Senior Advisor, Goldman Sachs) pointed out a telling observation. Men are taught: The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Women are taught: If you don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say anything at all. The resulting challenge is that these are constitutionally opposed.

She went on to say that a key assumption is that critical feedback is core to career development. However, within that, “Like” is very comfortable giving critical feedback to “Like”. The direct opposite is also true – they are very uncomfortable giving critical feedback to “Unlike”, so they are more likely to mumble “just fine”.

The best leaders, Liswood said, move their leadership styles depending on the context, and have the most tools in their toolbox – including the command and control tool, and the consensus tool. She brought up the classic example from Malcolm Gladwell’s “Blink“: 16% of American males are more than 6 feet tall, and 57% of CEOs are more than 6 feet tall. She went on to remark that she has done extensive research on leadership, and has interviewed many women CEOs in the US, as well as top male and female leaders around the world - and she has never seen a correlation between skeletal structure and leadership capabilities.

Another quote: What’s the definition of an assertive man – someone who bombs a small country. Of an assertive woman – someone who puts you on hold for 5 seconds.

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, vice-president of South Africa, introduced by Laurence Peyraut Bertier of Barclays, gave an engaged keynote before dinner tonight, describing the efforts her country has done to promote women in government (several ministers are women), although “we still have a long way to go, because those steps aren’t reflected in the quality of life of many women”. A few quotes from her speech:

“I truly believe that once women are located in a meaningful place in the economy, society will be a much better place. There is an intrinsic link between society and economy”.

“It’s important that we pay attention to the issue of patriarchy and how it continues to deny a crucial role to half of society. I don’t think that the world can continue to afford a situation where half of society is disconnnected. We just don’t have enough men to do all the work”.

“There has to be a recognition in society that there cannot be development and poverty eradication without a sustainable contribution of women. The development of women is the biggest event for humanity yet to happen, for everybody”.

“Can you imagine if one day all the women in the world would just stay at home, don’t do anything that’s called work. Just sleep. We all fall asleep, all of us at the same time. I’m not advocating for a sleep strike, but can you imagine how the world would be? We could change the world by sleeping”.

“We should not trivialize the role of men, but we also need to dismantle the paradigm in which men have kept women for years. We need to start a new paradigm for the world where men would have a great place and women would had a great place”.

“If you want to look at how developed a country is, the quality of life of children, women, old people and disabled people is a better indicator than GDP”.

Growing up in developing countries is not easy. Being a women in a developing country is hard. Increasingly women are becoming the sole providers for their families. This makes their role even more important. But, how can they do that when their opportunities are limited by gender, education and health issues?

Actually, things are being done and done in a great way. I had a chance today to talk with Kalpana Simhan from Vital Voices. This organization is dedicated to invest and train emerging women and girl leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs who work to increase women’s and girls’ participation in all strides of society. They are present in Africa, Eurasia, East and South Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East.

Investing in women who lead other women is a cascading effect. They also help women promote equitable laws in their countries. What I really liked about this organization is that they don’t go to places and tell people what to do: they let women in communities lead their own. This is really important when working in social projects, it is not about “imposing” a right way, it is about respecting the way people do things and provide them with the tools and training to help them achieve their dream.

We are gathered here at the Women’s Forum discussing issues that impact women in business, education, society and politics. Why is there never a case for non-diversity? As women, we network and participate in forums to find ways to improve our position in society. Thousands of research and studies have been done on the impact of either having a low or a high percentage of women in a company. Today, McKinsey came out with a study called “Women Matter” (despite the English title, the report is in French, here in PDF). As Laura Liswood appropriately said in today’s panel on Women and Competitiveness, there is no “Do Men Matter” research.

Will we ever get to the point when women don’t have to fight the business case for diversity? Will it ever become a given that women and men are equal but different and that they complement each other? Will it ever be OK for a man to participate in a flexibility program without being seen as not ambitious? Will the percentage of women who have children and have a position in boards increase over time?

The Women’s Forum is a perfect place to debate all of this topics. For sure, there will be no right answer to any of this questions and the next generations of women will be responsible to carry on the torch and hopefully, they won’t have to fight the business case for diversity.

Missed some key points of various speakers while having coffee at the bar? Confused with so many insights and perspectives after attending numerous sessions? No matter what’s your background, the below-mentioned core take-aways for implementing gender diversity will be extremely useful for anyone seeking to reap the full benefits of diversity in the workplace (for managers as well as non-managers) . Move over Management Gurus, here the new management mantra:

7 steps to make gender diversity successful in the workplace :

• Make gender a strategic issue
• Get the executive team to define the business plan
• Let people express dissent
• Appoint a respected senior executive to head the initiative
• Make change before making noise
• Don’t mix managers
• Give it a budget, not just volunteers

Like in all gatherings, some of the most interesting discussions happened behind the scenes, or rather in a suffused tone over lunch. One of the interesting chats your ears on the ground picked up was about the very core issue of the conference – diversity policy in corporations, or why so few women get into company boards.

