Readers Debate: Should the US Ratify the U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women?

iStock_000007716967XSmallBy Hua Wang (Chicago)

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was created in 1981, and within a few years following its creation was ratified by countries including the UK, France, Japan, and Brazil, among others. Today one hundred sixty-nine countries have ratified the treaty – but not the United States.

CEDAW is often described as an international bill of rights for women. The Convention provides the basis for realizing equality between women and men through ensuring women’s access to, and equal opportunities, in political and public life, irrespective of the cultures or societies in which they live. The treaty commits ratifying nations to overcome barriers to women’s equality in the areas of legal rights, education, employment, healthcare, politics and finance.

The Issues at Stake

CEDAW provides definitions of equality, a description of discriminatory practices and a mechanism for international supervision of the obligations the document imposes on nations that have ratified it.

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Financial sector recruitment trends for 2010

By Elizabeth Harrin (London)financial jobs

Last year wasn’t a great year for financial services, and if you managed to keep your job you’re probably wondering what new employment ‘challenges’ 2010 will bring. It’s a mixed story, but the good news is that there is some good news.

Sectors that are picking up

Sue Sattler, President of recruitment company Talent Network Group, believes that bank recruitment is going to pick up in 2010. “We will experience some increase in hiring greatly due to the troubles in the banking industry and new compliance and legislation that will continue to unfold,” she says. “The last half of 2008 and through 2009 we saw many newly created positions or additions to staff. These positions were largely in credit, corporate risk and compliance. Many of these positions were mandated or recommended from the bank examiners.” Sattler also believes that mergers and acquisitions will be a growth area this year and may be another avenue for those looking to transfer their banking and finance knowledge and skill set.

Sue Allon, CEO and founder of Allonhill, a mortgage due diligence firm, has seen an improvement in her sector too. “The mortgage securities market is clearly coming back,” she says. “Even in the past couple of months, the deal flow and work going into getting deals moving has stepped up dramatically. There is recruitment going on in this sector, at the banks, the hedge funds and the expert service providers like Allonhill. When I walked the trading floors of the major banks last summer, the lights were off in some cases, and there were very few people there. I’m now seeing hundreds of people back on the floors, and they are very busy.”

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SEC Changes Help Women in the Boardroom

SEC-boardroomBy Tina Vasquez (Los Angeles)

In July of 2009, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a number of revisions to their rules. These amendments were designed to improve the amount of disclosure shareholders of public companies receive as it pertains to: compensation policies and practices that present material risks to the company, stock and option awards of executives and directors, director and nominee qualifications and legal proceedings, board leadership structure, the board’s role in risk oversight, and potential conflicts of interest of compensation consultants that advice companies and their board of directors.

At the time, the major hope was that these amendments would enable shareholders to better evaluate the leadership of public companies, but it quickly became clear that – if adopted – these new rules could greatly assist in promoting true diversity in the boardroom.

In response to these proposed revisions, the SEC received over 130 comment letters from various organizations offering their opinions and suggestions on the proposed amendments. Not only did the SEC take these opinions into consideration, but they even adopted several of the amendments to their rules late last year. One of the organizations that responded to the SEC’s rule revisions with a comment letter was the InterOrganization Network (ION), a nearly six-year-old organization dedicated to advancing the number of women in leadership positions as corporate directors and executive officers. Of particular interest to ION was the SEC’s decision to require disclosure of the qualifications of “directors and nominees for directors and the reasons why the person should serve as director of the company.”

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SEC Actions Concern Market Participants at STAC Conference

chicago stock exchangeBy Jessica Titlebaum (Chicago)

“Blame, Blame, Blame, Ban, Ban, Ban, Tax, Tax, Tax,” were the first words in Congresswomen Judy Biggert’s keynote address at the Security Traders Association of Chicago’s (STAC) 85th Annual Mid-Winter Meeting last week, to describe actions coming out of Washington. Her regulatory concerns were familiar ones.

Congresswomen Biggert spoke critically of Congress and her opposition of H.R. 1068, a bill to tax distressed securities transactions. She also expressed concern over the OTC regulations coming out of Washington which she described as “sorry excuses for reform,” giving too much power to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

She commented on the way the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approached short selling, which is a strategy investors use to profit from falling stock prices. Congresswomen Biggert believed that the SEC was wrong in their temporary ban of short selling, saying that it provided positive price discovery and liquidity.

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Ask-A-Career Coach: How Does a Company Select From a Big Pile of Resumes?

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jobsearchContributed by Caroline Ceniza-Levine of SixFigureStart™

I was recently on a recruiting project, helping out a non-profit with dozens of open jobs. You would not know there is 10% unemployment at this place because they can’t hire fast enough to keep up with their needs. I see this feast or famine phenomenon often as a recruiter – either the company has nothing and no reason to call people in; or they are so busy, they don’t have the time to call people in.

Either way, companies are likely not going to call people in for interviews.

WHAT?!?! Am I saying that companies need to find the best and the brightest but they won’t take the time to do that? Yes, I am saying exactly that.

