Who advocates for women in the best way? What can you do to advance women? And to create a society that is better suited for women? Let me say first, that I am really happy that in our part of the world we all seem to agree that the further advancement of women benefits our society. For example, we would like to see more women in the boardroom of leading organizations than that is currently the case. So far, so good.
Here comes the ‘but’: how exactly are you going to make that happen? How do you propose to get women the position in society they are entitled to? Would you choose the top-down method: demanding laws, regulations and quota that guarantee women job offers and certain pay? Or would you go bottom-up: encourage women to much further develop their talents and skills? And to take steps that they didn’t dare dreaming of? In my Young Lady Business Academy it happens right before my eyes: young women who abandon their demureness, shake off the skepticism of their environment and develop a strength that no lawmaker can stop. That is my way of advancing women. And of pushing for a more female-powered society.
The same question applies to the volatile theme of ‘equal pay’. Do you help women, top-down again, with regulations for fair pay and thus pre-empt negotiation? Or, bottom-up, by delving into the matter and teach each other negotiation skills? By the way, research shows that women with their perceptiveness and social antennae are potentially better negotiators than men! Why kill this game before it even started? The fire of typically female power should be fanned rather than quenched.
For this I am prepared to take a stand. Even if it means getting labeled ‘biggest feminist’.