A few untold truths emerged at a table of European and US female managers from a number of European multinationals. First, they all agreed a convincing business case for gender diversity has to be presented to the (male) senior management. Only a business case can motivate change, and not fairness arguments. Second, many companies, especially those with low women representation, are pondering what to do to attract more diverse talent. The long-sighted ones have tasked their women employees attending the Forum to come back with an actions plan, which is an interesting approach of bottom-up ideas generation. Other companies have put procedures and diversity teams in place to drive change top-down, with substantial budgets. So far, no surprises.

More surprising was the fact that many of these female managers were not sure the top (male) ranks of the company were really sold on the idea of the business value of diversity. It is all up to how the CEO sees the issue, said one. One manager even said she will bring back ideas from the forum to her top executives, but she will not mention gender diversity as part of those discussions. The company’s top management does not see the value of this debate on gender diversity, she said.

More cynically, or realistically perhaps in some cases, one senior woman manager said that she thought there is very little appetite for women board members within all-men boards. Women board members would challenge the way things are done, and once you let one woman in, a few more would follow, and then what happens? All the women managers at that table noticed that their company boards had members from all corners of the globe, but no single woman. What a shame that European shareholders haven’t noticed the research from diversity consultancy Catalyst. This shows exactly the opposite, that women in top management perform better than all-men driven companies. If this is not a business case, what is?

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”.

Scenes from the Women’s Forum 2007. A break at the main bar:

Discovering the “Rising Talents“:

At the Cartier Women’s Initiative Award booth (a joint project by Cartier, McKinsey and Insead aimed at encouraging female startup entrepreneurs), getting ready for tonight’s presentation of the finalists:

Say it with flowers:

Why have women entrepreneurs, managers, civil society leaders, academics and artists from all over the world come to Dauville to meet for three days in a conference centre? Talking to the participants as they queue up for their badges shows a universe of women leaders who deeply believe in the value of this event for them personally and for their organisations.

They are here to find inspiration and share experiences with their peers from all corners of the world. Elizabeth Pastore-Reiss from the consultancy Ethicity sums it up saying the Forum provides a global vision on sustainability built on women’s concern about what kind of world future generations will inherit from us. Elene Chatillon, a young consultant at McKinsey, is here to meet amazing women and participate in a strong debate on trust in business and society. For Florence Lenne from Aeroports de Paris, the Forum creates a space for reflection and exchange, networking and even making new friends.

The Forum as an opportunity to network with inspiring women is a key motivation for the participants. They come here to gain energy, ideas and new relationships and hope this will help them change their organisations to the advantage of other women as well as men. Some of them are senior managers who have been charged by their organisations with the responsibility of improving talent through diversity. Erika Pulings leads talent management and diversity policies at Dexia. She is here to share best practices with other leading organisations on how to improve diversity and attract talent. This is important for all businesses, but in the financial sector in particular. Yolanda Conyers from Lenovo also believes in the importance of winning diverse talent for her organisation. For Lenovo, sponsoring the conference is an opportunity to reinforce its commitment to diversity and networking with women leaders who share the same vision.

For many of the participants, this is the first year they attend the Forum. This shows how a long way the Forum has gone to establish its reputation as a source of inspiration and ideas for women leaders from all over the world. On its first day, the atmosphere of the event is filled with energy, confidence and interest to learn from each other. It is the women leaders who create this atmosphere and they want to carry it with them and bring it out into the world on leaving Deauville.

This year, the Women’s Forum welcomes a delegation of 15 students, both men and women, coming from all over the world to live together this unique event and share their vision.

Last year, at the 2006 Women’s Forum, we were 18 students from 12 different countries who were given this unique opportunity.
It was amazing to meet each other; women students from all around the world, who were in many ways very different, but at the same time so alike in their concerns and their hopes.
It was amazing to meet women in top management and decision making positions, who shared with us their experiences and provided us with invaluable advices and guidance. It has also been a unique platform for us, to enrich the discussions and debates with the young generation’s perspective and to voice young women’s issues and aspirations.
We are very grateful for the inspiration which we brought back from the 2006 Women’s Forum. It has given us new ideas and built up new confidence. It has encouraged us to think “out of the box” and to start to act, to make changes, at our level; in the societies we live in.

The 2006 Forum has inspired us as women, and still today we acknowledge the richness and the impact these 4 days had in our lives.
I have no doubt this 2007 Women’s Forum will be as inspiring and uplifting for the coming student delegation, and I look forward to being part of it!

By Christine Ockrent

Trust is the very backbone of our societies. Without trust, our institutions crumble, our companies lose their footing, our social fabric is torn apart, and our media lose credibility. Without trust, scientific and technological progress becomes suspect. Without trust, violence, poverty and ecological damage only worsen. In wealthy as in poverty-stricken societies women now play a major role. Their ideas on these issues are worth defending, their views are worth confronting and their proposals should be heard. On all these issues their voice is both legitimate and indispensable.

The world cannot progress without trust, and the world cannot progress without women. This is why during 3 days in Deauville, from October 11 to 13, 2007, Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society has invited business and political leaders, NGO managers, experts, innovators and journalists from around the world to discuss the current state of the world and how best to build trust in our societies.