Friday, March 8 as every year, is the international women's day. Many celebrations are planned around the world.
Despite the undeniable improvements made towards gender equality, in two key sectors such as politics and finance, however, many doors still remain closed to women. There is a solution to all this, but it will be a long process to complete. Women in Parliament are bringing about great changes globally while steps are still slow in terms of financial education.
SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF FEARLESS GIRL
State Street Corporation, in celebrating the second anniversary of the initiative fearless girl, took stock of the campaign that has led companies and shareholders from all over the world to focus on the issue of gender diversity. At the end of the second year, it can be said that 423 companies (out of 1265 identified in the sample) added at least one female representative within their boards of directors. Last year they were 301. Plus others 22 companies are committed to doing so.
“We are delighted to have landed in London with this impactful campaign and to continue to advocate for important gender diversity issues within boards and in leadership roles,” he said. Lori Heinel, deputy global director of investments at State Street Global Advisors. “Some studies have shown that companies with greater gender diversity in top positions generate better returns compared to competitors. This drives us to continue with our engagement and voting efforts and to seek to make further progress on these highly relevant topics.”
The data demonstrates the continued progress of gender diversity programs in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Canada and continental Europe. Indeed, indeed UK (57%) and US (48%) reported an increase in the number of companies adding at least one woman to their board of directors. Next year, State Street Global Advisors will vote against appointing boards where at least one female member is not represented.
FINANCIAL PLANNING: ADVICE FROM WIDOWED AND DIVORCED WOMEN
Large financial groups are questioning the phenomenon of gender equality and it is interesting to note the results of the latest report by UBS Investor Watch which politely but unequivocally advises women to take an active part in financial management.
Nowadays, still most women (58%) worldwide proxy to husband the financial decisions long term. L'85% of married women take full responsibility or share it with their spouse when it comes to daily expenses. On the contrary, however, only the 23% deals with financial planning long-term, such as investments and insurance.
In Italy long-term financial decisions are left to the spouse in 52% of cases against the 60% from Germany, 62% from the UK and 71% from Hong Kong. On the other hand, few women make decisions in complete autonomy: 19% in Italy against 22% in the United Kingdom and over 30% in Mexico and Brazil. It is precisely the younger women who delegate their partner in order to be able to devote themselves to family or professional projects. However, the percentage drops in the case of women over 50.
Delegation to the spouse can be traced back to a sense of inadequacy compared to the high level of financial knowledge required to make good investment decisions, combined with a focus on the most pressing needs. 7 out of 10 women however, they claim to have been discouraged by a spouse versus active involvement.
And we come to the case of widows or divorcees. The 71% of Italian women no longer a husband and with important financial resources, they found themselves unprepared. And they looked elsewhere for support: the 46% he turned to a financial advisor and 33% he chose his own lawyer.
That is how 4 out of 10 widows or divorcees they found that their spouse had provided financial support to somebody else during married life. In light of these experiences, most widowed and divorced women recommend one more active participation family financial planning.
WOMEN IN PARLIAMENT SAVE LIVES
In politics there are two speeds of progress in the more economically developed world and in the still developing or emerging one. According to a study carried out by Bocconi University, Limerick University and the London School of Economics and published in Demography, le women in parliament they can save the lives of women and children especially in less wealthy countries. In these countries, when the quota of women in parliament goes from less than 10% to more than 30% mortality infant it halves, 60 to 30 per 1.000and mortality maternal drops from 250 to 50 per 100.000.
In the space of forty years, from 1975 to 2015, the percentage of women in parliaments around the world è increased from 6,2% to 20,4%, more than tripling. It is certainly an important step forward, albeit an extremely slow one. "The threshold is important - says the research of the three universities - because a low percentage of female parliamentarians risks not only being ineffective but also being exploited as legitimization for the policies chosen by the vast majority of male parliamentarians".
