WUNRN
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM 2014 - DAVOS,
SWITZERLAND
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WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM 2014 HAS 15%
WOMEN - FEWER THAN LAST YEAR
By David Yanofsky - January 21, 2014
"Of the 2633 people scheduled to attend the World Economic Forum 2014 in Davos, only 395 are women."
Finding a woman at the World
Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos is not getting any easier. Last year, 17%
of participants at the invitation-only event were women. This year, only
15% are.
Organizers say it’s simply
the reality of today’s world. Many participants are invited to Davos based
solely on their job function—like the president of
“We’re on the front line of
reflecting the world as it is, not how we want it to be,” says Adrian Monck, a
managing director and head of communications for WEF. Monck says the
organization would prefer that its meeting in Davos were more evenly
distributed by gender, but its hands are tied by a different imperative:
bringing together the world’s most powerful and influential
people. Presently only 16.9% of Fortune 500 boards of directors are
comprised of women. Fewer than 5% of the Fortune 500 are led
by women.
Business members of WEF get a
certain number of invitations and can distribute them to their top employees as
they see fit. The highest levels of the membership get four tickets, but if one
of their tickets goes to a woman who is an executive or board member, the
company is rewarded with a fifth ticket.
Here’s a look at the
percentage of attendees from each country who are women (among countries with
more than 10 participants). As a raw number, the
The groups that consist of
younger participants are more gender-balanced. Participants from both the “Young Global
Leaders” and “Global
Shapers” are comprised of about 50% men and 50% women, according to Monck.