1 and#160;
Why Women, Why Now
and#160;
It was just another appointment on the calendar for both of us: 2 p.m. on a warm spring day, at Kimandrsquo;s office on the twenty-seventh floor of Avonandrsquo;s headquarters in midtown Manhattan. To Melanne, it was one more meeting on top of dozens sheandrsquo;d already taken to explore private-sector partnerships for Vital Voices, the womenandrsquo;s leadership nonprofit she had cofounded eight years earlier and was always working to grow. As far as Kim knew, Vital Voices was just another worthy nonprofit that Avon might consider supporting.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Melanne by then had grown used to the standard corporate position: women were fine as a philanthropic gesture, but not as the active partners she knew they could be. But something was different about this particular meeting. Kim, who then served as vice president, corporate secretary, and associate general counsel, had just taken charge of public affairs at Avon and was ready to use her platform to go beyond traditional corporate social responsibility. As she saw it, companies could join forces with women to both do well and do good, contributing to a companyandrsquo;s goals while also advancing the lives of women and girls.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; So when Melanne started talking about a potential partnership, Kim jumped in. The traditional approach to corporate charity was often limited. Kim was interested in exploring what she called andldquo;next-generation corporate social responsibilityandrdquo;?andthinsp;andmdash;andthinsp;?weaving social impact directly into the business strategy. Melanne did a double take: this was exactly how she envisioned Vital Voices making its impact. She glanced at her deputy, Alyse Nelson (now the president and CEO of Vital Voices), who looked at Kim and said, andldquo;Youandrsquo;re one of us.andrdquo;
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; In the near decade since that meeting, wherever weandrsquo;ve sat, we have worked together on the basis of the shared conviction that progress for women and girls can fast-forward us to a better world.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The two of us are a generation apart and come from vastly different backgrounds. Melanne, the granddaughter of Ukrainian immigrants who settled in the Pennsylvania Coal Belt, has spent much of her professional life advocating for women from within the public sector?andthinsp;andmdash;andthinsp;?from the White House to the villages of India. Born and raised in New York City at a time when the womenandrsquo;s movement was gaining a new foothold, Kim, an attorney, has spent much of her career advocating from the private sector, using her legal and deal-making skills to forge partnerships across sectors on behalf of women and girls.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; But despite being from different worlds, we share a fundamental understanding: women are critical agents in creating economic growth and social progress. Yet in the circles in which we traveled, it often felt as if few others saw that potential in women.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; In our own lifetimes, we have seen womenandrsquo;s advocates win major battles, changing laws and putting issues like domestic violence and sexual harassment on the map. But in government and the private sector, where people puzzled endlessly over how to end conflicts and grow new markets, andldquo;womenandrdquo; was still, well, if not a taboo word, a largely unspoken one. In our experience, in those environments, arguments about the catalytic role of women did not get the traction they deserved.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Melanne witnessed this from the vantage point of international diplomacy and development, as Hillary Clintonandrsquo;s deputy and chief of staff during the Clinton administration, then as the cofounder of Vital Voices, and later as the first ambassador at large for global womenandrsquo;s issues at the State Department. She knew how effective a force women could be, even in societies where their worth was devalued, their legal rights circumscribed. Despite these obstacles, women opened small businesses, invested in their childrenandrsquo;s health and education, and worked across religious and tribal divides to bring peace to conflict-riven nations. They leveraged what power they had for the greater good.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Kim witnessed the same phenomenon from a different vantage point. In her work with female judges around the world, as cofounder of Cornell Law Schoolandrsquo;s Avon Global Center for Women and Justice, she knew the impact women leaders could make, especially if they were supported and connected. In her corporate and legal career, Kim had also seen women entrepreneurs, often starting with the tiniest amounts of capital, build dynamic businesses. In 2005, she had listened to the economist C. K. Prahalad discuss his thesis that the worldandrsquo;s poor were viable business partners, as he laid out in his now classic business book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. andldquo;If we stop thinking of the poor as victims or as a burden and start recognizing them as resilient and creative entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers, a whole new world of opportunity will open up,andrdquo; he wrote. In 2011, Harvard professors Michael Porter and Mark Kramer would coin the concept andldquo;creating shared valueandrdquo; to describe how some farsighted companies developed strategies to achieve both business goals and social benefits. Kim quickly saw how these models could apply specifically to women.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; But in their rush to partner with those at the base of the pyramid or to create shared value, very few companies envisioned how women fit into the picture. It often seemed that the talent and contributions of women at all levels were being overlooked. This was true in diplomacy and international development as well. Womenandrsquo;s potential as full economic participants and agents of change had been undervalued for too long.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; In the years since we first met, we noticed a shift in perspective. One by one, leaders from around the globe are beginning to recognize the critical role women can and must play. While this shift is being driven by a number of factors, chief among them are (1) a growing body of empirical evidence demonstrating the impact of investing in women and girls, and (2) a historic and rising number of women in leadership positions.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Today the data is in. Institutions ranging from McKinsey and Company to the World Bank have published research showing that women are one of the most powerful demographic groups the world has ever seen. In 2012, a leading consultancy estimated that as many as a billion women were poised to enter the world economy over the next decade. Their impact could be as great as that of China or India. Women are also a fast-growing entrepreneurial force, creating jobs and fueling economic prosperity. From 1997 to 2014, women-owned businesses in the United States grew one and a half times faster than the national average. As of 2014, the nation had more than 9 million women-owned businesses, which employ almost 7.9 million people and boast over $1.4 trillion in revenues. Women own or lead more than a quarter of private businesses worldwide. Women also wield enormous purchasing power, controlling some $20 trillion in annual consumer spending globally. Muhtar Kent, the CEO of Coca-Cola, put it simply: andldquo;Women already are the most dynamic and fastest-growing economic force in the world today.andrdquo;
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; But this story is not just about how much money women have to spend, but how they spend it. Investing in women and girls creates a andldquo;double dividend,andrdquo; as women tend to reinvest their earnings in their communities and families, raising the gross domestic product and lowering illiteracy and mortality rates. This andldquo;multiplier effectandrdquo; has made advancing women and girls a primary goal in global development. In 2012, the World Bankandrsquo;s annual World Development Report stressed the promotion of equal education and equal economic opportunities for women and girls. andldquo;Greater gender equality,andrdquo; the reportandrsquo;s authors wrote, is key to andldquo;enhancing productivity and improving other development outcomes, including prospects for the next generation and for the quality of societal policies and institutions.andrdquo;