WOMEN LEADERS

GLOBAL FORUM REPORT

November 26-28, 2018
Reykjavík, Iceland
 CONTENTS

● Summary
● Participation Statistics
● Engagement Statistics
● Opening Speech - Prime Minister of Iceland
● Testimonials
● The Reykjavik Index for Leadership
● The WLGF Pulse
● Women’s World Atlas
● Reykjavík Summit - Power, Together.
● #Girl2Leader
● Power, Together. Awards
● Photo album
SUMMARY

The inaugural Women Leaders Global Forum was held on 26 – 28 November 2018 in Reykjavik, Iceland, the
global leader for equality between women and men. The Forum was co-hosted by Women Political Leaders
(WPL) and the Government and the Parliament of Iceland, co-chaired by leaders of the OECD, World Bank,
World Economic Forum and others. Under the heading “POWER, TOGETHER”, this year’s theme was
Digitalisation.

The event convened nearly 500 invited delegates from approximately 80 countries, including featured
Conversationists, all internationally recognised for their contribution to advancing society. The programme
included inspiring sessions and conversations in plenary as well as 20 LeadersTalks and a series of off venue
events.

Programme highlights included:

● The WLGF Pulse

● The Reykjavík Index for Leadership
● Reykjavík Summit - Power, Together.
● Women´s World Atlas
● Power, Together. Awards

The event gained significant visibility online using the hashtags #WomenLeadersIceland and
#PowerTogether. Parts of the Forum were streamed live via CBSNews.com.
The Women Leaders Global Forum included 488 conversationists from 79 countries - see breakdown below.
·
ENGAGEMENT STATISTICS

The WLGF App:

● 73% of Conversationists in attendance
downloaded the App.
● 1,738 messages were sent between
Conversationists.
● Conversationists profiles viewed 5,433 times.

The WLGF Website:

● 41,350 views since inception
● 9,018 users

Distinguished guests,
It’s an honour and a privilege to be here with you today and I am
so delighted to welcome you to the first-ever Women Leaders
Global Forum (WLGF). Co-hosted by the Icelandic government,
the Icelandic Parliament and Women Political Leaders, this forum
provides an excellent opportunity to share ideas, experiences and
create solutions to make this world a better place.
I’d like to use my minutes here to share some of my thoughts,
that I hope can serve as an inspiration for our conversations over
the next days. Given the nature of our forum, I will focus on ways
to strengthen the rights of women and girls, because I believe that
women who have made it to top positions of power should use
their platform to work towards a more egalitarian world.
First, I would like to mention education. According to UNESCO 130
million girls between the age of 6 and 17 are out of school across
the world. We need to systematically break down all barriers to
girls’ education, ensuring that all girls have access to good quality
education that gives them opportunities to be active participants
in their communities, including in decision making. This is not
only about getting girls into school, but also making sure our
educational institutions are safe and inclusive and that our
education systems, in all our countries, serve to build up
democratic, sustainable and egalitarian societies. Education is
also the key to defeating the rise of religious fundamentalism,
extreme nationalist ideologies, and the radical right.
Second, Family policies. Since women still carry the bulk of child
rearing, family policies – and the lack thereof – have a massive
impact on women’s daily lives. If it wouldn’t have been for
universal childcare and maternal and parental leave, I personally
wouldn’t be here serving as a Prime Minister, while also being the
mother of three children. So, I owe a lot of debt to the women who
came before me and built up that system here in Iceland.
Iceland was the first country in the world (in 2000) to adopt a
government and business-funded shared parental leave scheme.
The key here is a well-paid use-it-or-lose-it proportion for both
parents, which at the best has enabled 90% of new fathers taking
time off work to care for their young children. Paternity leave has
significantly changed the make-up of Icelandic society.
OPENING SPEECH
In 2011, I actually became the first government minister to take a
full time maternity leave when I became pregnant serving as the
Minister for Education and Culture.
In some countries I would have been advised against it (or advised
against having children all together) as it would have destroyed
my political career. But … here I am and still the mother of three
sons who are doing just fine. So here we can see political policies
matter and women don’t have to choose between having a family
and having a career. That is the important political policy.
Third, I would like to mention violence against women and girls,
because violence against women and girls is one of the most
persistent human rights violations of our times and both the
cause and the consequence of women’s inequality.
Most recently, the #MeToo movement exposed systematic
harassment, violence and everyday sexism that women across
various layers of our societies are subjected to. Here in Iceland,
thousands of women spoke out and the movement revealed the
multiple discrimination suffered by migrant women in a country
that has throughout history been relatively ethnically
homogenous.
Our task is to listen to all the stories that women have shared, but
also seek out the voices that we don’t hear everyday, so that the
realities of all women are considered in our action to eliminate
gender-based violence. This is not an issue of faraway places
because violence against women cuts across all societies, and we
need to do everything in our power to end it.
Fourth, Peace and sustainability. Iceland is actually a country
without a military and in a recent survey it is shown that it is the
most peaceful country in the world, which is an amazing
privilege.
Armed conflict and displacement (including due to climate
change) has terrible – and long lasting – consequences on women
and girls. Despite the established knowledge that women’s
participation in the peace process increases the likelihood of
lasting solutions, women are still far too underrepresented in
peace talks.
It is ours to change that – guided by UN’s resolution 1325 – and it
is ours to challenge the global arms race that can only have bad
consequences for the world.
Combating climate change is no longer a topic of theoretical
conversations, as we are starting to feel the impact of it all across
the world. This is an issue my government has put at the very top
of the agenda, for our children and our grandchildren.
Last, but not least, the women’s movement. And we are all part of
that. I think all of us should take time to celebrate and to thank
the women’s movement. We wouldn’t enjoy any of the rights that
we enjoy today, if there hadn’t been for women’s solidarity, often
at tremendous, personal costs to individual women. Movement is
the key word here, because with solidarity and collaboration we
can move mountains.
And this is vital to our gathering here in Iceland: together we can
move mountains, all of us here.
I would like to thank Women Political Leaders, the organisers and
all the partners that have made this event possible. I do hope we
will have a great and fruitful conversation here in Iceland for the
next days. Thank you very much.
TESTIMONIALS
TESTIMONIALS
THE REYKJAVÍK INDEX FOR
LEADERSHIP
 Evidence is an essential tool in public policy and social progress.
To support the cause of equality, we need to understand values,
perceptions and attitudes, the speed of change or the failure to
realise it, and the drivers and barriers towards a fairer world. So,
we need to document the social norms that societies operate
within, the everyday beliefs and behaviours of men and women,
and the interplay of the drivers for change against those of
stasis. We need to document our social norms so that we can
challenge them, and we need to measure change over time to
hold ourselves and our leaders to account.