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A Leg Up: Women for Boards

UK Women for BoardsBy Elizabeth Harrin (London)

The UK has a new initiative for women who want to make it to the top: Women for Boards, sponsored by MWM Consulting, aims to support female high-fliers in their drive to become non-executive directors for major companies.

“Female board directors remain rare and still face a steep climb to the top,” says Rebecca Fitzpatrick, spokesperson for Women for Boards. “Women for Boards is targeting highly qualified women, who for whatever reason so far have lacked visibility, and helping them to gain their valuable first board position. This will not only bring greater diversity to the Boards to which they are appointment, it will also help these women develop the experience to take on other Non-Executive roles in the future, potentially on larger boards.”

The aim is to build a groundswell of women in FTSE 250 and 350 companies, with an eventual goal of giving these women the skills they need to take on more responsibility as non-executive directors of FTSE100 companies.

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Equalité for All – France Considers Boardroom Quotas

french quotasBy Elizabeth Harrin (London)

When I worked for a global financial services firm in Paris, I constantly found myself explaining to my French colleagues that both my degrees were in literature but in the UK I was still employable. French business is the bastion of people (read: men from wealthy backgrounds) who have gone to the right Grandes Ecoles and studied the right business course. I was odd – I didn’t have a business qualification, but the business district of La Défense had still welcomed me. It was a small sign that the French approach to work is changing – and in December it got a big push in the right direction with the launch of new legislation that would see women take half the seats in boardrooms in five years.

Currently, women only make up 10.5% of boards in the CAC 40 – the French stock market index – and only 8% of board members in the top 500 companies are women.

It’s a long way from the European average, and campaigners for the new law have cited Scandinavia as a role model for how quotas should be managed. Norway started the northern European revolution, by insisting that boards were made up of at least 40% women back in 2003. Comply or close were the options given to business leaders, and while it was a controversial law and a difficult time, board membership is now 44.2% female. Sweden (with 22% female board members) and Finland (17%) have also made huge inroads in moving towards a better gender balance at the top of organisations.

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Sovereign Wealth Funds Growing in Popularity

global financeBy Elizabeth Harrin (London)

The global economy has taken a battering recently – but not everywhere has been equally affected. Ernst & Young’s ITEM Club, one of the UK’s best-known independent economic forecasting groups, is predicting that the emerging markets will grow about 1% this year. Admittedly, growth up until recently had been around 6%, but at least those economies are not contracting. This has put the spotlight on to sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), which have helped keep the economies buoyant.

SWFs are like other investment funds, but they are owned and managed by the state. Depending on where the funds are based they might get some special tax perks for being a state-owned venture. For some countries, this state-run fund is managed by the central bank and is hugely important to the economy; for others it is just a slush fund without much of a role to play in balancing the books.

As you might expect, it is countries with state-owned commodities that tend to have this type of investment vehicle. Seventy-eight per cent of SWFs are in the Middle East and Asia and the largest SWFs are in the UAE. Even so, SWFs are not as big or as mature as corporate and institutional investments – but they haven’t fallen so hard as hedge funds or private equity either.

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In Case You Missed It: Business News Round-up

Contributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group.Martin Mitchel of CTG

The U.S. Federal Reserve upgraded its assessment of the economy and left discount rates unchanged. ExxonMobil is to buy XTO Energy, a U.S. natural gas company in a $31bn all stock deal. Terra Firma launched a multibillion-pound lawsuit against Citigroup. These are but a few highlights of important market events that we’ve gathered to help you start the week well informed.

Economic Backdrop

  • The U.S. Federal Reserve upgraded its assessment of the economy and highlighted its intention to shut down most of its crisis-fighting liquidity measures in early 2010. However, it left the discount rate at which it lends to banks unchanged.
  • The ECB made its final offer of 12-month, emergency liquidity.
  • After seven years of deflation, the Bank of Japan said it will no longer ‘tolerate’ falling prices.

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Building Diversity: The AXA Equitable Connection

iStock_000009443536XSmallBy Elizabeth Harrin (London)

Would you attend a summit called ‘Finding Your Passion and Living Your Purpose’? Plenty of female employees at AXA Equitable did. “We thought that women at AXA would benefit from working together to create opportunities to do more – for themselves and for the company,” says Barbara Goodstein, Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company. “We wanted to do something to help create a community for women at AXA. We also feel that given the financial crisis around us, this is the ideal time to connect the women in the company and create a community to support and enable each other.”

This event was the launch of The AXA Equitable Connection – the company’s new women’s programme. Approximately 63 percent of the total AXA Equitable employee population is female, and the company realised that women’s financial needs are different. “Women live longer, they often have been less involved in managing the family finances, and women historically have earned 80% of what men earn for similar jobs,” says Goodstein. “So there is a real need for financial education and support. We want to be the first company women think of when they are looking for financial information and guidance; we want to be the first company women consider when they are interested in pursuing a career in financial services.”

Through The AXA Equitable Connection female employees and financial professionals are building a community through which they can draw from their collective strength, insight and experience to enhance career growth and opportunities. The plans is that AXA Equitable will foster this community through events, mentoring relationships, employee resource groups and networking.

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