• “I am not the woman president of Harvard, I am the President of Harvard.” 
                                                                                                                              – Drew Gilpin Faust
• “Women generally get the job when it’s a lost cause, a basket case, a bankruptcy, and they turn it around.” 
                                            – Christine Lagarde, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund
•  “I don’t like quotas, but I like what they do.” 
                                                      – Viviane Reding, First VP for Citizenship, European Commission
• “We are all judged, determined, and held back by very gender-determined stereotypes.” 
                                                           – Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and author of “Lean In”

These and other thought-provoking topics were discussed last January at a panel about how to close gender gaps at the highest levels of economic decision-making.  The venue was the session on Women in Economic Decision-Making at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The panel consisted of seven high-profile women leaders and thinkers from around the globe and a male CEO from a U.S. executive search firm.
Several panelists shared their personal experiences about making their way to top leadership positions, and how they dealt with stereotyping and gender bias in their careers.

This event was also the first time Sheryl Sandberg, author of the best-seller “Lean In,” has talked about gender issues in the workplace.

I encourage you to watch this video of the full session. It’s well worth your time, plus you get to hear the way the IMF chief summed up the panel’s conclusion about women’s participation in the global economy:  “The evidence is clear, as is the message: When women do better, economies do better.”