Over the last two years, the movement for fairness and equality
between men and women has found renewed energy and
conviction around the world. In public life, in politics, in
business, and across different economic sectors, women and
men have been working for change and a world where economic
opportunity is no longer shaped and constrained by being a man
or being a woman.
THE REYJAVÍK INDEX FOR LEADERSHIP
We have created The Reykjavik Index for Leadership to support
the journey to equality between women and men. We believe in
a world where women and men have an equal right and
opportunity, not just to participate in all aspects of economic
and political life, but to lead.
In this first report, which focuses on the G7 countries, we see
some areas of progress to equality among men and women.
However, the evidence also shows that we have a long way to go
before equality in leadership between men and women is the
social norm. We will use The Reykjavik Index for Leadership to
measure our progress on the journey ahead.
THE WLGF PULSE
Using Data to Drive Debate:
An increase of women in leadership positions has a positive
impact on business, politics and the economy. So why, in the era
of TIME’UP and #METOO, are we not seeing a rise in female
representation?

Women Leaders Global Forum (WLGF) is committed to leading

the important debate around a new, more inclusive, definition
of power in business and politics. We’ve created THE PULSE, an
interactive tool to start the conversation on women in
leadership.

It used Twitter data and a sentiment algorithm to track over

10,000 CONVERSATIONS a day so that at any given time, we can
see exactly how the world is discussing women. THE PULSE
tracks tweets that reference WOMEN + WLGF’s key values:
SUCCESS, COMMUNITY, POWER, LEADER, DIVERSITY and
CHANGE.
THE WLGF PULSE

THE PULSE grows in scale or shrinks depending on the frequency of

discussion, and changes to a darker colour if sentiment around a topic is
negative. The data-driven graphic visually illustrates the online
conversation about women in real-time and each tweet makes up the
conversation that can be explored.
WOMEN’S WORLD ATLAS
More than half of the world’s population is female. So where in the world exists parity in distribution of political and business power?
In which countries are women and men at par?

The Women’s World Atlas shows exactly this, in cooperation with CAPACENT and with appreciation for the contribution by Oxford
Analytica.
WORLD’S WORLD ATLAS

Countries that have achieved gender

parity in Parliament

Countries that have 30% or more

women in Parliament
WORLD’S WORLD ATLAS

Countries that have achieved gender

parity in CEO positions

Countries that have 30% or more

women in CEO positions
WORLD’S WORLD ATLAS

Countries that have achieved gender

parity in tertiary education

Countries that have 30% or more

women in tertiary education
WORLD’S WORLD ATLAS

Countries that have achieved gender parity

in tertiary graduates from Information and
Communication Technologies programmes

Countries that have 30% or more women

who graduate from Information and
Communication Technologies in tertiary
education
REYKJAVÍK SUMMIT:
POWER, TOGETHER.
REYKJAVÍK SUMMIT

Women Leaders came together in a symbolic place, at an

extraordinary moment in the history of human civilization.

