Increasing attention is being given to the presence of women in business and rightly so; in 2018 only 25 of the Fortune 500 companies had female CEOs, and today only one in five computing jobs worldwide are currently held by women. Myriad initiatives to combat this disparity have been launched, and significant progress has already been made; Morgan and Stanley reported that board representation in Europe has increased 15% since 2010. However, there is still a long way to go.

A Networked Approach

Companies and thought leaders around the world are uniting to tackle unequal representation. In the UK, the Tech She Can charter aims to increase the number of women working in technology. Over 130 organizations including JP Morgan, Rolls-Royce and American Express have agreed to work with schools to educate and inspire pupils, as well as ensuring inclusive access to technology roles within their organizations. Similarly, Paradigm for Parity was established by a coalition of 112 companies including Accenture, Bloomberg and Coca Cola to address the gender gap. Together, they employ 6.1 million workers worldwide and are aiming for complete parity by 2030.

Figureheads for Change

Inspiring and powerful leaders have also been standing up for change. In early 2020, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon announced that they will no longer take a company public unless they have at least one diverse board member, paving the way for other banks to make meaningful and measurable change. Melinda Gates has pledged to invest $1 billion to boost the power and influence of women in the U.S.A. through initiatives such as Gender Equality in Tech (GET) Cities, which intends to accelerate the pace of change by maximizing the impact of local efforts through increased connectivity and access to funding.

Equality in Education

Education for women and girls is essential for change, with many young female entrepreneurs leading the charge. Global platform Coding Girls was founded by Anna Radulovski to grow the number of girls and women in tech by delivering workshops and courses worldwide. Kimberly Bryant founded Black Girls Code in the U.S.A. to teach coding skills to girls from underrepresented communities, and Anisah Osman Britton founded 23 Code Street for women and non-binary people, increasing the positive impact by offering free training to women in the slums of India. Laura Fernández and Cecilia Tham founded Barcelona-based allWomen Tech to provide women with courses designed and taught by female tech experts, work opportunities with international companies and a mentoring network.

At EU Business School, gender equality is engrained in our DNA. Not only have we have been ranked as the worldwide education leader in diversity by QS Global MBA Rankings 2019, but we are delighted to support PWN Global by certifying its Entrepreneurship Virtual Program, an online program dedicated to fostering the development of women entrepreneurs around the world. We believe that the cultivation of entrepreneurial skills and leadership values will advance gender balance and ultimately promote female leadership.