Why We Won’t Wait on Gender Equality

Will you #BeBoldForChange today, on International Women's Day 2017 and beyond?

By Women in Pharma on Mar 8, 2017

International Women’s Day (IWD) serves as a reminder of how far we’ve come and, yet, how far we need to go in order to reach gender parity and equal representation of women in all spheres of life, from the boardroom to academia, politics and civil society.

While the flicker of hope that 2017 would see the inauguration of the first female President in the United States may have been doused, President Trump’s victory (and his past) have already invigorated debate on topics as diverse as sexual harassment, reproductive rights and global women’s health.

In 2017, when International Women’s Day focuses on creating a more inclusive, gender equal world, the truth is that we are further from this goal than many people think. The World Economic Forum has predicted that the gender gap won't close entirely until 2186, a date that it has pushed back 37 years since its 2014 report.

For women, this is too long to wait. Around the world, IWD can be an important catalyst and vehicle for driving greater change for women and moving closer to gender parity. Each one of us – man or woman – can be a leader within our own spheres of influence, we can each take bold pragmatic action to accelerate gender parity. 

In Fresh Thinking Needed to Champion Female Talent, HBA President-elect Kathrin Schoenborn-Sobolewski (also VP, Global Head Integrated Planning, Analytics and Partnering, at Merck KGaA) gives advice to women struggling to reach leadership positions in their organizations.

In Why Diversity Lies at the Heart of a Patient-Centric Pharma, we question whether we can be truly patient-centric if companies aren’t representative of the richness of human experience. We highlight the importance of diverse representation and providing a platform for this diversity to be showcased and emulated.

In Lean Back: Why Doing Less Could Lead Us to Achieve More, we look at the importance of having our inner and outer worlds in sync in order to attain real success, at home and at work.

In Inspiring Women, we look at what two pioneering pharma companies - Takeda and Bristol-Myers Squibb - are doing to ensure their workforce and leaders are diverse and inclusive.

 

In order to change, we, as women, must be bold ourselves, put ourselves forward, negotiate for our true worth and drive change in our own hearts, our own homes and in our organizations. The power is within us.  #BeBoldForChange