The Höfði House symbolizes change, transformation and most

importantly peace. It is the building where the Cold War came
to an end with a historic summit between American President
Ronald Reagan and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986.

Today we live in a time of great opportunities, and a time of

great challenges. We are facing threats to multilateralism and a
rules-based global order. Conflict and violent extremism have
impacted many regions of the world. The technology revolution
has helped to expand the rapid growth of violent extremist
ideologies. Growing nationalism and xenophobia, conflict, and
threats to security call for women leaders to come together, to
align their actions and pursue inclusive approaches: Power,
Together.
REYKJAVÍK SUMMIT

Women Leaders at the Reykjavík Summit discussed to act for peace and
security through the following measures:

● We call on global leaders to strengthen their relationships with each

other, building mutual trust and respect through adherence to
international law, and respect for human rights. In times of conflict,
we must rely on these relationships to seek non- violent, mutually-
beneficial solutions between nations.

● We call on national leaders to address many of the drivers of violent

extremism by aligning national development policies with the UN’s
Sustainable Development Goals.

● We call on our global colleagues to re-dedicate our commitment to

promote women’s participation, leadership and empowerment across
society, including in governmental, security sector and civil society
institutions. Women’s empowerment is a critical force for sustainable
peace. In line with Security Council resolutions 1325 (2000) and 2242
(2015), we must ensure that the protection and empowerment of
women is a central consideration of strategies devised to counter
terrorism and violent extremism. Protecting women’s human rights at
all times, advancing substantive gender equality before, during and
after conflict and ensuring that women’s diverse experiences are fully
integrated into all peacemaking initiatives.

● We call on the private sector, including communications and

technology companies, to support the prevention of violent extremism
initiatives and generate creative ideas to help the international
community effectively address the spread of hate speech, intolerance,
fake news, and violent extremism through the Internet.
#GIRL2LEADER
#GIRL2LEADER
#Girl2Leader is a campaign launched by the Women Political
Leaders Global Forum (WPL). The #Girl2Leader campaign
encourages girls to pursue a future in leadership and aims to get
more girls involved in realms of politics and business. The
campaign takes place under the distinguished patronage of the
President of Malta, H.E. Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.
It’s time for change. It’s time for girls and women to lead the
world with brains and hearts. Today leaders are almost all men:
93% of Heads of States and 95% of CEOs are men. With the
slogan, Lead Like A Girl, we connect today’s leaders to the next
generation of leaders. Here and now it’s time to answer why it is
important to have more women in positions of leadership.
#GIRL2LEADER
POWER, TOGETHER. AWARDS
 The POWER, TOGETHER. Award ceremony started off with the
celebration of the International Olympic Committee's dedication
to advocate for gender equality on and off the field of play.
Marisol Casado, President of the International Triathlon Union
and Member of the IOC, was on stage to receive the award on
behalf of the International Olympic Committee, and delivered a
powerful statement encouraging greater female representation
and participation across all aspects of sport.

Tarana Burke, Founder of the MeToo movement, sparked a global

and long awaited conversation on sexual harassment that
contributed to change the narrative. Following her moving video
message, Angelique Kelley, chairwoman and board member of
the W.O.M.E.N. organisation (Women Of Multicultural Ethnicity
Network), received the award on behalf of the movement that
became a rallying cry for women and survivors across the world.

The power to advance society - to change and move things in a

positive way - comes from using our power together.
POWER,TOGETHER. is the key and in recognising that, the
Women Leaders Global Forum awarded and honoured during its
inaugural launch three outstanding initiatives driving global
change, where people came together and joined forces.
POWER TOGETHER AWARDS

A third and last POWER, TOGETHER Award was awarded to the

African Women Leaders Network (AWLN), the action-oriented
platform that seeks to enhance and galvanize the role and
leadership of African women in bringing transformative changes to
the continent of Africa. The closing of the POWER, TOGETHER.
ceremony featured prominent AWLN members on stage, with the
exceptional presence of Bineta Diop, H.E.Jewel Howard Taylor, H.E.
Speaker Donatille Mukabalisa, H.E. Rebecca Kadaga, Zainab
Bangura, and Giovanie Biha as award presenter.
OFF-VENUE ACTIVITIES
WELCOME RECEPTION
TASTE OF REYJAVÍK
HARPA
DAY ONE: PLENARY
DAY ONE: PLENARY
DAY ONE: LEADERSTALKS
DAY ONE: MASTERCARD LUNCH
PERCEPTION RECEPTION & CULTURAL DINNER
DAY TWO: PLENARY
DAY TWO: LEADERSTALKS
DAY TWO: SALESFORCE LUNCH
DAY TWO: PLENARY