Discussion on Gender Partnership Generates Lively Discussion

NEW YORK – Formatted like a television talk show, this side event held at the Church Center in tandem with the 53^rd Session of the Commission on the Status of Women encouraged a discussion about the partnership of women and men in business.  Responses addressed the challenges of women in positions of business leadership, techniques for achieving parity, and advantages to a world that is gender-blind regarding skills and talents.

Doing a fair impression of early Oprah, Wendi Momen, a Bahá'í and member of the European Bahá'í Business Forum (EBBF), one of the sponsors of the event, posed provocative questions, eliciting responses from as many as she could from the 40 or so attendees who gathered here on Friday, March 6^th.

Dr. Momen had established a kind of round-table feeling of equality by arranging the chairs in concentric circles with the “panelists” randomly scattered around Church Center conference room, across from UN headquarters. This encouraged an energetic exchange from a wide variety of perspectives.

Liz Benham of the International Federation of Business and Professional Women (IFBPW ) spoke about being the owner of a construction business, and the inequities she experienced in that male dominated field. 

“I didn’t expect to be treated equally,” she said.  She knew she would have to prove her skills to these men and admonished other women to refrain from the expectation of equality in such a situation, opting rather to improve their skills and let acceptance grow from earned respect. “When you’re not threatening, when you show respect for their skills, you develop the relationships that are fruitful,” she said.  “I worked very hard to get into that group.”

Several successful women in the group echoed this idea.  “I developed a motto that has sustained me over the years,” said Marie Volpe, professor of education at Columbia University who spent 35 years working for Exxon.  “’You can be as different as you are perceived to be competent’….I decided to be as competent as I could be and once I was, I could be outrageous.” 

Dorothy Marcic, another member of EBBF and a long-time Bahá'í who has had success as a writer and playwright, agreed that striving for excellence and finding one’s own “true calling” would lead to rewarding partnerships.  She said a sense of self-reflection is necessary, but that everyone can do it.  “Self-respect, working from one’s higher self, and knowing oneself,” she said, are integral to becoming an effective leader.

Women don’t need to mimic men in order to be successful in male dominated occupations, said Khwezi Fudu, a retirement fund investment specialist from South Africa.  “I’m not going to go in there and act like a man to try to get success,” she said. “I have feminine qualities but I strive for excellence.” But she also recognized the damage done by years of inequality and said that those who have been left back may need a little more support.

A gentleman from EBBF who works in information technology for the Carrier Corporation, offered an often cited Bahá'í analogy in reference to gender partnership.  “Humanity is like a bird with man as one wing and woman as the other.  The bird cannot fly unless both wings are strong,” said Piero Morano. This affects the bottom line, he said, because when women skills and aptitudes are brought into play, it is not just social justice; there is a clear economic advantage to the increased pool of talent and complementary attributes.

“People often say that women should raise themselves up,” he said, acknowledging the efforts of those women who have succeeded, “But I think men definitely have a responsibility.”

“On a global level, it’s always a 50/50 gender balance,” said Liz Benham of the IFBPW.  “We are looking for a world where we partner together for the benefit of all.”  She said the global financial crisis would hasten this partnership because of the need for creative solutions and input from fresh sources.

The event was co-sponsored by the Bahá'í International Community’s United Nations office, the EBBF, and the national branches of UNIFEM of the UK and Australia.