– Create sensible but bold standards for inclusion rather than elimination for employees, making parenthood and every life-stage welcome in the workplace.
• Put qualified women in positions of power in your companies and on your boards.
– Set a high goal for participation and meet it, no matter the challenges.
• Improve recruitment. Women are loyal and hardworking employees, reward them for it.
– Women with income spend money on children, home and education, improving the economy with each generation.
• Improve access to credit and watch women build businesses, make a living, and buy your products.
Whether or not you believe in supporting the bottom line of business or of society, engaging women for greater participation will be a good thing. At an APEC meeting in 2011, Hillary Clinton said this, “There is a stimulative and ripple effect that kicks in when women have greater access to jobs and the economic lives of our countries: Greater political stability. Fewer military conflicts. More food. More educational opportunity for children. By harnessing the economic potential of all women, we boost opportunity for all people.”