International Women's Day 2016

Pledging for Parity:

The World Economic Forum predicted in 2014 that it would take until 2095 to achieve global gender parity. One year later in 2015, they estimated that a slowdown in progress meant that the gender gap wouldn't close until 2133.

As a father of 3 daughters and a grandfather of 2 granddaughters (1 step-granddaughter) I have a vested interest in seeing those dates moved up considerably.

Interestingly, at High Rock, over 70% of our clients are women.

I cannot say that I am an expert on women's issues (although I am certainly in tune with them), but I know that a more balanced world is a better world.

For more info click on the link below:

http://www.internationalwomensday.com/Theme

Why is gender parity important?

Gender parity is linked to economic prosperity. It is an economic imperative. Women's advancement and leadership are central to economic prosperity. Profitability, ROI and innovation all increase when women are counted among senior leadership.

Numerous global studies on the impact of women in leadership reveal the following findings:

• Women are the largest emerging market in the world
• More equality = higher GDP
• More equality = more productivity
• Better gender balance on boards = better share price and financial performance
• More gender-balanced leadership = more prosperity
• More women political leaders = more prosperity

What makes a difference?

• Men and women alike agree that more female leadership leads to stronger companies.
• 64% of high performing companies reported that men and women having equal influence on strategy in their organizations, compared with only 43% of the lower-performing companies.
• Men seem to be aware of the unconcious bias in the workplace that holds women back, which means that we now can spend more time identifying and eradicating it.

What accelerates womens advancement?

• There are three accelerators, working independently and together, that can change the trajectory of women's achievement:

1. Illuminate the path to leadership by making career opportunities more visible to women.
2. Speed up culture change with progressive corporate policy, such as paternity leave and flexible working.
3. Build supportive environments and work to eliminate conscious and unconscious bias.

Women need more options to excel and the world will be a better place when they do.

So take the pledge to:

1. Help women and girls to achieve their ambitions.
2. Challenge conscious and unconscious bias.
3. Call for gender balanced leadership.
4. Value women's and men's contributions equally.
5. Create inclusive and flexible cultures.

http://www.internationalwomensday.com/Pledge

Today is Webinar Tuesday at High Rock, where we will address what is going on in the global economy, financial markets and wealth management for our clients. We will post the recorded version on our website at

http://www.highrockcapital.ca/current-edition-of-the-weekly-webinar.html

so please feel free to tune in at or about 5pm EDT to listen.