On Monday, I attended a United Nations conference in New York to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment during what prooved to be a busy week of meetings there and in Washington DC.
The conference, Engaging philanthropy to promote equality and women’s empowerment at the United Nations Headquarters explored the opportunities in advancing the Millennium Development Goals for gender equality and empowerment of women.
Speaking at the conference were many leading CEOs, including Mr Alan Hassenfeld, Chairman of Hasbro, and Ms Zanab Salbi, Founder and CEO of Women for Women International amongst other high level representatives of the United Nations, and other leading non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
I was able to share the latest thinking from within our membership and what we’re doing to support the talented individuals at key stages of their careers.
Take for example the work we are doing around Narrowing the Gap and also in influencing business leaders, regulators and policy makers.
I also talked about the work we are doing in countries such as Bangladesh and Botswana to grow the profession and provide career opportunities for women in finance.
Whilst I believe we are leading the way in this field, I know that as a profession we could always do better. I certainly found it insightful to hear about other initiatives which I’m sure we could learn from.