Women's Forum for the Economy and Society

History

The Women's Forum for the Economy and Society was established in 2005 by Aude de Thuin with the support of a group of influential French women, including Véronique Morali, Anne Lauvergeon, Laurence Parisot and Dominique Hériad Dubreuil. Their goal was to bring opinion leaders together to debate ways to enhance women's contribution to the global economy and society. The Women's Forum was modeled on the World Economic Forum, which takes place in Davos.

Publicis Groupe, the world's third-largest communications group, acquired a majority stake in the Women's Forum in September 2009. In January 2011, Véronique Morali became President of the Women's Forum. Jacqueline Franjou has served as the Forum’s CEO since January 2011.

Events

The Women’s Forum Global Meeting is held annually in Deauville, France, every October. It welcomes around 1300 participants to discuss major issues in world events and gender diversity.

The Global Meeting in October 2012 featured two Nobel Peace Prize laureates — Iran's Shirin Ebadi and Liberia's Leymah Gbowee — as well as Cherie Blair, Carlo d’Asaro Biondo, Clara Gaymard, Antony Jenkins, Viviane Reding, Stéphane Richard, Dominique Reiniche, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem and Melanne Verveer. The theme of the 2012 Global Meeting was "Wanted: 360° Growth", and it included a powerful delegation of 40 women leaders from Africa, who focused on the new economic power of women in the region. In 2013 the theme of the Global Meeting will be The 3Cs: Competition, cooperation, creativity.

Speakers at previous Global Meetings have included H.M. Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan, Sheikha Lubna al Qasimi, Louise Arbour, Ingrid Betancourt, Irina Bokova, Carlos Ghosn, Angel Gurria, Angelique Kidjo, Christine Lagarde, Taslima Nasreen, Hans Rosling, Joseph Stiglitz, Simone Veil and Muhammad Yunus.

In June 2012 the Women’s Forum produced a regional edition in São Paulo, Brazil on the theme “Achieving the country of the future”. Speakers included Maria das Graças Foster and Marina Silva. Following that success, a second Women's Forum Brazil will be organized in June 2013.

The Women's Forum will also organize a two-day forum in Burma in December 2013, at the request of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2016, the Women's Forum is meeting in Dubai.

Initiatives

The Women’s Forum has initiated a range of practical initiatives to support women around the globe.

The Cartier Women's Initiative Awards is an international business-plan competition for women, created in 2006 by Cartier and the Women's Forum with the support of the consulting firm McKinsey & Company and INSEAD business school. Five female entrepreneurs, one per continent, are rewarded annually. Each receives coaching support for a full year, a $20,000 grant and an exclusive trophy designed by Cartier. The competition comprises two rounds: the selection of the finalists in June based on their short business plans and the selection of the Laureates in October based on their detailed business plans.

Rising Talents aims to distinguish highly talented young women who will become influential figures in our economies and societies in the future. In partnership with Egon Zehnder International and Eurazeo, the initiative is an example of the values championed by the Women’s Forum since its creation. Each year, some 20 young women are invited to attend the Women’s Forum Global Meeting and join the Rising Talents network, which includes more than 100 members and offers networking opportunities year-round. They work in business, in community and humanitarian associations, in science, politics and the arts, and all have demonstrated real capacity to carry through ambitious projects in both their personal and professional lives.

CEO Champions, launched in 2010 in partnership with Ernst & Young, is one of the first CEO groups to feature male CEOs working with their colleagues on women’s advancement within the private sector. CEO Champions is a global, CEO-only group designed to drive progress and accountability for women’s advancement through practical exchanges among top executives. It presents an opportunity for CEOs to highlight their organization’s commitment to women’s advancement, and to work together to promote women in the broader global business community.

Women in Media is a joint initiative by the Women's Forum, Deloitte and voxfemina, in partnership with leading French television channel TF1, the Agence France Presse, Lagardère Active, LinkedIn and Facebook. It exists to promote women's voices in the media, and to strengthen their representation as experts. It features intensive individual coaching workshops, surveys, and a series of practical seminars centered on real-life scenarios, giving women the tools to analyze their media profile and practical guidance on improvements to their approach to both traditional and digital media.

The Diversity Club for Business is an initiative created with the Boston Consulting Group, to gather companies involved in the promotion of diversity, so that together they can identify the best and most effective ways to make diversity central to corporate culture. In 2011, the Diversity Club included the following member companies: AIG, August & Debouzy, Barclays, Baxter, The Boston Consulting Group, JCDecaux, Lenovo, Renault-Nissan Alliance, Orange, and Unilever.

The Women for Education award, created in 2007 with ELLE magazine and the ELLE Foundation, annually honors an international NGO working to train women in developing countries. Projects in Madagascar, Afghanistan, India, Mexico, Ethiopia, Haiti and a pan-African education campaign for midwives have all received this award.