24 hours to change the gender inclusion reality

women should be thankful

because men are doing a boring job while

they can be at the university

study culture arts music

and meantime men are busy working in

other words

taking on the role of being the provider

so we should be grateful right

well i don’t think so but those were the

words

of former mexico president vicente fox

which he said on a stage he shared with

me earlier this year

where i had just finished presenting on

how to create

workplaces that foster gender inclusion

so imagine i’m a latina immigrant

who’s been 30 years in the us doing

everything she can

to succeed in her career helping other

women by building a company that

supports

their career growth what would you have

said to him

how would you have reacted well

i was in shock this kind of thinking

is what perpetuates the gender equity

gap

that we have ongoing and that according

to

the world economic forum estimations

prior to covet 19

was going to take 257 years

to close look i’m all for celebrating

small incremental victories hey we are

at seven percent

of women ceos of fortune 500 companies

an all-time record

from 3 10 years ago but that’s still a

very very small number

it’s 37 women of 500 jobs

and you know what there’s not one black

woman or one latina woman

on that list so 10 years ago i said

enough is enough we cannot continue

with this little levels of improvements

every 10 or 20 years

and we cannot continue to be happy with

this to be content

i was looking for something to push us

towards a global leap of consciousness

a tipping point beyond which the levels

of inequalities we have right now

would become unthinkable unfathomable

so i started doing research in search

for inspiration

and looked at problems that were

seemingly intractable

for a long time until they were

overnight resolved with a simple idea

and that’s when i stumbled upon fatal

medical errors

yes the death rates due to infections in

hospitals

that seem to be intractable for a long

time

until dr peter pronovos decided to try

the checklist so he created and

implemented

a simple checklist for medical personnel

to go over

before inserting intravenous lines in

the icu

one of the top places where infections

start

and guess what 10 days later the error

percentage went from 11

to zero yes and in that

hospital they estimated that they saved

eight lives

so if a simple checklist could save

lives

don’t you think i could find something

to make it my own checklist

so that we can reach equality overnight

so i created my own version of the

checklist

a day of the week when we all talk about

and create concrete

actions around gender equity until we

move the needle

once and for all we have the perfect

platform to implement this idea

because at the right to movement we do

leadership development

powered by a global community of women

and male

allies who support each other for career

success

so in 2012 we established wretched

tuesday

supported by seven principles we

launched an invitation for people to

wear red shoes

socks and accessories to work on that

day

so that we have a wave of red coming

into our organizations

and we normalize this conversation on

gender equity

every week so in other words 24 hours to

change the gender equity

reality so here’s how the magic works

as more and more associates walk into

your organization

show up with red accessories the top

brass has a tough time

not engaging with this conversation

and making sure that we all create

very concrete and effective ways to

solve

for gender equity so it’s a wave that

becomes contagious

and elicits such level of motivation on

both men and women

that it helps create this global leap of

consciousness

that is my dream and the secret is not

just that

retro tuesday is a fun enjoyable way to

engage on a topic that frequently makes

people uncomfortable

the secret is that it’s backed by seven

very common sensical principles

then when you implement them in your

organization

it really changes culture pretty quickly

and the principles are mentor younger or

less experienced women

offer opportunities to women who are

eager to learn

provide honest feedback to women in your

network and avoid

hurtful comments or unnecessary

criticism

cultivate the relationship with women on

your team

celebrate the accomplishments of women

publicly

refrain from bad-mouthing women and

avoid using labels that contribute to

stereotyping women

as simple as the seven principles are

they have the power to create culture

change when you implement them in an

organization

take patricia for example a real person

who in 2015 was a junior associate at

microsoft guatemala

a small country in a small region for a

global player like microsoft

from which it was hard to become known

by the higher-ups

and fulfill her ambitious career goals

she started following and teaching

wretched tuesday and the seven

principles first

to her own team in her own company then

traveling

to other central american countries

then fielding requests from microsoft

partners to come and talk to them about

it

and eventually to organizations that she

supported

outside of microsoft she developed

mutual mentoring relationships with her

colleagues

she started celebrating publicly

the accomplishments of other women she

seeked and got

very good feedback effective feedback

and found sponsors for herself

and very soon she was very well known in

the entire latin american region

whoever you ask about patricia they know

exactly who you’re talking about

but as inspiring as patricia’s story is

it’s by no means a one-off there are

many

many men and women who become

spontaneous ambassadors

and who are both originators of and part

of

this wave that has ripple effects on the

entire ecosystem

in other words a contagious movement

a completely different way of tackling

the gender equity issue at the highest

levels of decision making

companies like novartis pharma that

joined us

a few years ago with their latin america

and canada regions

have now expanded to europe middle east

africa

asia pacific etc and have become

themselves

inclusion leaders in the industry

because of the work they’re doing

not just internally but to impact their

entire ecosystem

being an active part of this pushing for

a global leap of consciousness

is what makes all the difference because

we all have an

active role to play in changing the

policies and procedures

that have fostered the current gender

inequalities

this is a joint movement one in which

men and women walk side by side when men

realize

how critical they are in making everyone

feel included in our organizations

and how much they have to gain by being

part of this process

so do you want to know what i said to

former mexico president fox

as response to his comments that day on

the stage

i said look it’s not that women need to

feel grateful

that men have taken the role of the

providers

when we reach gender equity men will be

able to stay home with their kids if

that’s what they want

or take time off to welcome a new family

member

even study art if that’s their dream

career

something they haven’t been able to do

because they have the

role of the provider without paying a

social

penalty as many are paying today because

when we

reach gender parity gender equity all of

us will be able to study whatever we

want

go as far as we want in our jobs and

play whatever role we want to play at

home

so whenever people ask me what day of

the week it is

i always say tuesday because i live

in an endless tuesday in a time

loop what would you do

will you join us and help us take this

leap of consciousness

to reach gender equity once and for all

thank you