G20, Mascaro: “Female leadership becomes a criterion for evaluating countries’ competitiveness”

The G20 Ministerial Conference on female empowerment is underway in Santa Margherita Ligure. The alliance that brings together the international representatives of the private sector and the governmental counterparts, has identified the concrete actions to be taken so that women, with the necessary skills, can be protagonists of the challenges of the future up to zeroing the gap with the male gender in roles leadership. (VIDEO) Among the many proposals there is also the request sent to the World Economic Forum and the IMF to include female leadership among the key criteria in evaluating the competitiveness of countries, as explained by Paola Mascaro, President of Valore D, association of companies that promotes gender balance and an inclusive culture for the growth of companies and the country, and president of the G20 Empower: “The presence of women in leadership positions is essential for the economic growth of any nation. It is proven by numerous researches that a greater participation of women in top positions is good for the business world and consequently for the economy: both in terms of greater innovative capacity and financial results ”. The world of work is going through the consequences brought about by the pandemic and in this case too it was the female sex who was most penalized. “Most of the jobs lost concern women, both because they work in sectors most affected by the pandemic, and because of the type of contracts, but also because they needed to leave their profession to look after their children. Until we change this culture of responsibility, on the basis of which family care is borne by women, we will not progress ”, continued Paola Mascaro, also dwelling on the very delicate issue of what is happening in Afghanistan. “We are witnessing a phase of real de-empowerment that worries us a lot. After 20 years of girls having gone back to school, girls at university and women having started working, all of this heritage is being erased and is unacceptable. I think that the private sector can also make its contribution by dealing with education, helping refugee women through training and giving them new professional opportunities. And finally, the still too wide gap in Stem matters “.” There is still too much a masculine narrative “- said Paola Mascaro – girls do not even know what to imagine and expect in the face of a choice of Stem studies. We must therefore starting from primary school to meet boys and girls to approach them immediately to a choice that allows them to have more and better professional opportunities for the future ”, concluded Paola Mascaro, President of Valore D and Chair G20 Empower.