I received this article from Carol Schwartz of the Women’s Leadership Institute of Australia… So it turns out only 17% of Davos participants this year were women, despite a new quota system demanding that the largest members send one woman for every four men. 

According to Saadia Zahidi, the WEF’s head of constituents who is spearheading the gender programme, it’s an “external glass ceiling” that drives the mostly-male participation at Davos.

Roger Carr, the chairman of Centrica who is leading efforts to get more women appointed to British boards, agrees: “Davos is a special place populated by the most senior decision makers. The fact is that the number of women in that position is quite small.”

So how is the WEF planning to change this?  By preaching to the converted, it would seem.  In a private breakfast, the forum’s female leaders and gender parity board worked on a paper that will set out best practices to achieve greater diversity, to be published in March.

You’d think by now they’d have realised it’s the 83% of participants who are men that really need to be on board… Sigh…