Women hold up half the sky, but not in Cyprus!

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BY MARINA THEODOTOU

A Chinese proverb says that “women hold up half the sky”, but apparently that is not the case in Cyprus. With Women’s International Day being celebrated every year with much fanfare, daily life and experiences in the professional world of this European country provided impetus for a little deeper and some stunning results.
At the global level, research by Goldman Sachs published in an article with the title ‘Women Hold up Half the Sky’, shows that women’s education and empowerment support long term economic growth which in turn is linked to higher productivity.
Furthermore, a second article also published by Goldman Sachs, ‘The Power of the Purse: Gender Equality and Middle Class Spending’, shows that narrowing the gap in education empowers women to gain greater influence in the decision making in their households and the broader markets. As women understand money, they gain decision making power and shift household spending focusing on food, healthcare, education, childcare apparel, consumer durables and financial services, increasing the demand for these products, mobilising their supply, and thus mobilising the market.
On the local level, ‘The Statistical Portrait of Women in Cyprus’ is a comprehensive research report conducted in March 2008 by the Statistical Service which shows that women earn 25% less than men; hold only 20.3 % of the municipal councils posts’ and, only 14.3% are elected to the House of Representatives.
Research both at the global and local level shows a gap in gender equality and the empowerment of women in Cyprus. Organisations such as the UNDP and OECD have developed over five indices to measure standard of living and gender empowerment levels. Here we look at just two:
1- The Human Development Index (UNDP) – ranks countries by the level of "human development", showing whether a country is developed, developing, or underdeveloped.
2- The UNDP’s Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM Index) measures inequalities between men's and women's opportunities.
The table shows how Cyprus ranks on these two indices for 2009:

Looking at the Human Development Index, Cyprus ranks high, 23 out of 182 countries. Cyprus is a developed country. Looking at the GEM Index, Cyprus ranks 48 out of 109 countries. A closer look, shows us that Cyprus is sandwiched between Panama at 47 and Uganda at 49, both underdeveloped economies.
Now, to get the holistic understanding of the GEM ranking, we have to go back and check where Panama and Uganda rank in the Human Development Index (60 and 157 respectively). This is not a criticism neither to Panama nor Uganda, but simply comparative scale for Cyprus and Cyprus only. Comparatively to the reported high standard of living in Cyprus, women here are not as empowered as they could be.
These numbers come to support empirical evidence experienced by women in Cyprus on a daily basis. Women in business and key leadership positions are repeatedly discouraged and told by their male superiors to “speak less” in meetings or not speak at all, are ‘mobbed’ for generating new ideas and brainstorming in efforts to arrive at meaningful solutions, and reprimanded when blowing the whistle on ineffective governance practices. And to take it a step further, when their professionalism cannot be touched, they often have their personal reputations attacked with fallacies and tasteless rumour. These are tactics of an undeveloped society.
With Cyprus ranking 23 in the Human Development Index, the question remains: Isn’t it time we walked the walk?
A second question also remains: What can we do about it? Women in business have brains, guts, vision and multitasking skills and can help re-energise your company, your strategy, your firm. Women can help re-mobilise the economy.
So, next time you are in a meeting, if you are a man, give them the floor and encourage them to come up with ideas for your new marketing campaign, your business development plan, your strategy and implementation. Push yourself out of your comfort zone by extending your respect and your attention to the women in your team.
If you are a woman, stand up and be counted: voice your opinion, trust yourself and back up your statements with research and empirical data.
You will all be surprised with the results. Because, there is no weapon more powerful than that of an idea whose time has come: It’s about time women hold up half the sky of Cyprus!