The three-day Global Summit of Women in Cairo that concludes today is no lightweight affair. Brought together this year in the Egyptian capital are some 900 female leaders in government, business, administration and academia. The text underlying the various sessions titled “Partnerships in Advancing Women’s Economic Progress,” “Women’s Voices in Trade Agreements” and “Moving Women into the Corporate Boardroom: Innovative Strategies” is that women need to be playing a greater role in societies throughout the world. The summits, dubbed the “Women’s Davos” have been going since 1990 and have undoubtedly assisted in fostering an understanding in a male-dominated world of the growing contribution women can and do make as well as demonstrating to women what can be achieved.
There will be those that argue that the 900 delegates in Cairo represent the brightest and best in their fields and are thus people who would have risen to positions of power and responsibility on their talent alone. The fact that they are women is therefore incidental. There has to be some truth in this. Nevertheless, it must be significant that so many high-flying women are prepared to take three days out of their busy schedules to discuss the barriers to female success. It suggests that even the brightest and best females sometimes have to struggle against male prejudice and smash through the so-called glass ceiling that inhibits promotion.
The sane and thoughtful discussions that have been taking place in Cairo are far-removed from aggressive feminism, which argues for absolute equality of women and men. Men and women are different just as one man may be more handsome than another man or one woman may be smarter than another woman. There is no virtue in trying to pretend otherwise. However equality becomes relevant when it comes to opportunity. The Middle East is often singled out (not always fairly) for criticism here. There are indeed challenges but they are being addressed.
By contrast, in Europe and North America where sexual equality is supposedly a given, there are subtle but very real barriers to female advancement in almost every sphere. Most of the top female executives in Cairo will say that to reach their eminent positions, it was not simply enough to be as good as the male competition; they had to be markedly better and then some.
For women of average abilities, advancement against their male counterparts is much tougher. Affirmative action legislation that reserves a statistical number of jobs for women (and minorities) often proves impractical, throws up absurdities and seems counterproductive because it antagonizes men. Women should earn their advancement in the same way as men. Reserving job quotas for them is demeaning. But just as humiliating is the silent male rejection of truly equal opportunity for females.
Anti-discrimination legislation may help women assert their rights in the workplace but only time and experience will bring a full change in male perceptions of the female role. In this respect the Global Summit of Women makes a valuable demonstration.
