Thursday, October 01, 2009

Businessbabes

I don't know about you but I LOVE lists! TOP 500 richest people in the world, top 100 most sexy men or Top 50 most powerful women in the world. In the summer of 2006 for my magazine SEN I made my first Top-list. It was the top 10 of most powerful muslimwomen. Everybody was surprised about that. Not only because of the idea of such a list (why not?) but also because a lot of people didn't expect to put muslim women in that order and in such context. It was a surprising article. Last weekend The Financial Times came up with a women issue AND of course a list: The top women in world business. Surprising results for European women: only 15 women are from, what we call, the most emancipated continent in the world. Well, that doesn't count for this list. The only Dutch name I could see was of Wolters Kluwer, the media company led by an American (and not Dutch!) woman Nancy McKinstry. So, no Dutch names on this list. To me, as a Turkish girl, it was very nice to read that the fifth businessbabe was a Turkish woman, Guler Sabanci.She was also on my list in 2006 and it's nice to know that Turkish businesspower is in the hands of a woman. It shouldn't be a surprise, as the article is written by an American magazine, that the list counted 16 American chief executives. The rest of the Financial Times's ranking of the world's 50 most powerful and succesful businessgirls consisted of..of course you already guessed: Chinese, Indian and Singaporese women.
The article explains how the rankings were judged and I assume that the writer did profound research. For European women, and especially the Dutch, who still prefer working parttime, this should be the main evidence that as long as men rule business and politics, we as women have no power at all. The key solution remains that we should work more and harder to get key-positions. Probably (and most likely) my message will not be heard, as it is the case for decades. Just like other feminists have been doing half a century, I will still be talking to 'dovemansoren'.(translation in English: 'deafman's ears').