Female Perspective Sorely Lacking at Davos

Women may be the ticket out of the global recession, but World Economic Forum leaders wouldn’t know it. The predominantly male organizers have invited few women—5% of announced attendees—to the exclusive Davos forum, a misstep for a meeting billed “Shaping the Post-Crisis World,” Morice Mendoza writes in Der Spiegel: “The organization has not caught up with the 21st century.”

“The economic opportunity represented by women is one sure way that we can dig ourselves out of this economic crisis,” Mendoza continues, pointing out that companies with female board members outperform those without, economies benefit when women’s untapped skills are utilized, and—in the US—women make 80% of purchasing decisions. “It is a blue ocean waiting to be discovered,” Mendoza says. (More Davos stories.)