Women in Davos: powerful & more connected… but what to wear?
Tue 01 February 2011
, Maurice Eykman, LEAP
There is a lot of talk about the women in Davos. You might have missed the dilemma’s the few female participants face however: which can be summed up in one question: Heels or Boots?
And you might also have missed the reason why Davos Women are less elite and more switched on than their male counterparts: it’s because they deal with nannies at home and go to the supermarket themselves, while the Davos Men have no idea about these worldly activities. Being out of touch with the real world is one of the most serious charges leveled at elite institutions like the World Economic Forum, and women are very in touch.
Female participants account for only 16 percent of the total at the World Economic Forum, but there are much more women present: the spouses of the male participants. This means the few Davos Women are often mistaken for Davos Wives “At a Davos cocktail party people tend to assume you’re a ‘wife’ rather than a C.E.O.,” said Françoise Gri, the president of Manpower France, who has made Fortune magazine’s list of 50 most powerful women in the world for the past seven years.
Davos Wives travel with their often glamorous wardrobe, and wear the kind of heels that require the utmost dexterity and luck–not to mention the arm of their partner–to navigate the treacherous walkways, writes Moira Forbes on the blog for Forbes. Their bag of choice is a clutch never intended for holding business cards or a BlackBerry. Nothing wrong with any of that, and we all have our share of evening wear for our non-business lives. But Davos Women are here for–and mean–real business.
Here lies the conundrum of the female delegates. Some of the more high-profile women strike the balance between chic and occasion-appropriate. Others markedly less so, including one delegate sporting floral, brightly colored rubber boots.
Even as the crowd pretends to overlook a fashion “practicality” like rubber boots the middle road of changing from big winter shoes and outerwear into heels and a sleek look at each venue is awkward. And it does feel odd to be with power players in your winter boots, not to mention changing out of them into heels shoulder-to-shoulder with a bold name. Should it matter? No. But do people notice? Yes.
Supermarket moms It is tempting to think about the rich and powerful as a gender-neutral group that operates in a borderless bubble of privilege and whose disconnect to the everyday lives of the middle classes in their respective home countries has only been exacerbated by the current economic crisis.
But unlike many of their male peers, women at the top are perhaps less at risk of living in a hermetically sealed bubble than their male counterparts, writes Katrin Bennhold in the New York Times.
She explains that: “even rich and successful mothers tend to bear primary responsibility for the children. That can hold back careers or make the work-life balance particularly hectic. But they stay more in touch with society: They have the primary relationships with nannies, often women from more disadvantaged (and perhaps immigrant) backgrounds. They speak to teachers and interact with mothers of their offspring’s friends.”
Often, female elites lack the sense of entitlement among male elites, said Ms. Lagarde, finance minister in France. “Women, for all sorts of historical, cultural and economic reasons, have a tendency to stay more connected with the real world,” said Ms. Lagarde, herself a mother of two boys.
“I don’t know many men at that level who would go to the supermarket to do their own shopping, but I do,” she added. Among others who do the same, she said, are Anne Lauvergeon, chief executive of the nuclear giant Areva; Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany; and Lubna Olayan, a Saudi businesswoman.
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