Jun 4, 2018, 8:02 PM ETPanel

Educate, Elevate, Empower: Investing in Girls and Women

Global education gaps between genders are closing in most major countries, with women now surpassing men in university attendance in many reported nations.
Despite progress in education, gender representation in the Fortune 500 remains stagnant; the number of women CEOs currently equals the number of male CEOs named "John."
Economic data indicates that for every child born, women's earnings decrease by 4% while men's earnings increase by 6%.
A recent study projects that if current trends persist, the world will reach Mars approximately 50 years before achieving gender pay equality in the workforce.
The United States dropped from rank 28 to 45 out of 144 countries in the global gender equality index over a two-year period.
In contrast, Rwanda (rank 6) and Iceland (rank 1) achieved high standings through conscious political decisions to mandate female representation in government.
Research by McKinsey, the World Bank, and major banks confirms that teams with female directors outperform those without in price-to-book value and ROI growth.
78% of CEOs cite gender parity as a top priority, yet execution remains a significant challenge due to entrenched unconscious biases.

Women constitute 46% of entry-level hires, but this figure drops to 37% at the managerial level, 33% at the senior director level, and only 20% at the C-suite.
Women are 18% less likely to be promoted from entry-level to management compared to their male peers.
Implementing gender-parity hiring ratios at the entry-to-manager level could more than double the current number of women in C-suite roles.
Unconscious bias begins early, with studies indicating that by age six, children often identify men as being smarter than women.
This "second-generation bias" manifests as women receiving vague feedback and lacking sponsorship opportunities in the "middle management" phase.
Some companies, such as Oath (AOL/Yahoo), have adopted mandatory rules requiring women to be present in all meetings to ensure visibility and access to decision-making processes.
Nancy Armstrong proposes separating the evaluation of men and women against transparent criteria rather than comparing candidates against existing incumbents, who are often male.

Room to Read aims to educate 15 million students by 2020, having already reached 10 million in 2015 (five years ahead of schedule).
Room to Read has established 20,000 libraries, a pace eight times faster than Andrew Carnegie's library construction rate, serving 6.2 million girls and 6.2 million boys.
In rural Bangladesh and Tanzania, statistics show that four out of five girls do not complete grade five.
770 million people globally are illiterate, with two-thirds being girls and women (approx. 450 million).
John Wood notes that over 100 million girls in the developing world wake up daily without access to schooling.
Room to Read maintains a leadership team that is overwhelmingly female, including 52% of its global employees and a female CEO with five of seven direct reports also being women.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation manages over $11 billion in assets and has launched an "emerging manager program" to invest in funds run by women and minorities.
The Foundation partners with SEO (Sponsors of Educational Opportunity), placing 100 women and minority candidates in Wall Street summer jobs annually with a 75% full-time conversion rate.
Venture capital allocation to women remains critically low at 3%, while black women receive only 0.2% of venture funding.
Shiza Shahid founded Now Ventures to invest in mission-driven startups at the intersection of business, entrepreneurship, and social good, aiming to correct the lack of diverse capital.
Now Ventures highlights that diverse founding teams tend to solve broader societal problems rather than just niche issues relevant to homogeneous groups.
The Foundation defines success not only by financial returns but by the diversity of thought, behavior, and representation within the investment team.

Shelley Zalas argues that "unconscious bias" is often a misnomer for conscious decisions to maintain the status quo, citing the $0.79 wage gap as a result of historical rules written by men for men.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff spent $3 million to identify and fix internal pay inequities, setting a precedent for equal pay for equal work.
Proposals include mandatory parental leave for both men and women to equalize career interruptions and reduce the perception of "weakness" associated with paternity leave.
Some investors are adopting "double bottom line" strategies, screening out companies that do not adopt gender-progressive policies.
The "30% Club" has successfully lobbied for board quotas, securing pledges from leaders like Michael Bloomberg to ensure 30% female board representation.
Room to Read utilizes an "adopt-a-project" model where businesses fund specific libraries and programs ($20,000–$25,000) with full transparency and site visits to build trust.

Dad Engagement: Panelists suggest fathers must actively redefine success for their daughters, moving beyond "cute" discussions to mentoring and exposing them to female leaders in business.
Social Media: Shiza Shahid notes that while social media often objectifies women, it can be leveraged for good through positive role model avatars (e.g., a Black Lives Matter avatar that gained a million followers in a year).
Curriculum for Boys: The panel advocates for changing early childhood messaging, noting that boys are rarely taught empathy or respect in a way that counters objectification.
MeToo Reactions: The panel rejects the notion that men must stop mentoring women; instead, they argue men should avoid inappropriate behavior by adhering to basic professional respect.
Hiring Transparency: Panelists suggest "blind" hiring processes, such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra's use of screens and shoe removal, to identify and mitigate deep-seated biases in hiring and evaluation.
Entrepreneurship Advice: Female founders facing bias in capital raising are encouraged to seek funds with women partners, utilize crowdfunding, and bootstrap to prove metrics before seeking traditional VC.